Merry Christmas!

We started off Christmas Eve morning with a special picnic. I made some very easy reindeer's out of donuts. (Mini chocolate donuts + pretzel pieces for antlers + red M & M's.) It was fun to start the day with something special. Lydia really just wanted the red M & M's which was not a huge surprise but I thought she would be more excited about the chocolate donuts too.

We spent Christmas Eve at our friends the Pitcher's house. It was nice to visit with them  They moved from our ward last April so it was great to see them. We had a delicious dinner and a sweet Christmas message. Once we got home we got the kids ready for bed and completed our Nativity (or atvitiy as Jared called it all month). They had been wanting to put the baby Jesus in for a long time and were thrilled to place Him on there.

 CHRISTMAS EVE!

We read "Twas the night before Christmas" as our Christmas story that night and sent them to bed so we could fill the stockings. We hadn't really done stockings with our kids before this year. Last year we ordered some personalized ones from the after Christmas sale and I loved having them up this year. I have always wanted matching personalized stockings.

We actually had a very relaxed Christmas morning.  Jared came into our room around 7:15 to wake us up. We then got Lydia and sang some Christmas hymns together all snuggled in our bed. We also watched the new nativity video on lds.org.  Then we went downstairs and ate our traditional orange rolls for breakfast. Around 8:30 we began opening stockings and presents.

After we had all opened our presents under the tree we told Jared and Lydia about their scavenger hunt.  We wrote up three clues for each kid that led them to their present. We started this tradition last year with Jared and really enjoyed it. They each had a clue waiting for them on the tree.  We read it to them and then they found the next one. Lydia went first. 

She loved it and did really well figuring out the clues.  

Then Jared: 

It was so fun to see them get their surprises. Jared go this firefighter pretend outfit and Lydia got a Little People doll house. We hope to keep the tradition up each year. We will have to make the clues more difficult as we go. 

They had a great time playing with their toys and were very pleased with them. Jared's favorites were his "Giant excavator" (his words) and his Play Doh Garbage Truck.  Lydia's favorites were her doll house and her shopping cart. Jared only had one major melt down when Lydia wanted to try out one of his new toys. We repeatedly talked about how important it was to share.  We kept reminding him that if he was going to play with Lydia's toys he needed to let her use his and really he just needed to share.  They also had a great time playing in the wrapping paper. 

We had a delicious "fancy" dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, stuffing, pineapple and rolls with some "tickly" to quote Jared, sparkling cider. It really was a wonderful day.  We loved begin together and had so much fun this month.  

Our last big Christmas activity was this special Christmas bath.  They had fun painting with the candy cane paint and decorating their little trees. 

This was the best family photo we could get on Christmas Sunday. Lydia was not in the mood to take pictures but they sure looked cute in their Christmas outfits.