Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phillipians 4:8

Thoughts from Christmas Day...

I recorded these thoughts on Christmas day and thought I would share them here. Be warned that this is a bit long and there are no pictures to post...yet. I have not taken the time to get them from the camera and go through them. It has been a fun week. Hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas holiday as well.

It's Christmas day and I thought I would record some thoughts before they escape me. This has been a really fun year for the girls. They are 3 and 6 and it is a fun age for Christmas. Regan has already told us she does not believe in Santa, yet she was very excited about spreading magic Reindeer dust and food outside on Christmas Eve. She received them from her Daisies troop and at her school party. Sage was full of questions about Santa and how he gets in the house and if she was going to get coal in her stocking or not.

This is the first year where I had the girls give gifts to each other. I took them each to the dollar store and let them pick out 5 things. They both did really well and had a lot of fun doing it. Sage gave away too many hints and Regan found out she was getting reindeer antlers. Other than that I was surprised how well she did at not telling Regan about the other four things she got her.

After sprinkling the reindeer food on Christmas eve, we sent them to bed. They were all wound up and super excited for Christmas day. I went downstairs and wiggled one of the stockings, making the bell jingle. It only took about 30 seconds for them to hear it and bust out of their room because they heard jingle bells and wanted to know if Santa was here.

The girls had been planning and practicing all week for when they would run into our room on Christmas morning and yell MERRY CHRISTMAS to wake us both up. Well, unbeknownst to me, Paul snuck in the girls bedroom at night and changed their clock so they would have to sleep in a bit in the morning. (They are not allowed to get up until their clock says 7 AM) :) With them still in bed when Paul and I woke up, we decided to turn the tables. We got dressed and snuck into their room and yelled MERRY CHRISTMAS! The look of disgust on Regan's face was priceless!! She wasn't too sure what to make of it. She sat with her hand on her hip, looking at us, not quite knowing how to respond. I thought Sage would cry, but she didn't (she was still sleeping, unlike Regan who had been awake and waiting since about 6:45 - it was after 8 am by this time).

Regan went downstairs and proceeded to hand out gifts to Paul and I in the kitchen. She was so anxious and had to be reminded that we would wait for Sage to come down and we would all go to the living room and open gifts. She was very sweet, in that she had predetermined that Paul and I should open our gifts first, since the kids opened first last year. Then, she proceeded to give Sage all her dollar store gifts before opening any of her own. I think she was genuinely as excited to give her gifts to Sage as she was about opening her own.

Sage was totally adorable, as one of the first things she did after coming downstairs was reach up and feel the contents of her stocking. She let us know that she was pretty sure she did not get any coal from Santa, as there was nothing in it that felt like rocks! Later she told us that Santa must have thought she was a really good girl!! :)

I made homemade cinnamon rolls again for breakfast. Regan had remembered that from last year and requested them again. I prepared them on Christmas eve and we baked them while opening gifts. Stockings were opened after cinnamon rolls.

Paul surprised me with an ipod. It will be a really nice gift for using at the gym and even at home. We got daddy a duck hunting game for the Wii. The girls got books from Mima and Papa. Regan got Scrapbooking stuff from Grandma and Grandpa B and Sage got a new lady bug lifejacket. She was quite excited about that and said it was the best gift ever! I bought the girls all new art supplies as their main gift - new markers, twisty crayons, playdoh, jewels, scissors. Their stockings were filled with stickers, toothbrush, toothpaste, fingernail stickers and dry erase markers. Daddy's stocking held the traditional bag of peanut m&ms. Despite his many attempts to trick them, the girls even kept from telling him about them before Christmas.

We will buy another year to the Aquatic Center as our big family gift. We kept our things to the girls pretty minimal, as they really don't need much.

I feel so blessed this Christmas season. God has been good to us, despite a difficult economy. Our needs are always provided for and then some. Our health has been great, besides a few sniffles. It is good to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There were days in the past few weeks when I lost sight of that, but today has been a good time of reflection.