Christmas Joys

Here are a few activities we enjoyed this Christmas. 

We have this fun tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree.  My manly man and his little side-kick had the most fun with this...

But as fun as this is, and as delightful as a real Christmas tree smells in the home, we're now reconsidering.  This very well might be the last year of this tradition.  Here it is FEBRUARY 25th, and we're STILL finding these darn needles around the house!!  I'm still finding them in the vacuum, in the heater vents, and some have even gotten stuck in the carpet.  Let me tell ya, stepping on those things feels like real needles!

But if we ever do this again, we've definitely found the best tree farm around!!  This local tree farm offers free hot chocolate and cookies for the kids, visits from Santa, face-painting, and free homemade ornaments for the kids.  A sweet family runs this place, and I want to help support them.  Message me if you're local and want more deets for next year!

And our thoughtful aunt Pam has this tradition of sending us homemade ornaments every year!  We have them going back to 2004.  Each one is such a treasure to our family!

Christmas Morning!  Kids got beyond spoiled this year.  We got a Wii for the family (I had sworn off video games for the kids- but we finally comprimised that active/fitness games, and music games that involve the entire family would be ok).  They also each got 3 presents from Santa.  Afterall- if Jesus only got 3, who are we to get more?!

But the best present of all...

As if it's not already a circus around here... meet Barnum and Bailey!!  Our new pet guinea pigs.  We did tons of research before we decided on a great pet for kids, and I'm so glad we went with guniea pigs!  They are the most gentle animals, they make amusing noises, low maintenance, they're soft and cuddly- and they aren't too stinky. 

It was too funny, when we went to pick them up, we had to bring all the kids with us, so Jon and I were trying to find a way to pull it off without them knowing.  Luckily it was dark, and we had just gotten back from seeing the Christmas lights in the city.  I went and picked them up in a box, and we acted like we had to pick something up from a friend.  But once we got them in, they started sqeaking and squealing like crazy.  And we had to drive 30 minutes to get home!  My hubby is hilarious- so fun to watch him try to keep the kids from finding out... each time they would squeak, he would pretend to sneeze, or sing, and crank up the Christmas music even louder.  And they had no clue.  Too fun!!

What a blessed Christmas.  Hope yours was just as special!!  Nothing like experiencing this beautiful season than through the eyes of a child.  Childlike awe and wonder is so inspiring!