Christmas! Every year, this holiday becomes more and more dear to my heart. As a child, it was the anticipation of what was to come. It was the bright lights, the presents, the surprises and Santa Clause. It was sitting in The Barn singing carols surrounded by family and friends, listening to songs of Love, Peace, Joy, Truth, Kids, and wondering what this year's "word" will be. It was relearning the birth story as told by the "Worst Kids in the World". It was cranking up the radio in the car, listening to "Mary's Boy Child" on our way to Christmas Eve service. It was spending Christmas morning with my parents and sister waiting for my next turn to open a gift while also waiting to see my family's facial expression as they opened a gift from me. And although many of those traditions are now memories or have been altered, every time I think of them during the holiday season, there is a special warmth in my heart.
This is the warmth that I hope my children have about this holiday when they are adults. I want them to enjoy the traditions that we celebrate and maybe one day pass some of them down to their families. Christmas is a children's holiday, except for those of us who are parents. In my opinion, Christmas is a *parents* holiday. Experiencing Christmas through your children's eyes is amazing and magical. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists or lines for gifts and the other typical stresses of the holiday, watching your children's joy on this day is exceptional. Even our little Aiden, at four months old, enjoyed the wonderment of the holiday. Although, his sister clearly stole the show this year. Every morning we were greeted with the inquiry "Santa? Where's Santa?" and then she would point out every single Santa character throughout the house before we left for preschool. It was so adorable. This year she also grasped the concept of opening presents. She wanted to help everyone open their gifts and clearly claim every gift as "mine".
No Christmas would be complete without family. Josh's parents were able to visit us this year. They came in a couple of days prior to Christmas and left a couple of days afterward. One of the highlights of their visit was that Santa visited the kids at preschool. All of the preschool kids loved it. Once again, Aiden was very relaxed and Madi was cautious, but agreed to sit on Daddy's lap next to Santa. Doesn't Santa have a very familiar face? Like someone we all know.
One of my family's traditions is that we have always received a gift on Christmas Eve. As a child, it took me several years to figure out that we always received the same gift -- new pajamas. Well, my mother wanted to continue this tradition with her grandchildren. So, for Christmas Eve, my parents and Micky joined the rest of us for dinner. After dinner, we opened Hanukkah presents (it was the 5th night) and then the Christmas Eve presents. "Santa" even dropped by our house to pass out the gifts. After gift giving, the kids got all bundled up in their new pajamas and Grandpa Farrell read the T'was the Night Before Christmas to all of us. What a wonderful evening.
Josh and I spent the remainder of Christmas Eve with our friends the Raetz's. We put the kids to bed, thanked Grandma and Grandpa Landers for watching the kids and headed over to Jason and Paige's house for a holiday open house. We did enjoy a quick drive through the Moon Valley area to look at lights and the luminarias.
Christmas morning was so much fun. All of the adults awoke early and we all waited for the kids to get up. Wouldn't you know that Madilyn decided to sleep in that morning!?! I am sure that will be the last time she does that on Christmas morning. Here is a video we captured of her discovering her Santa gifts that morning.
We spent the rest of the day opening our gifts, playing with our gifts, watching the kids' with their toys, playing board games and preparing for a delicious Christmas day dinner. The menu consisted of baked stuffed chicken breasts, garlic bread crumbs and pine nuts stuffed artichokes, frozen fruit salad and bread. It was superb!
And that was Christmas 2011! Enjoy the photo slideshow!
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