The Best is Yet to Come...: christmas 2015

After overcoming the stomach bug, we were able to fully enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas day together as a family. For the last couple of years, we've made sure to be at our home on Christmas in an effort to establish our own family traditions.

We started Christmas Eve day by wrapping up all our presents. I'm not sure if we'll do that every year, but with a 1 year old on the loose, it made sense not to put anything under the tree until the last possible moment. Even then, he still caused some present destruction.

We headed out early that evening to eat dinner out before going to our Christmas Eve service at church. We enjoyed a family favorite at Maria's, but lingered a little too long and showed up about 10 minutes late to church. Too bad for us, the service only lasted about 15 more minutes.

After putting Ivan down for bed, we let the older two boys stay up to drink hot chocolate and hear the BIG story of the Bible. Jason illustrated in simple terms the big concepts of God and the world and why we needed a Savior. Then we talked about how crazy it was that God the Son became a little baby. Amos' wheels were turning in his head. It was a pretty special evening and I look forward to each year when all our sons come to a deeper understanding of the BIG story.

The next morning, we started with the stockings. I think the immediate favorite was the Christmas cereal. Ivan especially like the Christmas cereal. He couldn't get enough of it.

Jason and I found our own surprises in our stockings.

We re-enacted the Christmas story with our nativity pieces while Daddy read it from the Bible.

The boys soon discovered that Jesus was missed from the scene. Silas kept looking for him under things until Amos came over and saw a slip of green paper where Jesus should be.

It was a clue. I made the clues simply enough for him to sound out several of the words and the hunt for Jesus was on.

They scrambled around the house until they found the GREATEST GIFT and unwrapped it. God's gift to us motivates and shows us how to give to others. May the truth penetrate our heart.

We took a pause to make breakfast and coffee. While Jason and I worked on that, the boys snacked on their cereal and played with the gifts they found in their stockings.

With breakfast eaten and coffee in hand, we were ready to open our gifts. I kinda cheated and opened mine early. It was a Hydroflask, which I used that morning. All coffee drinking Moms need something like this, because how else are we suppose to finish all our coffee before it gets cold. With this thing, it stays hot to the last drop.

We got Amos and Silas each three gifts, representing the three gifts the wisemen brought Jesus. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Early that week I had tried to explain to Amos the theory behind it, Gold being something he really wanted, Frankincense was something he could use to know Jesus better, and Myrrh was something to do with his body. After my whole spiel he had a pained look on his face and said, "I don't want any Frankincense!" Ha!

We took time after opening each gift to really look at and enjoy it for a little bit. The boys opened their Frankincense gift first. Silas got the book God Made All of Me.

And Amos received The Biggest Story. Both are pretty neat. I think Jason made have been even more excited about them than Amos.

Amos looked at every page in the book. We've been using it as our bedtime reading since Christmas.

Next up was their gold gifts. They've been wanting a transformer for quite some time! After opening it, Amos told me that I got him a pretty good Transformer. He has since transformed it approximately 3000 times. Silas got one too, but needs alittle more help with his. He loves it because it's just like Amos.