For Jesus...

With all the excitement, busyness, and chaos, I'm always so sad that the real reason for Christmas sometimes gets overlooked. I want my kids to grow up knowing that real reason....Jesus. The reason we celebrate Christmas. This year, we started a tradition (a little late, but we started it)! Every time one of us did something good or something nice for someone else, we wrote it down and put it in the "Jesus bag". On Christmas day, we went through each one and read them outloud. That's His gift from us....for all He does for us! I didn't think the kids really grasped the concept when I explained it, but even Nathan would remind me to put something in the Jesus bag! I'm hoping this will be a great tradition for years to come, and something meaningful to celebrate the life of Christ!

Christmas 2010

The big day is finally here! For the first time ever, the kids don't have special Christmas pj's. I was lazy and cheap this year, so I made Madison change into last year's pj's Christmas morning....and Nathan wore his little North Pole Express train pj's. If you know me, you know that it was a TOUGH decision not to buy them! Ah, it's not the pj's that make the pictures good, right? :) Oh, and I'm only blogging about Christmas morning....not the other three celebrations we had with family. I know, I probably should, but that's a LOT of pictures!!!

Madison made Clover a picture since he's heading back to the North Pole for good, until next year. She was really sad about him leaving, and told me she wanted to cry.

We set out the milk, cookies (and apples for the reindeer)!

The kids went to sleep, and Santa came sometime in the night! Madison woke up about 30 minutes earlier than Nathan, and had to wait patiently while Nathan slept! Here they are seeing all their gifts. I think Nathan was still half asleep during most of this!

This was a big hit....she really wanted a pillow pet this year!

Nathan perked up when he saw candy!

And he was super excited when he saw that Santa brought him "lipstick", ie. chapstick!

We got the kids daily devotional books. They were both so excited!!! Madison went right to reading hers. I love that they were excited about this gift!

And a couple of pictures of their favorite gifts!

I wish I had gotten this on camera so I could upload here, but I didn't. Nathan was cracking us up! He was swaying from left to right, dancing and sticking his tongue out. He was really getting into this!!!

He's a rockstar!

And not to forget Clover....he left a note for the kids!

We had a wonderful Christmas! I can't believe it's over for another year. With all the gifts the kids got, I'm guessing they were pretty good kids this year!

Storytime with Santa...

We had the girls this week through today, so I've been trying to keep us busy. We went to the movies, the Arboretum, and today was storytime with Santa Claus at Northpark! They all had a really good time, and seemed to enjoy it!

Nathan spent most of his time playing musical laps...

And we saw Santa in his sleigh with all the reindeer...made out of acorns!!! Amazing.

Only a few days left until Christmas....it's almost here! The kids are getting so excited that Santa is about to come visit us!

An early Christmas celebration!

We are starting a tradition of celebrating Christmas with extended family the weekend before. Our family is getting so big, and it's hard to get everyone together Christmas Eve. So this was our night for celebrating Christmas with all the cousins. All of the cousins were there but two...my sweet Lacey and Cody. I know there's a reason why my sister is in another state, but I don't like it at all. I miss them so much, especially during the holidays.

With her 2nd cousins, Mia and Taylor. These kids are all growing up so fast...I can't even believe it!

We draw names for the kids, so it's only one gift per child. That makes it so much less chaotic! Madison got a new scarf/hat/gloves set, and she was in love! She wore it all night long - even inside.

Can you tell he's excited? He got a rock kit!

And a cute little firetruck shirt!

We rarely see my extended family, so it was nice to all get together and let the kids play. I can't believe it's only a week until Christmas!

Cupcakes!

After school, we all headed over to Gaga's to decorate some Christmas cupcakes! Since it was the last day of school for the year, we needed something fun to do!!

Nathan was very excited to eat his cupcake, but he first wanted me to wipe off all of the icing. Have you ever known a kid that doesn't like icing? That's Nathan. He likes decorating them, but then he has to take it all off!

Madison and Grace got to wear their pj's to school today, so they were decorating in comfort!

Here they are...and this is only half the tree too!

I love the month of December...doing all things Christmas related!

Holiday in the Park!

We get free tickets to Holiday in the Park every year when Michael's work rents out Six Flags, and we never go. This year, we decided to take advantage and go see what it's all about! We ended up taking Gaga and our good friend, Doo (Donna), to enjoy it with us! Nana was supposed to come too, but she was sick. :(

First on the agenda for Madison....the tea cups! This girl LOVES riding the tea cups!

And first on the agenda for Nathan....the Conquistador! Ever since we went last month, he's been talking NON-STOP about this ride!

We went on the Cave ride while Nathan stayed with daddy. He isn't afraid of the high/fast rides, he's afraid of the noise!

My little Eskimo!

I know I mention this every time I use my old camera, but I can't stand it! I'm so spoiled with my other camera taking pictures instantly. Here they are sledding. I kept trying to snap one of Madison coming down, but it wouldn't! So, this is all I got of her. They both really enjoyed it though! We don't get to do this in Texas (well, not usually....last year was weird, but we had no hills around us)!

As the sun went down, we started seeing lights everywhere! It was so pretty.

And he's OUT! He was so exhausted from an afternoon of non-stop fun! Rides, hot chocolate, lights....it was too much fun! Madison was pretty exhausted too, but would laugh everytime she heard me talking about taking her picture!

We had such a great time! It was FREEZING while we were there, and pretty crowded, but we still had a lot of fun. And believe it or not, I really was there too. I just realized there's not a single picture of me. I keep saying I'm going to get better at asking, and then I forget. Ohwell. Six Flags is such a fun place for the kids, and I love that I have a little dare devil now. Nathan is already talking about being big enough to ride Superman! If he was tall enough, I am certain he would've done it! My little cautious one is getting more and more brave though. She's come a long way from her days of fearing the slow Chuck-E-Cheese rides!