what December looks like for us (part 2)

Christmas Day

We protect Christmas morning ... no extra family, just us four ...

no early rising and rushing to open gifts ...

we stay in our pj's, put breakfast in the oven,

(blueberry coffee cake this year for Jesus' birthday breakfast)

make cups of hot cocoa or coffee, and ...

focus on Emmanuel ... God with us!

We take our time reading about the night

God gave us Jesus ... and discuss what that looks like for us.

Then we each give our birthday gift to Jesus ...

you make think "really? how do they give a gift to Jesus?" ...

over the years we've given things such as a colored picture by Grace, 

or snowman wrapping paper creation by Nathan 

(because "Jesus likes snowmen" ... age 3),

or a ball of yarn representing my hobbies/talents ...

the last few years we've given to Jesus by giving to

the "least of these" ... donating so others could have

Bibles, fruit trees, clothes, toys and more ...

Colwell family "lookin' good" in our pjs on Christmas morning.

THEN ... we get to the gifts ... 

We start with our stockings which were knit by my Great Gramma.

Filled Christmas Eve by mommy!

Stockings for the kids always have a new ornament 

representing something from this past year and a special treat for them...

like hot cocoa packets and special marshmallows this year

plus a can of their very own Pringles. Simple!

Sometimes breakfast is ready and we eat now ... but this

year we had breakfast later in the morning with my mom.

Gifts under the tree ... put there by mom and dad...no Santa.

We follow the example of the wise men ...

our children receive three gifts from us ...yep, three!

Matt and I do not buy each other gifts.  We used to, but a

few years ago we didn't have much money for Christmas

gifts so gave to others instead of each other ... and

now our hearts still want to bless others!

Let me get sappy here for a minute ... Matt gives me

a gift every day ... he's an awesome man of God,

husband and father!

Gifts for the kids ...

This year, there were two shared gifts and one individual gift.

And this year's gifts were "bigger" than normal.

Gift #1 - Lego table

 (created by Matt and our friend Jon at Thanksgiving 

with a little help from me for final touches)

Gift #2 - money to spend at the Lego Store on our 

day trip as a family (2 hrs away in Ohio)

Gift #3 - winter hats of choice made by mommy

(honestly ... two of the hardest animal hats I've made)

Grace wanted a horse.

Nathan wanted a shark. 

We spend Christmas day with my mom.

My mom joined us late morning for brunch and 

we had some precious time with her.

She had been invited to the home of friends for the afternoon

so we had a quiet afternoon alone.

Then in the evening, we had my mom plus Matt's parents

here for Christmas dinner.  We had a nice

dinner together (simple) and then had

fun playing games.

A simple, quiet day celebrating God with us and the love of family!