Christmas Day, 2009

The craziest thing about our morning was that we had to WAKE UP the kids so they could see their daddy and peek at what Santa had brought before daddy left for work...I don't think they were too upset about it once they saw the glow coming from downstairs and smelt the cinnamon pull-aparts cooking in the oven.

And then we waited, and waited, and waited for Daddy to come home so that we could start on the gifts under the tree.

But, the waiting was well worth it.

The gift wrapping was the BEST, as usual!

The boxes to our necklaces made perfect crowns...

The Dinosaurs were a crowd favorite...

And a Christmas Feast! The traditional crab, asparagus, sweet potatoe wedges, homemade foccacia bread, and strawberry pretzle jello (that didn't quite work out, next time I may need to leave a new recipe for another time, oh well!)

The following Monday we had a special FHE about the "Greatest Gift of All," the last gift under our tree and we read about the Christmas Animals so that we could each remeber the reason Christ came to this earth and recognize that we have each been given our own special gifts and talents which we need to use to help others while we live our lives here...

We had another yummy feast: pesto linguine with shrimp, grape tomatoes, green onion, sweet peppers, spinach, pine nuts and portabellomushrooms, with our leftover foccacia bread and more yummy clementines. I wish I had gotten my camera out and taken a picture of the pasta, it was so pretty and full of Christmas color...It was another special night for our little family. We are so grateful for the Joy and Love that illuminated our lives during this Christmas time!