Christmas Day

^^^I knew you would all want a family picture of us with Mike and I kissing^^^

Then we were so fortunate to join with friends for a lovely Christmas dinner. Here are just a few pix from the evening at their home:

Atlas asked for one thing this Christmas, for the last three months. A Ninja Turtle Skateboard. He even told Santa when he sat on his lap. And then Santa said, “well you make sure to clean up your toys Christmas eve so that I don’t trip on anything”. And it was so sweet that Atlas remembered this and made sure to tidy up after he set out the cinnamon rolls for santa (yumm!) and the carrots for Rudolf.
When I was a child, and found out there was no Santa Claus, I was shattered. I thought I would never enjoy Christmas the same again. 
Then I had children.
And then I realized how utterly wrong I was.
And now, creating the magic for them, encouraging them to see this world for what it wants to be, and not for what us hard hearted, practical, pessimistic, imperfect adult humans of this world have MADE it to be…. it is a magical place. This world wants to be a magical place, but we drag it down….
Seeing it through their eyes, I realized that I couldn’t have experienced the fullness of the Magic of childhood until I had lived both sides of it- through my own eyes as a child, and then through my children’s eyes, as a mother.
I’m realizing more and more every day why the Lord commanded us to multiply, we cannot experience the fullness of life until we give our own life to these innocent, magic-believing little souls….

We were so blessed by many loved ones, I was continually shocked by all of the kind, loving gifts we were so blessed to unwrap Christmas morning and even in the days before Christmas. I won’t list them all, but everyone please do know, you truly blessed our Christmas!

Here is what Mike and I did for the kids-
-Urban would not get out of this little car even to open a present or have some candy. Thus, we all sat around this little car most of the morning showing things to urban and giving her presents to unwrap without having to leave her precious little vehicle. Adorable. And since then, she spends most of the day that we are at the house stuffing as many stuffed animals as she can fit into the car, and little shelf of a trunk, then trying to climb in/sit on all of her little passengers, and then cruising around, but mostly sitting there in park, because its still kinda hard to go and all of her little friends fall out when she moves :). PERFECT, last minute gift given to us by friends whose child had outgrown it. It was just perfect. Atlas loves it as well, even if he does just barely fit.
-Mike made them a puppet stage and we gave them several nice puppets in addition to many we already had. We put on several impromptu puppet shows, the kids couldn’t be cuter standing/sitting right in front of the stage, talking back to the puppets, interacting, laughing, loving it.
-Mike gave the kids and I quite the surprise! For the last few days he had been slaving in his “office” “fixing the ceiling” (a major plumbing issue had left a large gap in the ceiling among other problems)….We were given strict instruction NOT to EVER EVER open the door because of “toxic chemicals” and yadda yadda. So when he opened the door for us to a bright, cheery, painted, new CRAFT/FUN room….we were all shocked! He gave up his office for us to have this beautiful, perfect space to do crafts, reading, learning, playing, whatever our hearts desire it to be! I have so many plans and can’t wait to share what we’ve already done!

I have so many more pictures and videos that I would love to share from our Christmas season, but I’d like to think I’ve gotten over the “stress out about documenting” phase of being a mother and so you know what….there is some Grammy Winning adorable material I’ve got that just might never really see the light of day. But the memories will live on in my heart forever.