Day After Christmas...Presents!

The kids didn't really open a lot of presents on Christmas because of church and having the Busbees over most of the day to play with. They each had several presents from Santa that kept them busy so we decided to save the gifts from parents, Grandparents and various other family until the next day. As soon as Cameron woke up that morning she asked "is it wake up time? Time to open presents?" I think they really liked spreading Christmas out over two days!

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Angie sent Timo a dancing Happy Feet which he just loves. He hasn't even seen the movie but somehow has made a connection to these penguins. And Cameron got her beloved Buzz Lightyear or Light Earbuds as she says. Buzz is her fav Toy Story character and she had been asking for one for a while now so I'm glad Uncle Kevin and Aunt Angie hooked her up! My sister-in-law feels it's her duty to send her niece and nephew talking/battery operated toys! Here is Cameron checking out her new Light Earbuds...

Kid cameras from Granny and Grandpa! We love them!!

Christmas Day pt. 2

It wasn't an easy task but we all managed to get ready and to church on time Christmas morning! We needed to make a few compromises to get the kids out the door...Cameron got to take a toy in the car and Timo got to wear his hat!
I love going to church Christmas morning! Worshiping together, celebrating the birth of Christ and being surrounded by our church family made Christmas even more special. The family service was short, only 45min long and had a special children's story given by our pastor. He really got the children's attention when he climbed on the ladder to show how Jesus was God in heaven and came down to earth as a baby. (Timo came back to his seat with lots of questions "how did Jesus get from heaven to earth?", "I thought Joseph was His daddy, not God?")
We came home and let the kids open a few more gifts before our guests arrived.

Our dear friends, the Busbee ladies, came over to spend Christmas Day with us. We had such a great, relaxing day together, enjoying good food, good friends and a few gifts for the kiddies....monkey slippers!

Young did such a good job on our prime rib! Soooo yummy! We lingered at the lunch table nibbling every last bite!

We were so blessed by having Claudia and the girls with us all day. I gain such wisdom and insight form Claudia in even the smallest of things. Alexis and Ashley just love the kids and played with them most of the day, allowing us to get lunch cooked. We had a wonderful day together...such a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day 2011 pt. 1

"We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.." Matthew 2:2

I have always loved celebrating Jesus birthday, even when I was little, singing "Happy Birthday Jesus." As with most parents, I really want our children to understand the real meaning of Christmas, aside from all the gifts. This year we started a series of nightly Advent devotions the trace the telling of Christ's birthday from Old Testament to New. I feel like they understood mostly except when we went over the different names of Jesus..."Wonderful, Savior, Everlasting Father, Might God...", oh and "He shall be called Emanuel." Cameron said "Why don't they just call him Jesus?" Things are so simple to a 3 year old! They got the biggest kick out of shouting "Glory to God in the Highest" when we were studying about the angles appearing to the shepherd! We also had a countdown calender with a treat for them each night...which was a little more exciting to them than the bible study, I must say.
Christmas Eve brought me so much excitement as we set out their gifts. I was thinking how excited they would be so see everything and thinking this is how our Heavenly Father feels when he give us gifts! Here is what Santa left for each...
As par the course for Christmas morning, the kids slept late! They never really sleep past 7 or 7:15 normally, but this year we had to start making noise around 8pm to wake them up. We would have let them sleep but we had to start getting ready for church. I will say it was nice to have them sleep late because Young and I got to have a quiet Christmas morning together, opening gifts from one another and enjoying the silence for a little while. Here is Young opening his big gift...a Thomas Moser clock. He had no idea he was getting it and he tried his best to figure it out!
After enjoying ourselves and our gifts we decided we need to get the kids going if we were going to get the church on time...so we turned on a few lights and banged some pots and pans around, he, he, he.



Timo was super easy to buy for, he wanted everything he saw. Cameron was so hard to buy for, she wanted nothing really. Everything I would ask her about she "claimed" she already had it...in one form of another. All she really asked for was a horse, croquet set and a race track. I couldn't bring myself to buy her a race track (we just don't have the space to keep it set up) so I settled on trying Barbie out on her...I should have stuck with the race tack. She was way more into Timo's toys than her own...except her art supplies...she loves art!

Timo liked his hockey table and remote control car but fell in love with his new automatic Thomas and train set! (complete with his Thomas conductor hat)


What an exciting morning! The kids were having so much fun and it was REALLY difficult to get them to switch gears and focus on getting ready for church..but we managed with the promise of opening gifts when we got home! Stay tuned...

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve started out with decorating cookies for Santa!

I wanted to reorganized some of the kids' toys, making room for the new stuff Santa was bringing, which made for new interest in some forgotten toys. They built this balancing building themselves! And snack time in the bucket the blocks go in....

I was a little blown away by the them making a Potato Head Nativity scene...guess all our Advent devotions have been sinking in! Notice Mary is kissing baby Jesus at the very beginning of the video.

Young's boss and good friend, Michael, invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner party...kids allowed! It was so nice to be at an adult party but have children around. The kids had no problem fitting in and enjoying themselves. Michael lives on the top of a hill in Potrero Hill with amazing views of SF so we talked a lot about sky scrapers...
The children had just received these cute "Happy Nappers" (kinda like pillow pets but comes with blankets too) from our neighbors that day and they just had to bring them. They were enjoying Michael's deck with Happy Nappers and a little cheese plate.
Cameron LOVED the little lamb chops appetizers. I think she ate about three of them...looks like I need to get the recipe.
When dinner was served Young gave a toss to the host. We all clinked our glasses and the children wanted in on the toast fun, clinking their sippy cups and saying "Merry Christmas!" too.
They were having a white elephant gift exchange and Timo helped Daddy play the game while Cameron decided dessert was much more exciting.
We had a wonderful time at the party. Thank you so much Michael and Sally for inviting us into your home for Christmas! But as much fun as it was, it was time to head home and get the kiddies to bed so Santa could come. All nestled in while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...