Our tradition for celebrating Christmas at "home" in Texas is to do it the Saturday before we leave for Colorado, whenever that falls. We go and look at Christmas lights the night before, then wake up and do our exchange of gifts on Saturday morning. I think this was my favorite Christmas in life so far. It was so much fun to watch Evelyn and Lillian in their respective life periods. We really wanted to keep it simple this year and focus on Jesus' birth, rather than get caught up in the consumerism of Christmas. I was really convicted when I read a blog post that asked if we, as Christians, truly feel that Jesus is enough - that He is our everything - then why do we need to dress up Christmas. Isn't is birth enough? That really resonated with me, and I wanted to be intentional about celebrating the birth of my Savior this year. I want my kids to associate Christmas with Him, not all of the other hoopla. And to be clear, I don't think the hoopla is bad - we still give gifts and decorate and make cookies...I just want the center of our Christmas to be clear.
So here are some pictures of our Christmas. Lillian was the first up (she thinks she needs milk, or something). Evelyn was up shortly after.
Once Evelyn came downstairs, we read the Christmas story and talked with
Evelyn about Jesus' birthday and why He came to earth. We then opened
our gifts from each other (we opted not to do "Santa"...but don't worry,
we'll be sure our kids aren't the ones to ruin it for yours!).
Evelyn's favorite...the musical card from Mommy & Daddy
Daddy reading Lilly her card from Mommy & Daddy
Evelyn enjoyed unpacking the stockings
Lillian liked the paper and bows
Mommy and Evelyn practicing for their band
Lillian's favorite toy - Sophie the Giraffe
(Mom confession: this was totally Evelyn's, re-wrapped for Lillian, I'm the worst mom ever)
And paper - paper is fun!
After presents - it was time for cookies!
We have several boxes upstairs in our loft (waiting to be packed!) - so Dan and Evelyn made a fort to play in for the afternoon.
Evelyn loved it!
Lillian loved being in there with her sister
Time for some frosting!
We had a great day just being together. I really loved watching Evelyn and Lillian enjoy this day - even in it's simplicity.
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