Christmas Day

The kids are always so thoughtful to leave Santa a plate of treats, sometimes even Rudolph gets a few carrots. This morning when I woke up I found a letter they had left for Santa. I had gone to bed a little on the sad side last night because of the way the kids acted after our game was over. Aaron was the writer of the note and his handwriting is small so I will transcribe it:

"Dear Saint Nicholas - Merry Christmas! We hope you are having a good night so far. Here's a plate of goodies and some Chex mix for your reindeer. We are sorry we were naughty Christmas Eve. We are very sad we made our parents sad, especially our mommy! That was very rude of us especially after she prepared a wonderful meal, made us laugh, and after she played games with us. She also got us very nice pajama's. We hope you get her something special because she deserves it! Also our wonderful papa! So please don't fill our stockings with coal. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to get back on the nice list. We hope you have a safe and fun rest of the trip, and say hi to Rudolph! Merry Christmas! Love, Ariel, Megan and Aaron"

I thought that was a very sweet apology letter. Santa did too. He left them a little note. He thought they deserved a lump of coal, but not an entire stocking full! The kids were very sorry and Santa and I easily forgave them.

Because Christmas was on a Sunday this year, and our church starts at 9:00 a.m. the kids decided to sleep in until it was time to get up for church. They said they would wait and open Christmas when we got home. I liked this idea and even had time, while they were sleeping, to get a head start on making the Christmas morning breakfast casserole. 

I am a very traditional person so we have a lot of traditions, especially at Christmas. One of our traditions, which was done in my family growing up, is for the kids to line up on the stairs, youngest to oldest, and walk down together to get their first "glimpse" of what Santa brought. This was going to be tricky since we were going to church first. The kids were good sports and when they came downstairs, they got into the car without peeking.

I really enjoyed going to church first on Christmas morning. We had a wonderful program to honor and remember the birth of our Savior before we went home and opened Santa's gifts. When we got home from church, we got back in our PJ's, well except Ariel. She didn't want to don the Cheetah print again. We had a smaller Christmas this year, but everyone was happy with their gifts and we felt very blessed to be together and enjoy a quiet day. Christmas day always feels like the longest day of the year, and I'm so glad it's like that. There is so much stress and rushing around trying to prepare for it, that it's nice to just be at home all day, in pajama's.

The girls always make the best Christmas gifts. I was so surprised when I opened them, and yes, I cried.

Megan painted me a beautiful canvas as a reminder of my Dad, this is one of my favorite songs.

 Ariel made us memory books. There was a page for every letter of the alphabet and on each page she wrote several memories that started with that letter. We were happy at how many things she remembered with us through her life. We loved the gifts the girls made.

It was a great day, but what would Christmas be without a good, long nap?