Christmas Morning

Dad and Shordy putting the trains together.  He didn't even open all his presents until MUCH later b/c he was too busy playing with his trains.

Pure joy right there.  Pure joy!

Tiny eating breakfast and chillin' with her cow pillow pet her dad got for her.  She loved it.

Our finished advent calendar.  Shordy loved getting out a new part of the nativity every day.  The days where it was just stars wasn't nearly as fun, but he loved it towards the end when it was wise men, shepherds, and angles.  Fun!

This Christmas has to be one of my favorites yet!  Shordy was ecstatic and so excited...and that makes it that  much more fun for mom & dad.

We started our morning by looking at our stockings, but before we went any further we always stop and read the story of the first Christmas.  Before kids we read it straight from Luke 2, but since kids I found a little book called, "My Very First Christmas Story".  It's the LDS version and it includes the story from the Book of Mormon and Luke 2 with beautiful pictures to depict it as well.  It's very nice...so we read that together as a family before we start opening presents.  It's a tradition Shayne had with his family and he has brought to ours...and I love it.

After reading about the First Christmas, we started opening presents.  But, we didn't even make it very far with that, b/c Shordy was SO EXCITED about his train set sitting on the floor from Santa!!  We facetimed with Grammy Pond and he opened the present from her which was another Thomas the Train set...and then he was done for!  We had to suspend all present opening so Shordy and Dad could go in the play room and set up all the trains he had received for Christmas.  Even Tiny was pretty content to open like 2 or 3 presents and play with them for a bit.  She got stuff (a crib, clothes, backpack, etc.) for her Stella doll, that she got last year for Christmas.

While the trains were being set up, I cut up a bunch of fruit and that's what we ate for breakfast.  Shordy was way too busy to stop and eat.  :)  After the trains were set up, Shayne & I proceeded to open the presents from each other and our families.  I was pretty stoked to get a pair of LL Bean Sheepskin slippers...AWESOME!   And a Skoop...it's an insulated skirt.  It's like a pair of snow pants, but it's a skirt...so it's way cuter!  You wear it over your jeans while running into town or where ever and you stay warm...and you're cute too.  I LOVE it!  Shayne got a Louisville Slugger (which he requested) and some fishing books, new clothes for work, and other misc stuff...not as big of Christmas for him this year.  :(

The amazing thing is that it has been SUPER cold the week before Christmas...like -25 degrees was the high.  But, it warmed up on Christmas Eve and it started to snow...and snow...and snow...and snow.  By Christmas afternoon it had snowed about 18".  It was pretty crazy.

Because Shayne is the ward mission leader the Elders came to our house to Skype or Facetime with their families.  They were each on a computer talking to their families in the playroom while Shordy played with is trains.  It was kinda cool.  Shayne ended up shoveling a lot of snow that day.  Shordy was pretty darn content to sit in the playroom and play with his trains...all day.  You know it's been a good Christmas when your kids play with their new toys all day.  :)  Yeah!!

Then of course we've started the new tradition of having a Spanish seafood paella for our Christmas dinner...so Shayne made the paella, and it was DELICIOUS!  One of my favorite foods.  Thank you Babe for bringing this wonderful food and new tradition to our family!

So...this was such a fun Christmas!  I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful little family to make these memories and share these traditions with.  We are a very blessed family and recognize our blessings everyday.  How amazing it is to have the opportunity to teach our children about Christ and why celebrating his birth is so important to us, and to share our testimonies and our feelings about Christ with our children.  What a special time of year.