Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! What a wonderful time of year! Yes, I have to admit, I love presents. I love shopping for them, wrapping them, watching my loved ones open them, and yes, opening mine! Christmas decorating, spending time with family, and eating fudge all top my list of favorite things. Best of all, is the reminder of the most wonderful gift of all: God's son Jesus. This year was very special because I was able to do advent activities daily with the boys. Ok, so confession: Ryan and I frequently did them while William was taking a nap because it was easier with the tornado out of the way... We have a wonderful advent wreath with miniatur nativity characters and each day one is revealed and hung on the calender. Ryan thorougly enjoyed opening the little doors and would ask "What is it" when something new appeared. And each day we reviewed the story and he even learned that angels say "Glory to God!" Then we would light the advent candles and read the Christmas story from the Bible with the Little People nativity set helping to tell the story. (BTW, that was one of the best gifts ever--they're practicly indestructible, and this way the children have some Christmas item that they're actually allowed to play with). We have tried very hard to teach the children that Christmas is about Jesus and not about being greedy and getting presents. I hope that they found the special times of learning together just as special as I did.