The Greatest Gift of All

December 25, 2013

First of all, December 25 is a very special day for us. It is when we remember the best gift ever given to us by God- his son, Jesus, here in human flesh for us. What an amazing God!! I can't imagine how scared Mary was that Christmas Eve night, giving birth to a baby in a stable. I'm sure she could feel the warmth of God's love all around her and she knew he would take care of her. What a brave, amazing woman. I always think that on Birthdays, the mother should be honored too...after all, she is the one who went through the pain and sacrifice to bring that life into the world! So although our Christmas morning is a more gift/Santa centered, we all honor the entire day as Jesus' Birthday. Caleb knows the nativity story and can tell you every single detail! I know that when they get older, our family traditions will shift a little, but since they are so young, I am just enjoying in the magical excitement of Santa right when they wake up :)

So Christmas morning, Caleb was up at like 5am with Pops and Nanna!!! He woke us up at 5:30am by coming into our room and saying, "Wake up, Santa came...FOR REAL!"

Little did we know, he had already been downstairs and separated all of his gifts into a pile and was sooo ready to go. I hated to make him wait, but we did. The past few days had been so busy and Kailyn was still sleeping- I just didn't have the heart to wake her up and I knew that the entire morning would go smoother if she finished her sleep on her own. It was fun watching Caleb squirm :) Actually, Pops was so excited too that he let Caleb open a gift while we were waiting on Kailyn to wake up and then we let him open one too! After Kailyn woke up we all let the kids go first. We just enjoyed watching them dig in and enjoy. They even got a little hungry but that didn't stop them...a few white donuts while opening gifts was just right! Then we all started getting hungry so we hit the pause button and while the kids played with their new toys, I made homemade strawberry cinnamon rolls and sausage and cheese muffins- yum! Both were a hit. After breakfast the grown ups enjoyed their gifts and we finished up with stockings. It was a great morning.