Christmas Morning

Bright and early Christmas morning, the kids woke up and waited on the stairs to be given permission to enter the living area. We were up before 7am this year, because my parents had to leave by 8:30am. We have been blessed with kids that usually sleep until at least 8am on Christmas morning. They were willing to set their alarm clocks to open gifts earlier!The house smelled wonderful as Monkey Bread baked in the oven. This is my mom's awesome recipe. She always made it for us on Christmas morning and I decided it was high time I started doing the same for my kids. [I won't mention that I am the one who loves to eat it the most!]
Stockings first.Our big "Santa" gift this year was a basketball for each child, and a basket ball goal for the family.I mentioned in an earlier post that the basketball goal assembly didn't quite go as planned. No fear! Super Goal Daddy is here! This pic was taken right before they started chucking their balls at daddy!

I was blessed to get several wonderful gifts. Eric SUPER SURPRISED ME with a Kindle Fire! Seriously, he is a bit gift challenge so it was a big ku for him. We had talked about getting one as the kids' big gift but decided to go with something else. He knew I'd like to play around with one but that I would never "waste" the money on something so frivolous. =-) Taevy made me this super-cool plaque! I am still trying to come up with the perfect place to hang it.

All of the children received Bibles from us. They were very excited about them, which makes me happy.This was Samren giving Taevy a hug after she gave him her gift--fuzzy socks!

I got Eric something he was NOT expecting--a new key fob. We had two but one stopped working. He sacrificially allowed me to keep the fob that still worked, and did without for the past six months. He was really surprised, which is hard to do! The little kids got (assembled) scooters as their big gift from us. They cracked me up when they got all excited and said, "We can ride our scooters to school!" and then took off towards the classroom 10 feet away! LOL! [Notice the tutu over Kendi's PJ's. Another gift she loved.]

After all the gifts were opened the big kids were acting gracious for everything they received, but I could tell they were also sort of thinking that things seemed a bit uneven. No big present from mom and dad for them. But what's that over by the Advent Calender? A small gift? Who could it be for? You guessed it. Thanks to a very generous friend who gave (yes GAVE!) us an ipod touch and a $25 itunes gift certificate, and another really good craigslist deal, we were able to super-surprise the big kids each with an iPod Touch! I was about to write "Christmas isn't about gifts." but ya know what? It is. It's about the gift of Christ to the world. And we give gifts to others as a reminder of that ultimate gift that Father God gave to us. We didn't deserve Him. We could never "pay" enough for Him, but He was freely given nevertheless.