Christmas Day

My family came over Christmas Day and we exchanged presents. It was like a second visit from Santa! Our living room was buried in toys and wrapping paper!

We gave my dad and brothers Japanese hand puzzles, so they spent most of their time trying to solve them.

The kids got some plastic food to play in their kitchen with:

Grandma gave the kids some cute aprons to wear for all their pretend cooking!

  P1 loved the dinosaurs his aunt gave him! He wanted to play with them the whole time! She also gave them some neat books called "The Little Boy (or Girl) that Lost His (or Her) Name". It's a cute book that takes the child on an adventure to discover their name, and all the characters they meet give them a letter that spells out their name.

My brother gave the kids a lot of great books. P1 loves "Harold and the Purple Crayon". We've already read it more times than I can remember. The kids got cute clothes from Grandma. P2 wanted to wear everything. She got an adorable coat that she never wants to take off. I got a bunch of holiday dish towels and table runners from my mom. When I opened them, P2 saw the fabric and wanted to wear them!

P1 was funny when we were opening presents. He would be excited getting the wrapping paper off, but then he would be disappointed and say "It's just a box".

This year I made Nativity stocking holdings. I liked how they came out. And yes, there are 5 of them, and no, it is not an announcement.

This year, the Church did #ASaviorIsBorn campaign. I really enjoyed all the uplifting Christmas videos that were added to YouTube.

My mom gave us a 25 Days of Christ ornament set at the beginning of the month. The kids really enjoyed doing the ornament each day. Each was a symbol of a different event in Christ's life. P2 would always run and grab our gospel art book so that we could look at the picture that went with the story. My mother-in-law sent the kids the Fisher Price Nativity Set at the beginning of the month, and they really enjoyed playing with that. We also have a Fisher Price advent calendar that they enjoyed. It didn't work well as a countdown, since they would always just take all the people and animals off. And I think we lost one of the wisemen. I keep waiting for him to turn up, but it appears he got really lost on his journey.

We are so grateful for the birth of our Savior. He is our source of hope, peace, and joy during all the ups and downs of life. We love this time of year when we can celebrate His birth. Merry Christmas!