Christmas 2017

We spent Christmas Eve with my family and enjoyed our time spent togethers.

We celebrated Jesus' birthday with a birthday cake where the ingredients all stood for different aspects of the Christmas Story.  This year, my Mom introduced us to this new tradition and I loved it!   The shape of the cake was round to represent the world into which Jesus was born.  The bottom layer was chocolate representing that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, which is why Jesus chose to come to earth.  The center layer was red symbolizing Jesus' blood that was shed for our sins and the top layer was green denoting the new life we can have in Jesus Christ after our sins have been washed away.  The frosting was pure white standing for the righteousness and purity of Jesus.  The border of red hearts stands for brothers and sisters united in Christ as his witnesses to this world.  And on top, was a gold or yellow star that heralded his birth and lit the way to where he was born.  In the very center was one large candle representing Jesus who came into the dark world to bring light and truth to us all.  We read the Christmas story out of the book of Luke and then sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.  We then each lit a candle and sang "Silent Night".

Christmas morning, Peyton and Ava Jane slept until almost 8:00!  Emerson and Lawson could hardly wait for them to get up so they could all finally come downstairs.

This year Peyton started collecting football and basketball cards so he was thrilled to see all of these in his stocking.

And Lawson LOVED his stocking stuffers, particularly the rubik's cube.

Ava Jane was thrilled with her horse on a stick and her Melissa and Doug castle.

We had our Christmas usual, breakfast casserole, muffins, fruit and mimosas.

My three sons and the love of my life snuggled up close on that wonderful Christmas morning.

And here's my girl and me.  We aren't picture perfect in these Christmas morning shots, but this was the way we spent our morning, in our pjs, opening gifts, eating our big breakfast casserole while enjoying just being together and playing with their new gifts.  It was a truly wonderful Christmas.

And as a total surprise to me, my sweet husband had a fun treat set out for me.  I've been in need of a new set of cookware for a while now.  Adam got me this beautiful copper and stainless steel set that is as beautiful to look at as it is to cook with!  We were supposed to have just done stocking stuffers, these clearly didn't fit in my stocking but I was grateful he got them for me and thrilled to get to have used them the last few days!

I do hope that your time with family was filled with wonderful memories made and time spent with those you love.   We have thoroughly enjoyed time out of our regular routine with the kids and time with our family playing ping pong, Gestures, Beat the Parents and Twister.  Enjoy the last few days or 2017 and may the New Year hold many blessings for you and yours.