Christmas morning… a little early

Nearly every year we are on the road for Christmas… so we celebrate as a family with our own traditions before we leave.  This year we celebrated on the day the left – Tuesday morning.  Danny had off from work to prepare for our trip so we knew this would be the perfect timing.  We told the kids the night before that tomorrow would be the Lightners’ Christmas and even greeted each other with “Merry Christmas" in the morning!  When Nanna called, we even said “Merry Christmas” to her! 

Josiah was anxiously waiting for what we were going to do… and getting a little impatient!

             

The morning began with the girls singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and then singing their other “Happy Birthday, Jesus” song.  Then Danny read the Christmas story from Luke 2 while the girls helped him recite it (the parts they had memorized) and acted out the story with the Nativity Scene (that was Hannah’s idea!). 

   

                                               

                                         

                                   

Then we opened presents…once again we didn’t have a whole lot for each child, but they were THRILLED with our selections.  Grace got a placemat, a special cup with a cool straw for our long trip, and a Crayola Crayon Maker.   Hannah opened a placemat, a special cup, and a “Super Why” Game.   Josiah got a placemat, a special cup and a shirt.   Every year we try to focus on the Lord at Christmas…. truly it is about Him and not the gifts that we receive.  How hard that is in our culture of get, get, get!!  Our kids were truly happy with their gifts and use them ALL THE TIME… the cups and placemats everyday… and we have played with their toys and crayon maker a few times as well.  We want them to remember each Christmas by what they learned about the Lord and not define it according to the gift they got…boy, I could go on and on! 

 

Playing with the crayon maker later that morning….

                                

Playing with the game later that morning…

                              

A GREAT Christmas….we were together as a family….we celebrated our Lord…. and we loved on each other while in our PJs!