Christmas Came early!

Much has happened since our Thanksgiving weekend. We were debating setting up the Christmas tree and all the decorations since we will be gone for much of December. We knew we were going to do our own little Christmas here before we left so I decided to get in the holiday spirit and set everything up any way. The kids had fun getting out the decorations and helping decorate the tree. I'm glad we decided to do it this year, it was fun watching them enjoy the spirit of Christmas! I over heard E the other day talking to J in the kitchen and I heard this little conversation between the two of them....
E: J, this is Joseph and this is Mary and do you know who the baby is?
J: Baby?
E: That is baby Jesus
J: JESUS!
E: Yep, this is when Jesus was born
J: Jesus born

Our Charlie Brown tree given to us (thanks Ereksons!)
It may be small and a little ghetto but we like it!

I love this quilted Nativity given to us by Grandma Celia (C's Mom)
The kids love to help set it up and I don't mind letting them since it is not breakable!
I set it up on our Chalk wall and quoted Christmas songs all around it. It looks cute!

This is E's Chalk drawing of the Nativity Scene. I think she did a really good job!

Decorating the tree together
I buy the "shatter resistant" Christmas balls, in other words they are plastic! This way the tree looks pretty and the kids can help with out me worrying so much about broken glass. AND they look just as nice!
He would concentrate so hard and when he finally got it on the tree he'd cheer, it was so cute!

The conversation went on for a while between E and J. It was mostly E talking about the Nativity Scene and Jesus' birth and J just repeated much of what she would say but it was so cute it melted my heart. I'm proud to know that my Children, so young, know that Christmas is about Jesus' birth and not just Santa. In fact some times I think they forget there is this whole "Santa" thing and that is okay with me! I think it is because I don't play up the whole Santa thing that much. I know some people say there is no "magic" to Christmas with out Santa but I say that there is so much more magic when it is NOT ONLY about Santa. That is just me and my opinion though. I love Christmas for what it is, a time for family, a time to give and to love and serve others as Jesus did. I'm so glad my kids are learning this young.

Since we will be at my Folks for Christmas this year and we are flying we decided we would do our own Christmas here for the kids so we didn't have to haul all their gifts out there only to have to take them back here again. With the tree lit up and the house decorated and the presents wrapped and under the tree we couldn't wait any longer and decided to do our Christmas this last weekend. The kids loved all their gifts! E's big gift was a doll house which she has come to love to play with. J's big present was a Train/Car Mat with Choo Choo trains and cars, he LOVES it! And I love that I can just roll it up and put it away, nice. I'm glad we didn't go all out spending lots of money on the kids because I think they like these simple inexpensive gifts better than they would like those pricey ones. Now they have over a week to play with and enjoy their gifts before we take off to Grandmas house.


Yay for an early Christmas! We had fun watching the kids get excited with each gift they opened. We can't wait to do it again on the 25th! (but they won't be getting much as we won't have much room in bags to bring them back)