Christmas 2012

Ummm...this post is a little late.

IF you follow us on Facebook you know that Santa did not visit us this year. To make a long story very short we told the kids time and time and time again that if they did not want to take care of their toys then we would call Santa and advise him to bypass our home. Well, around Christmas we had another incident of not taking care of the toys the kids already had so we placed a call into Santa and the story stuck.

We did allow for all other Christmas activities to take place. We visited Santa even though they knew they weren't being visited by the jolly old soul. We went to Christmas parties, we decorated outside. We baked Christmas cookies, adopted our Christmas Child from Operation Christmas Child. What we did do differently is to allow the kids to buy multiple toys for each other this year. Instead of the 20.00 we gave them to shop for the brother/sister we have them 60.00. They got to chose whatever they wanted for their brother/sister and placed those items under the tree. As you can see, on Christmas morning, our tree was not empty--the kids were not disappointed and Christmas went off without a hitch.

We did enjoy Christmas as a family. I stuck to our traditions. I baked "Christmas Crack" as Andrew calls it and made a fruit salad. We played games with the kids. We set up the new Kindle (our family gift) and had fun enjoying each other. We went to Christmas Eve Church which I love. If you ever need a place to go Christmas Eve with your kids and you want to feel welcome, you should visit our church--New Life Gahanna. They put on a Christmas Eve service with the pastor reading a book about the meaning of Christmas to the kids while they are all on stage and they end it with the reading of the Word about the birth of Christ and end it with singing Silent Night in the dark with the worship hall being lit with gorgeous candles. It is seriously one of my favorite things about Christmas. I can't imagine not ever going or not having our kids there with us.

We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family before Christmas. As you can see, my kids, were not hurting for anything. They enjoyed themselves, got plenty of goodies and got to hang out with their cousins. I love that our kids are pretty close in age. We have Tatum who is 8, Beckett and Mila are both 5, Sam is 3 and Finley is 1. I'm hoping that they will continue to be close throughout life!

Beckett ready to be on "santa" duty. Each year the kids rotate. They love it and its a good tradition to uphold!

Tatum and Mila (aren't the cute)

Sam

Finley

After Christmas, we celebrated with Andrew's family. Of course it snowed like crazy this day and I got out to run a few miles in it so I was NOT happy about driving there. But, I put on my big girl panties, took an anxiety pill and we hit the road. We had a good time there and the the kids were not disappointed. We always come back with way more than what we went with :) We are so blessed that our kids have so many people who love them. That our families are very close and we get to visit frequently. :)