Christmas 2021

We had a quiet Christmas at home this year. Mike preached at the Christmas Eve services, and then we had dinner with a couple of families from the church. The kids had a blast playing with friends; it was so good to have sweet friends with whom we could spend Christmas Eve. I am so thankful for the friendships the Lord has brought to our families!

Christmas morning started early for us, but not because of typical kid present excitement, but because Aiden woke up sick. Poor baby had some sort of stomach bug, and he was just a pitiful little guy for awhile. We set him up on the couch, and he was still able to participate in the present fun :)

How he really feels about being sick

We kept our tradition of 3 gifts for each kid: something to wear {their dinosaur pajamas, which they got to open early}, something to read, and something to play/create with. We also added stocking stuffers this year, since we were actually able to hang them up haha!

Excited to build his car with Daddy!

He made it through opening all of his gifts from Mommy and Daddy, but then suddenly stopped...notice {top right} Mommy coming with the vomit bowl haha {don't worry...he rallied after this}

We also opened presents from Aunt Lindsay! We were sad not to get to see Mike's side of the family this year, but we are thankful for zoom calls and videos. Eli insisted on playing Connect 4 right away, and when I finally was able to sit down and play with him, he decided he didn't like the way the game was played, so he wanted to play solo. He has patterns down pretty well...we just have to work on his game-playing patience :)

We hadn't yet watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, so we got to enjoy that traditional movie while we ate snack. And then we got to zoom with Granny and Grumpz! The kids were so excited to open their presents with them watching, and there were a lot of squeals of excitement for a long time :)

The most squeals came from this cutie girl...but who wouldn't be excited about dressing up like Elsa?!?!

The rest of the day was spent resting, then playing with all of our new fun things! We are so thankful for the material gifts we can give to love each other and have fun together. But we are most thankful for the gifts of family, love, and the hope we have in our Savior, Emmanuel, God with us.

Merry Christmas!