Christmas Day

 Opening cards from family far away....

For the past several years our main presents to the boys has been activites that Paul and I each do individually with each of the boys.  This year we're going to do something different.

 Our main present to our family this year is a trip to Medieval Times dinner theater this coming Monday night.  We gave the boys each a knight lego set with a clue that they had to put together to figure out what we are going to do.  Then we gave Grandma a scroll telling them all what we would be doing.  We're really looking forward to it and hoping the snow they are predicting won't mess up our plans.

 Jae put together his Star Wars lego set that Grandma gave him right away.

Daniel's excited to stay in his pjs all day!

After the boys opened thier presents we had our traditional monkey bread for breakfast.  Then

we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon participating in our Christmas Day Family Game Tournament.  This year we didn't just play video games.  We added Boggle and Mill Bournes to the list, along with Wii Bowling and Mario Cart.  The Jae/Daddy team won with the Grandma/Daniel/Mommy team coming in second place!

We had a potluck and Christmas Eve service last night at the high school where we meet on Sundays.  The night before we had a potluck for our small group. Both went really well.  Our small group stayed until late into the night even though they all had young kids.  Daniel fell asleep almost 2 hours before they left!   Last Saturday we had a Christmas party for our neighbors.  Besides our family and the Stockton family three neighbor families came.  It was a good time of getting to know one another better. 

Our family and the church participated in Advent Conspiracy again this year.  Other than our family outing to Medieval Times, the few gifts we bought were gifts that also help the needy.  We had tables set up in the entry to the school each Sunday for people to choose gifts they could give.  There were mugs that had "water" written in lots of different languages on them that the proceeds went to Living Water.  There were t-shirts from Prison Fellowship that the proceeds would buy a shirt and tie for a recently released prisoner to have to wear for job interviews.  There was a Compassion Int. table where people could buy gift cards that would provide animals, baking supplies, soccer equipment, etc. for those in Compassion programs around the world.  There were items and gift cards from Trade As One, a fair trade website.  The offering from the Christmas Eve service will go to Living Water to repair wells in Haiti that were damaged by the Earthquake.

Participating in Advent Conspiracy for the past several years has made Christmas much more meaningful for our family.  I also believe it has helped our boys be more grateful for the few gifts they do get.