Christmas 2013

We just finished our family Christmas celebration with the girls.. It was absolute perfection!! It is rare that things exceed your expectations in life as we usually have unrealistic expectations ( at least i do) But today completely met and exceeded my expectation. IT was a day of pure joy and Christmas magic.. It started yesterday as Dave was working getting the swing set all set up and then we were both working in to the late evening putting together your gifts and wrapping last minute presents and cooking and preparing everything for Christmas morning. It was fun and I felt like my mom and all the years her and my dad would stay up late doing all that. It was so fun for me. In a lot of ways this felt like my first real Christmas as mom. I know it is really my 4th (wow!) but this was the first year Summer was so into every aspect of the celebration. She knew Santa wouldn't come until she went to sleep and she knew the true meaning of Christmas is that it was Jesus' Birthday.. One of the funniest, things was watching my 3 year old so excited that she could barely sleep ( oh I remember those days).. She woke up at 3:30am and yelled "daddY!!" a few times and then proceeded to run full speed down the hall to see if Santa had come and if it was CHristmas morning.. Luckily Santa put a sheet over everything and Daddy was able to get her back to bed in time. The morning was perfect. THe joy and excitement over the gifts from Santa was so fun to watch.. Summer kept saying " I love it so much" They both loved their matching princess nightgowns and wore them all day. After we opened all the presents and stopped to play with each one after opening, we ate breakfast went outside to ride the scooter and then Carli took a short nap. Then....we went outside to have some time on the swing set. The girls had a ball! Summer loves the slide and Carli loves it all!! We spent like 45 minutes or so out there before they wanted to come in and play with their toys and watch Rapunzel Summer amazed me so much today, SHe was so kind and shared so well with Carli even though they were her brand new toys. They both did.. Carli loved her baby doll bed and high chair and spent lots of time taking care of her baby today.. My girls are just so awesome!! We all took some naps and then went on a family ride/walk in the wagon.. after the wagon the girls had a ball playing while Summer rode her new scooter down the hall and Carli chased her. They were laughing and screaming and getting along so great. We ate dinner and then did our new tradition which I am so excited about and had so much fun doing. We all sat around the table and read The Christmas Story about how Christmas is where we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We then brought out the birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was so fun and the girls loved it. Today was one of those days where i watched my family in awe and had tears of happiness and gratitude multiple times. Im sure i missed some fun details but wanted to get down as much as possible before I forget the beauty and joy of today. Thank You Lord for sending your Son to earth for us. What a glorious day Christmas really is!! and Thank You for my family! I am grateful beyond words.. lots of love MOM