Merry & Bright

The only night that my kids squeal with excitement as the sun is setting, is the night before Christmas.  I love the wonder and hope as they wait for Santa's arrival!  
For our family and in our home, Santa deeply adds to the meaning of the season. The first gift on the first Noel was from our Father in Heaven, 
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 
Later the wise men came, also bearing great gifts to show their appreciation.  Then we had our Savior who lived a life full of service, or gift-giving.  Santa is our gift-giver, and our reminder of our celebration.  Once a month we have one of our Family Home Evenings as a service project but in December we use all of our FHE's for service to show our love to our Savior. A gift for our king.  It's all a great reminder that the best gift we will ever recieve is our Savior. 

Santa isn't just one man, he is love.  I can't express how much I love being able to spread that love and excitement into my children's hearts.  On Christmas day I have a pure feeling of awe, and in that moment I live through those little beautiful excited eyes.
I hope you all had a merry and bright Christmas this season. And I hope you all had your own Christmas miracle.  

Here's just a little bit of our morning of magic. This video is of the kids coming down the stairs to the tree, right after finding their slippers from Santa by their beds. 

Growing up we had a double arcade hoop in the basement and this has brought back so many great memories!  I remember Darrec held the record in all areas. I remember a lot of laughing and competition.  We've already made a lot of great memories with this basketball hoop!  Skye's room is just so UBER-COOL now. Cyrie's goal for the new year is to learn how to ride her bike without the trainers! A bright colorful bike is a good motivator.

Here's a few snap shots of our playing!

We got these board games, and might I add that Bingo with a ZING is our new favorite family game! If you have young kids, you need to get ZINGO! It's a great fast paced game and we all love it!

Uh...ya, she matches her bike...

These science books came with a point-pen that tells you all about the pictures! It even came with posters to hang up in Skye's bedroom and the pen works for the posters as well.

After spending the day in our pajamas, we decided to get dressed and go see FROZEN. Actually we were planning on doing this for Christmas day for a couple weeks and the movie was just so beyond brilliant. It was the first movie the kids have actually sat through without getting a bit restless or stir crazy.  

 Then we went and walked around by the water-light show, warmed our hands up by the outdoor fire-pits and visited the gingerbread house. We came home to a nice snuggly warm house and played hard.

What a Merry & Bright Christmas.  I feel very blessed and grateful for my family and the love we share.  We're spending a few days now of doing nothing but enjoying each other's company.  

No school, no work, not a single deadline. Just us.