My absolute favorite thing we did this Christmas was our handprint advent tree. I traced Bobby's hand and cut out a bunch of handprints, then taped them to the door in the shape of a tree. Then I took glittery stock paper and traced a cup to get the shape of an ornament, and cut out 25 ornaments. On each ornament I wrote a special note for Gia. Some examples were "Pick your own bow," "Go on a date with Mama/Daddy," and "Get an extra TV show today." Every morning before breakfast Gia would go over to the container that held the ornaments and choose one, and I would read her what it said. Whatever it said, we did that day. Fortunately, the "date" ones ended up being picked on days when we could make it happen, and everyday it seems that we picked just the right ornament for that day. It fostered the BEST quality-time moments with my daughter, and I cherish the memories we made because of this advent calendar. It's a new tradition, for sure!
Gia & I before our Mama/Daughter date
Christmas Eve: We skyped with Kelly & Derek during lunch and exchanged gifts, then rushed around like crazy getting ready for church. Bobby worked pretty hard all the way up to Christmas Eve, but after our church service, we relaxed for the next 2 days. Side note: we had a good number of people show up for church on Christmas Eve, which surprised me because last year on Christmas Eve, we hardly had anyone there. This year there were at least 50 people. After a great time at church, talking to friends and listening to Bobby preach the Word, we got back home and Gia & Trey opened their Christmas Eve gifts. This will also be a yearly tradition, I think. It was a box with new PJs (on sale for $4 at Carters!), Frosty movie, an ornament, hot coca packet and some candy. We ate our dinner of homemade ravioli, cheese sticks, clam dip & pumpernickel boat (I realize all this sounds weird until you've actually tried it) and talked with our parents. We then put Trey to bed, made popcorn & hot cocoa, and watched Frosty with Gia. We then read the Christmas story to Gia and talked with her about the real meaning of Christmas. After reading the Bible together, we skyped with my parents and my dad continued the tradition of reading "Polar Express" to us. That just made my whole night. After Gia went to bed, of course we got to work (Bobby put together a complicated toy, and I wrapped/cleaned). We went to bed around 12:30am.
Christmas Day: We made Christmas day "technology free" other than Christmas movies. Boy, was that nice! Bobby and I got up, then Trey got up, and we had to go wake Gia up! Looking out the window, we realized that it was a White Christmas outside! It snowed all day, and by the end of it all we had about 6 inches. Just enough to play in, but not so much that it blocked the roads. It was absolutely perfect. We told Gia that she could eat whatever she wanted this day, and she loved that. We opened stockings, then ate breakfast, Skyped with Grandmama & Grandaddy first, then Nana & Papa, then realized that we really had cut back on gifts this year because our tree was bare at this point. Gia opened her 3 gifts from us, and gifts from our friends Donnell & Cody, and then we ate lunch. When the kids went down for a nap/quiet time, Bobby and I exchanged our gift to each other. He got me an ESV study Bible with my name on it, and the whole family chipped in to get him a large coffee roaster. It was cool. When the kids got up we all went outside to play in the snow. Here in Utah, the snow doesn't always pack very well because it's not wet, but we had fun making snow angels, and Bobby did manage to make a small snowman. Trey, as you can see, was not a fan. He just wanted to be held. It got dark, and then we completed our day with another new tradition: we went to IHOP to get dinner, wrote the waitress a letter sharing the gospel, and left a very large tip. It was the most awesome thing to see who God gave us as our waitress and know that we could be a blessing to her. We were able to really talk in depth to Gia about what we were doing and why, which was so special. So, this tradition's a keeper, too.
The next day the four of us just hung around, ate bad-for-you food, went sledding (Gia & Trey's first time, Bobby's 2nd time), and had a fun time eating dinner & hanging out at the Bodden's house. It was great having Bobby home with us, all to ourselves, and you could tell that the kids loved it, too. Christmas was so relaxing this year, although I feel like we led a crazy week leading up to it. Really, having a 3 1/2 year old in the house during this time of year makes the whole thing more awesome. She was so into everything, and could really understand the traditions and the real meaning behind this holiday. She could help me roll cookies & cut them out herself, she sang Christmas songs and watched all the Christmas movies, she learned the Nativity story and really soaked in the live Nativity at Mountain View, and was just excited in general about our traditions. I love that girl more and more all the time, and she just makes everything in life more fun. I really look forward to next year when both of our children get into things! Boy, that's going to be fun!
Some fun photos from our Christmas season:
Waiting in line to see Santa
Making bracelets with the kit Nana got for Gia.
Dancing to Christmas music (might have been NSYNC)
My Christmas date with Bobby, thanks to gift cards, free entertainment and kind friends who watched our kids!
