Christmas!

What a magical Christmas this year was! It surpassed all other years together as a family. We were so filled with joy and really were aware at every moment how blessed we are. The kids and I enjoyed a wonderful school break together and I did not work a single day! In my heart I knew how precious this time was with them and that EVERY moment needed to be cherished. Although, I really tried to cut back this year on Christmas with excessive gifts for the kids, they still had many, many gifts thanks to friends and family.

One funny memory that I will always remember is when a pile of boxes taller than me (no exaggeration) came from Grandma Nancy and were at the front door. The kids were so excited to open the presents that they woke up at 4:30 a.m. for four days straight asking if they could open the presents. By the time Christmas day came, Steve and I were so exhausted! For the first year, the kids screamed and ran around like crazy on Christmas morning. Usually, they are very mellow; this definitely made things more exciting.

Some Christmas highlights I will remember from this year

1. Christmas Eve falling on a Saturday - we had the whole day with daddy and had a big breakfast that morning
2. Good weather - a little freezing rain, but our first relatively safe drive to and from Scappoose (we remember Christmas trips with so much snow our wipers could not keep up with it).
3. Skyping family on the computer and the kids singing solos of We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Hark the Herold
4. Family advent wreath and songs to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas (next year hopefully we can do it every Sunday)
5. Papa Tom's hospitality in letting us stay the night (first year the kids slept well without drama) and his amazing hollandaise eggs for breakfast
6. Reliving my own childhood memories - A Christmas tree in the kids room with their own cherished ornaments, the advent calendar with ornaments to hang every day, making Christmas cookies, baking and giving cookies to neighbors - the joy of tradition!
7. Spending our fourth Christmas with The Morses and Korenthals and creating our own unique traditions like making sushi with Grandma Dee Dee

Alora's precious horse from the movie Tangled - Maximus
Papa Tom's house - the boys playing Jenga
The girls playing upstairs
I will always smile when I think of sweet Abigail and her LOVE of Rapunzel.
I love my little man in a suit. I will have to come up with more reasons to have him wear one.
The boys played with a Polar Express Train and Monster Trucks the ENTIRE time.

The day after Christmas we took the kids to the mall at Lloyd Center. For kids that live in the country, the mall is like an amusement park. They watched the Zamboni on the ice rink for twenty minutes, enjoyed smoothies from Jamba Juice, had fun playing in all the toy stores, and were amazed by the elaborate decorations.

Steve and Alora in Santa's chair at the mall.


We then went to visit our friend Sean for his birthday. It was a blast! The kids and adults enjoyed many hours of dancing to Wii. We always have so much fun with the O'Connell's. I think Steve's true calling was to be a puppeteer!