Sleepless in Charlotte

The kids are all sleeping...Whew!!!!! They have been so excited about Christmas! We have a countdown calendar in our kitchen and, boy, were they thrilled for it to be the last time to move it. I'll have to admit, I don't think that I will sleep much tonight. When will I ever grow up? I just can't wait to give every one their presents. Jeff, Uncle Tim, and Uncle Kent are outside assembling something. They must be freezing! (And probably driving our neighbors crazy.) I have just finished putting all of the stockings together. Whenever people talk about it being too expensive to have more than 1 or 2 kids, I will be the first one to point out that it's not that bad. I mean, you can hand all of the clothes down, garage sale, not sign up your kids for a million different activities,etc,,, But, tonight as I was putting all of the stockings together, I realized how much more we spend on Christmas stockings alone. You have to make sure that everything is even which can send you for a whirl when you realize that one child's stocking is only half full and the other kids' stockings are overflowing. I could just say. "Life's just not fair!", right? I mean, what better time to learn? I'm just kidding!

Today, Susanna was working on some Christmas cards. She came and showed me a card. It was one to Santa thanking him for stopping by. Just as I was beginning to have one of my worry sessions (Have I taught her to love Santa more than Jesus? Yeah, I know!) she handed me another card that she had already made. It said:

Dear God and Jesus,
Thank you for Christmas. I love you!
Love,
Susanna

Woo Hoo! It made my day!

Merry Christmas to you all! Remember Him and the most amazing gift ever!

Christmas Lights...

This week we have been so busy with Christmas preparing and events. The kids have been so excited and hyper. They love to look at Christmas lights and it has proved to be a great activity for us to do when we need to get out of the house but don't have money to spend. We have spent several nights driving around town "judging" Christmas lights. Sam and Elijah get so excited about the lights. It is so cute. They both yell, "Wow!" and then yell, "More!" The other night, Luke was getting so excited about seeing all of the lights. We were driving over I-485 and Luke yelled, "Look, Mom, there is even a car parade of lights!" I had to tell him that it was traffic but that that was a great way to look at it.

I really do hate the materialism of it all though. But I do have to admit that I get so excited about seeing my kids open up their presents. I cannot wait! I love the verse that says (paraphrase) that just as we,being imperfect, love to give gifts to our own children, our Father loves to give to those who ask even more. He gave us the most awesome gift that anyone could ever receive. We are doing our best to teach them about this very special day and what it means to us. They love to play with the nativity and tell the story of Jesus using the people in the set. And I love to hear them tell the story. This holiday season is so bittersweet. The pain of the loss of my Dad is still there but I love the hope that Christmas season represents even more for that very reason.