Christmas time

I'm stealing the title of my post from a friend... because Christmas is something we celebrate for more than a day. It is a season, a time of year that our family just loves. A time to spend time together remembering and celebrating the birth of Jesus and soaking up traditions as a family. Our little scout Elf on a shelf became an official tradition this year. Lauren named him Hellum (no idea how she got the name... said she just made it up). Noah almost had as much fun finding him as Lauren did and actually was better at it! Both kids really loved looking at all the lights outside every time we were driving home in the evening and had a great time on our jammy ride (another tradition in the making). We get in our jammies and munch on cookies and milk as we drive around admiring our neighbors lights. One house on the other end of our neighborhood has an amazing display set to music, always a hit.

My sister-in-law and I get together every year and spend an entire day making Christmas cookies. I think this year they were the best we've ever made! An exhausting but fun day we both look forward to every December!

One new thing we started this year was going through our new Advent book in the evenings. Mostly its  Lauren and I going through and opening the doors to the book while Sam's trying to keep Noah somewhat entertained. He's done after opening one or two and then into something else. I just love our new book which was illustrated and designed by an awesome Christian couple who came to speak to our Mom's Together group on Christmas family traditions. I'd love to make it a more focused tradition during Christmastime once the kids attention spans are a little greater.

My parents joined us Christmas Eve and after spending Christmas morning together as a family of 4 we joined Sam's family at his parents on Christmas for brunch and dinner. We're so thankful that my family has been okay coming to our house the past 2 years so we don't have to do so much driving back and forth with the kids being so young. Sam and I decided that we still enjoy the excitement of Santa so we'll keep that going for our kids but also decided that they only get 1-2 presents from him and the rest come from family. We feel that they need to be thankful and appreciative of what they get and who is giving. It made my heart proud when Lauren went around telling people we were celebrating Jesus' birthday (with extreme excitement) when asked if she was excited about Santa coming.  I think a highlight for her on Christmas Eve was singing happy birthday before having some cake. Obviously the real reason we celebrate Christmas is always the focus and something I hope is top of their minds during this time.