Christmas "Adam"

Lighthouse at the entrance to my parent's neighborhood on Lake Conroe

I heard a joke the otherday on facebook on the day before Christmas Eve that went like this: "Today is Christmas Adam, because Adam came before Eve".... so I thought I'd title my post about the day before Christmas Eve, "Christmas Adam"...

Lake Conroe....which is REALLY low from the drought

Every year we spend a day with my dad, his wife, my sister and nieces. This year we actually celebrated before Christmas! It was a lot of fun, and Jason actually got off work early to celebrate with us. I felt especially grateful as all the family is in CA still and holidays always make me miss them, but glad to at least have my dad here. :)

So what does one do at a typical family gathering here in Texas??

As with any family get together with my dad at his house, we have lots of food and lots of fun. It was raining so we couldn't play volleyball, but we had a great time together inside with all the kiddos. Here's some snapshots of our fun times together - the only one missing was my brother-in-law, CJ, who is currently finishing his training for the Coast Guard...

Jenna and her cousin, Lindi (2)

Julianna and her cousin, Caitlyn (3.5)

Jason & Jayden

The Christmas Tree

Reading the meaning of Christmas and learning what the greatest gift of all was

Jenna loves her princess lip gloss set

Jason helping Julianna open her gifts

Jayden got some board books!

The grandkids got a dress up bin and were enthrawled with all the princess costumes!

Josh liked the cowboy costume

Fairy Princess Jenna

Silly Joshie!

Can you even see in those, Julianna??

Another family tradition is we dress the kids up to renact the manger scene. Each year we've been fortunate and had a "Baby's 1st Christmas" to portray Jesus. This year we didn't! Jayden got to be Jesus again, although being a 13 month old Jesus, one doesn't want to lay down in the stable. He did try to open the wise men's gifts and pull on the head dresses though! I would normally have pictures, but my camera was full and I didn't get any this year! :( sadness....

Christmas Day

Christmas was such a blessing this year as our kids have gotten old enough to understand the meaning behind the holiday and to have fun with the different traditions we are starting with them. Here's a photo story of our day....

First we start out by coming downstairs in our pajammas and reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2. We talk briefly about how Jesus coming was God's gift to us because it means that we can go to heaven now because Jesus came to be born and died to be raised again on Easter. Josh and Jenna have a good grasp on this, which amazes me since they are so young. I see why its said "Faith like a child". The kids enjoyed their story, during which Jayden listened on the couch...

Following the Christmas story, I made breakfast for everyone. The kids and Jason really like eggs and sausage, so I made that. It takes a dozen eggs now to feed Jason, myself and the three kids. I also cooked fifteen mini-smokies. It was devoured!

Following our breakfast, it was time to open the stockings. I found some really great stocking stuffers at the Target dollar bins! The kids got some holiday writing/color tablets, small package of goldfish, a little book and a candy cane. Jason got an iTunes gift card in his - of which he had to use $0.99 to purchase my "Angry Birds" app for my iPod :)

Julianna got a matching laptop like her sister since the older two have one and she is ALWAYS fighting to get on with them. It's a VTech one and has numbers, letters, shapes, and games. It's good through age 7 and even teaches things like addition and subtraction! Josh of course has already mastered his, but he likes "teaching" his sisters about the different letter sounds and spelling. He amazes me sometimes :)

Jason's mom sends the kids a special ornament each year for the kids to put on the tree. I have a special bag for their ornaments so that each Christmas the kids put their own ornaments on the tree. Josh got a Toy Story ornament of Woody and Jessie....

Jenna got a Cinderella ornament...

Julianna got a Tinkerbell ornament... (Now she won't try and take her sister's Tinkerbell off the tree!)

And Jayden got an Angel that says "Baby's 1st Christmas" on it....

Once the kids thought they were all done opening gifts, Jason and I had one last surprise for Jenna and Joshua that we had hidden in the garage. We decided to get them bikes! They LOVED them and rode them in the kitchen all day. We let them ride on the tile since the temperature didn't get above 40 degrees and was really windy outside. Hopefully today we can ride down to the mailbox :)

Christmas was a fun, relaxing time with just our family of six. We enjoyed quality time together - something that is so difficult to get these days of working and going here, there and everywhere! We got to slow down and really reflect on what matters and the true meaning of Christmas.

We will of course celebrate with my dad and the rest of the family that's here - but we do that in January. It's really neat since my parents have eight grandkids to make feel special on Christmas, so the after-Christmas deals come in handy! I'll be posting about that when we take part in that celebration...

The other tradition I've kind of started the past couple of years is going to the mall the day after Christmas for some of the sales. I go solely for the fact of getting NEXT year's Christmas outfits for the kids. If you don't have little girls, you'd be amazed at how much stores charge for dresses for Easter and Christmas!! Usually they run from $25 on up. A nice, good looking dress will set you back $40 to $50. So I go and get them for 60% off and save them for the next year! Here's a glance at the outfits for the girls and boys for next Christmas....

And since Julianna's birthday is coming up on April 1st, I decided to also buy her some birthday clothes since they were marked down to $4 or $5 and just save them to wrap for her birthday. Here's one of the cute shirts I found at JC Penny....

I hope your Christmas was filled with special memories. I know it's been awesome making some memories with our kids and cherishing this time when they are small because they will be grown and have families of their own one day. I know that I cherish the times I had when I was little spending with my mom listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra while opening presents on Christmas Eve and then going to Grandma's house or my Auntie's house on Christmas day to spend with cousins and everyone. It's hard being away from them, but I thank God that we have technology like blogs, facebook, and email to not only keep in touch, but so that they can be a part of our Christmas here, 2000 miles away.

Joyeux Noel

Christmas this year will be so much fun. Last year it was a little hard with Jenna being "just born" and all. This year Joshie is into all the Christmas lights and the presents and both kids LOVE Christmas music. Jenna dances anytime it comes on. Joshie likes to sing along with both "Jingle Bells" and "Happy Birthday Jesus". In fact, anytime the Birthday one comes on, he then goes throughout the house saying rather loudly - "Happy Bert-day Jesus!" It really is the cutest thing. :)

This year we are getting together with my dad and family on Chirstmas afternoon since my sister and her husband and little boy are flying back home to Cali that evening. It will be a little different as I think the last time I actually celebrated Christmas ON Christmas was in 2004 - Jason and I were engaged and we hadn't moved out here yet. Christmas was always at my auntie's house with my cousins and gramma. I will definately be thinking and missing them again this year.

I am really hoping and praying that my mom can come out right after Christmas. She's thinking about "sneaking" out here, and it would be the PERFECT Christmas. I know that Joshie and Jenna would love seeing gramma again. He talks to her on the phone and always talks about her and "papa Joe" when he sees their picture. I'll keep you updated on that one. :)

But Christmas isn't about the presents, or even about the family. Its about God sending his own Son down to the world as His present to us so that we could then go to heaven. As I get older, and especially now that we have kids, it makes me stop and think about songs like "Mary, did you know" and "Joseph's Lullaby". I can't imagine giving my kids to strangers...I don't even like being away from my own family for very long. I guess that's what makes it so awesome. He did it so we wouldn't have to. We can not only go to heaven, but hopefully our families will too.