Christmas Day 2016

Christmas Day was good.  The kids got to see what Santa brought them and open presents in their stockings before church (we made them get dressed in their church clothes before they could even come out from the back).  At the ward Christmas party, Jr. Jr. told Santa what he wanted for Christmas- a dragon.  He was convinced Santa would bring him a dragon and kept telling the other kids in our family so.  This morning he was not disappointed when he saw a dragon by his stocking.  He let us know that he knew that present was for him.  So cute. 

Jeremy also got what he asked Santa for when we opened presents later- a Utah State Parks Pass.  That's going to be great for birding.
At church, the choir sang several songs.  Lucky wanted to sing, too.  Thanks to Jr. and Daddy, he was distracted a lot up until right before the closing song.  Then he realized that I was up on the stand and Jr. couldn't coax him to stay with them.  Jeremy couldn't physically get him either.  So he came up and stood right next to me while I led the choir and turned around and led the congregation and turned around and led the choir and turned around and led the congregation.  Thankfully, he stayed right next to me... I think.  I was concentrating more on the music right then.
After church, we came home, the kids got back in their pajamas, and were happy to play with their presents from Santa while Jeremy and I got ready to continue with present opening.  It took a while before we started (I had to go outside and take pictures of the snow- Nichole was hoping for a white Christmas and she got it), but nobody complained.  Everybody was content and it just felt nice.  Hooray.  Eventually we did get to opening presents and it was fun.

This evening after a lot of play and just enjoying being together as a family, we discussed the last day of LIGHTtheWORLD.  "Jesus's disciples followed him and so can we."  That's what we've been doing this whole month.  Jeremy and I expressed gratitude to each of our children for the service they've been doing.  We also talked about how we can continue to follow Jesus through service, even if we're not going with specific themes or suggestions.  I've learned about some more ways to serve during this and I already have some ideas of things I want to do in the near future.  I am also grateful for how others have served us during the month.  I was hoping LIGHTtheWORLD would help me have a better attitude this December compared to last.  It definitely did.
Oh, and I made homemade gifts for the kids again.  I counted cross-stitched them each a keychain this year.

 Merry Christmas.