Christmas Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year, besides the traditional bread bowls and white chili, caroling to all our neighbors and opening up one present to "practice" for the next morning, there's always this special anticipation that I like to relate to the Marys anxious, excited feelings the night of Jesus birth. This year we really tried to tie everything into Christ for Liam, we talked a lot about "Mother Mary, Father Joseph and baby Jesus" He really started to grasp the significance of this special little family. He's not even two, I know he isn't understanding all of it but he understands as much as he can and I'm glad we pushed it as hard as we did this year. My mom gave him a nativity set this year and he spent at least an hour every day arranging and rearranging all the characters, calling every animal a cow, the Angel was Elsa from Frozen and the wise men were "wise guys". But he really understood, Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. He would place cows on top the manger and the wise men were always scattered but Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus were always in the same spot, in the middle of the manger. Liam would say, "I put them right dere" after placing each character and I saw his mothers need for exactness coming through in him.
After the caroling, eating our weight in chili and opening presents at grandmas house we went home read the scripture story of Jesus birth and went straight to bed. (Santa only brings one present to our kiddo so we all went to bed at the same time, no assembly required )
The next morning Liam woke up ready to go! He got a Quad from Santa this year, just a dinky battery powered one but it was the thrill of his life! He caught on way too quickly and rode it for about 20 minutes before we could move on to anything else. Chad and I have mugs of hot cocoa we had brewed just before waking Liam up and we poured a little into a sippy cup for him. He loved it so much, he kept going from me to Chad saying "cheers" and tapping our mugs in between sips! He got plenty of fun presents from mom and dad, grandma and grandpas, cousins and friends. Chad and I didn't so so badly either. As soon as we finished opening we rushed over to grandmas and grandpas for breakfast and to help Stratton with the Scavenger hunt that santa made for him (Strattons Santa is exceedingly more ambitious and creative then Liams Santa) After getting all the clues and running all over town, Stratton discovered in the cultural hall of the church that Santa was giving him a trip to Disneyland!
Its a good thing Liam doesnt understand just how awesome Disneyland is or he might have been jealous of little Stratton like Chad and I were! We're so excited for him and cant wait to see all the pictures and hear all the stories about Disneyland from the mouth of Stratton! We went home for a much needed nap, then got up and were off to party again. We went to the Church and played a family game of volleyball, which is one of my all time favorite things to do. Chad and I kicked booty while laughing til we were sore at our families less then accurate techniques and competitive language. The kids kept to the sidelines and played with thier new toys and we were all ready for our Christmas feast by the time we were done. After dinner we played a less then amusing game of scrabble and ate some banana cream pie. We all drug our feet as we left the Guttery home, knowing that once we left, Christmas would be over til next year.
It was so fun being with family again for Christmas for the first time in a very long time. It was a very different and eye opening experience. I got to remember how much I love being in the same house where all my early christmas memories were made with my sweet sisters and parents but i also realized that i get that with my own family and how special it is to spend Christmas morning in my own home with my two favorite boys.
Merry Christmas, hope yours was a full and happy as ours!
No comments:
Post a Comment