Growing Roots: Christmas

Christmas is a much anticipated time of year for lots of reasons. A celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ propels the decorating of our home, including all of our bedrooms with colored lights. A beautiful tree decorated with ornaments collected and or made through the years. Gifts bought and wrapped for many excited children! And a trip to PA to visit to visit people we love. Our little family here in Indiana has many traditions that we look forward to with each season, especially this one.

We have our Christmas a bit early before we head to PA. This year we had Jared's brother and wife down for our Christmas Eve. They recently moved about 45 min. north of us, so it has been fun having family so close. Each of our kids had to buy a gift for one sibling. We pulled names out of a hat, and they had a blast buying for one another. This is a new Christmas Eve tradition that we hope to continue through the years.

Adam got his first soccer ball from Uncle Shawn and Aunt Christy. Noah and Nate were thrilled with their new board games....something these two spend quite a bit of time doing together.

Luke couldn't have been happier with his knives. Weapons are always a good gift for this 4 year old.

And of course the infamous gag gift. Nate finds this hysterical....his reaction to his older brother opening his gag gift is priceless. This year it was a pair of his underwear....as I think about it, I think all of Nate's gag gifts include underwear.

Lauren likes all things girly. It was so sweet to see her dress up in her Christmas best for our evening together. She loved the earrings and necklace from her uncle and aunt.

Our 7 month old loved opening presents. He could care less about the actual gift, it was the wrapping paper he went crazy over. I can't tell you how often we were pulling soggy paper out of his mouth!

Our Christmas Eve gingerbread house....another tradition the kids really enjoy.

Trying to get a decent photo of all 6 of them is always an interesting and challenging feat to say the least....the out takes are always the best.

Jared does most of the wrapping, (bless his heart), and I have the job of strategically placing the gifts under the tree. Each of our kiddos get 5 gifts. They are all numbered 1 through 5. We start youngest to oldest and start with number one. The kids love it this way and really seem to enjoy watching each other open their gifts. As excited as they are it really is nice to take our time and watch each kid open their gift, savoring the moment. We always save the best for last of course!

But before the wrapping paper starts flying we start every Christmas morning with prayer, Daddy reading the gospel of Luke from the Bible. As he reads, the kids place their characters on the mini nativity set. We usually bake a cake, (this year it was brownies), and put lots of candles on it, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then of course blow out the flames.

We started doing it this way when Noah was very young. With all of the excitement of opening gifts, we really try to help our children first focus on the most precious gift of all, and that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And then we have an extremely unhealthy breakfast of cake or brownies and cinnamon buns. And what a fun treat it is for our kids....so fun to watch them enjoy this once a year tradition.

Our baby's first Christmas. What a joy Aaron is to our family.

I love buying dresses for our only girl! Lauren is the only one of the kids that get excited when she opens a box of clothes. My boys would be mad at me if I bought them clothes for Christmas.

Noah was thankful for his new boots. We did pretty much all of our shopping on line so I was happy that they fit him. I can't say the same for Luke....his cowboy boots were too tight, so we'll have to send them back and get a bigger size.

This little cutie always has us smiling. He has many adorable faces, and I was glad to capture this one.

Adam loves his shopping cart. All my kids at one point have been obsessed with pushing things around....we've learned over the years that carts or strollers make great gifts for our toddlers.

Of course Nate was ultra excited for some new legos. He has quite the collection these days. Legos make him happy....and Nate makes me happy.

Luke is a hoot in his Flash Costume. Not too long ago he wanted everyone to call him, "Flash."

Noah thought his chocolate bar wrapped in a money wrapper was pretty cool.

Adam loved his train whistle and I thought it was so cute for about 2 seconds.....and then I completely regretted buying the annoying toy, and thought to myself, "What was I thinking!?!"

Even Daddy was excited to open a couple of gifts. He cracked me up with this face.....we all knew he picked out his own tools. To him his gifts were no surprise at all, but you would never be able to tell by that look on his face.

May I introduce to you, "Chef Lauren" and "Chef Luke." These two are always helping me in the kitchen. As you can imagine, in our home we do a bunch of cooking and baking. I can't wait until my little side kicks get to wear these the next time they help me.

Luke was excited to build his new puzzles....and was very proud of himself!

Adam was quick to want to dress up as Flash as well. He has a coveting issue....a common sin in our 2 yr. olds.

A couple of days after we had our Christmas in Indiana, we traveled back to PA and celebrated again! The kids are always so excited to see everyone.

These next photos are of the kids at my parents home Christmas morning. It's kind of neat watching my children open gifts from under the tree where I did when I was a little girl.