In the Spirit of Giving...

This Christmas Season was one of laughter and happiness.
My mom, brothers, and sister came to join us for the crazies and the fun.
I was so thankful that they were willing to travel so far (that many hours in a car shouldn't be legal, really) and put up with our crazy kid schedule/life that is so different from the lives they live. It was so great to be reminded of why family is so important (because we love them SO much) and how very great it is to be all together. It also made me miss my dad.
I am so thankful for the REAL reason for Christmas- a Savoir who has provided a way for us to have a life after this one, and not any kind of life- the kind where we can return to be with a loving God and our families forever. Brilliant!!

We made Santa Face Cookies and watched Muppet's Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. (a perfect blend of both family traditions) (We also ate pizza Hut Pizza and went to the movies to see the new Muppets movie as a homage to the childhood Christmas Eve tradition with my dad)

Then the kids decided to wake up at a very early hour on Christmas day. (And while this was to be expected we were really not ready to wake up. My siblings, husband, mom, and I played a hilarious western/cowboy card game called  Bang!  until the wee hours of the night and so morning was a painful experience.) The monkeys waited nicely until 6:30am (we won't point out that it was almost 2 hours of this mom keeping them in their room and not opening gifts...)

But up we all got, opened gifts, and then some of us (ahem... the sibling ones) returned to bed.

The Doctor and I co-received a Canon DSLR (camera) and I'm giddy to learn how to use it. Sorry I didn't take more pictures worth looking at, but my skills are progressing (albeit slowly...) Here's to fantastic photographic evidence of our lives in the blogs to come!

Merry Christmas!!