Merry Christmas!

(Picture was taken at the Bellevue Festival of Nativity.)

Every Christmas, Joe and I try to teach the kids that Christmas isn't just about Santa or presents. This year was the first year that the kids actually knew the right answer before we told them. "Christmas is special because we celebrate Jesus' birthday!" Great. Now we needed to actually teach them the meaning of that.

Alden knew exactly what Christmas was about. It is to "celebrate" Jesus' birthday, and not really his actual birthday, because that's in the spring... Ha ha. I tried to have small conversations with the kids whenever I could about Christmas being the time of sharing and giving. I reminded the kids how lucky and blessed we are to be able to afford Christmas presents (even if some/most of them are from a second hand store like Goodwill). We talked about some people that may not be as fortunate as we are, and they agreed to donate some of their toys to other children that could use them. They helped me pick out the toys, organize them, and wrap them up so that we could give them to a family in need (we posted on craigslist).

I tried to teach them that they should be more forgiving and sharing during the Christmas season, and they should appreciate presents they've gotten, even if they may not be as awesome as they want (Ellie got a whole build-a-bear set inside a cheerios box. You could tell that she was a little disappointed when she saw the cheerio box.).

On Christmas Eve, we were invited to dinner at the Chens. Kids had a blast, playing with Kaden (and his toys). The food was absolutely delicious. Joe and I had fun playing monopoly with Breanna and Andy. After putting the kids to bed, Joe and I stayed up until 1am to wrap all the presents (I had pushed it off until the night before... oops.).

Christmas morning, when the kids woke up, they walked into our room to tell us it was Christmas morning. Joe and I mumbled something like, "Go check out the Christmas tree," and we could hear their excited squeals and yells. After spending a few minutes to see how many presents each of the had gotten, they snuck back into our room to ask when they could open the presents.

Kids really had fun opening up all the presents. We were able to get them a few presents each (mostly because all the presents were regifted or second hand-but loved just as well), plus they had gotten a few more from grandparents and uncles and aunts. They spent the rest of the morning enjoying the presents they got.

The two sets of missionaries (elders and sisters) came to our house to make their phone calls to their families, so we got to spend the rest of the day with them (noon to 6pm). It was so fun to actually get to play games with them and chat for a while, instead of having to rush them out the door within the 1 hour limit of dinner appointments.