I Love Christmas

Christmas is my ultimate, very favorite time of the year. I have taken so many pictures that my computer froze up while trying to download them all! I Love Christmas. Giving, sharing, joy, goodies, family times, love, memories, reminiscing, & most of all celebrating the birth of our beloved Savior are a few of the reasons why.
Here is a little recap of the past couple of days...

Tuesday night our whole neighborhood gathered at the Hodson's home to make 400 sack lunches and about 50 warm fleece scarves. Then we all met in the cul-de-sac Christmas Eve morning and followed each other (there was about 40 of us) downtown to deliver them to the homeless. It is so good for all of us to give and just love people...I always have tears in my eyes and feel our Saviors love for all of God's children no matter what our circumstances or situation may be.
Our wonderful neighbors Keri and Nick started this tradition 5 years ago. It is something we all look forward to and truly makes our Christmas. After one of the first years doing this, Keri gave each family a magnet that says, "We do not remember days...we remember moments".
These are moments we cherish and will always remember.

Right after, our family drove to Allyn's mom's home to wish her a Merry Christmas... We love you Grandma S.

The kids got to see Grandma's 40 year old record player (that still works!) They had never seen a record before!

Christmas morning we waited until Kaden came home from his Dad's house and then the customary pose on the staircase before running in to see what Santa brought. Amy and Ally think that it is very cool to still get Santa gifts in their 20's. (There are perks to not getting married too young!)

The tandem bike was the coolest gift under the tree!!! They ran out in the rain to try it out!

Kaden loves his Football Nutcracker! But his favorite gift was his new BLOG that Aunt Jennie set up for him...

About 10am we got a call from Brian and Leah from the hospital emergency room...AGAIN! Our little Olivia was bitten by a dog. They had to rush to the emergency room and she had to have minor surgery to repair the dog bites on her eye and lip. Oh, our hearts broke for our sweet Livie. We all cried and prayed and cried some more. We received updates from Brian all day... and with sweet, tender mercies from God the surgery went well and Olivia was able to go home about 4pm. They didn't feel like celebrating Christmas and Olivia slept the rest of the day, so tomorrow we are having a special celebration just for her. We are all so sad that it happened, but very grateful that she is going to be OK. Once again, please keep Leah, Brian and their children in your prayers. We love you Livie XO...Get all better really soon!
We missed having Caleb, Olivia, Tiana and Brian here so much!
We love you guys!!!!!!

Taylor was spoiled with three American Girl dolls! (2 of them were passed down from Aunt Amy!)

Jackson's favorite present was a new "Blanky Blue"! His old one was ripped and a little bit worn out...he was always sneaking away Levi's. I got not one, but two huge hugs from Jackson and the biggest smile ever!












Ally gave Amy a cute umbrella made in Taiwan...
Amy leaves for Taiwan on Tuesday!!!
Amy gave Ally a huge box with travel tips and supplies...
Allyson leaves Jan. 5th for Spain!!!













At about 3pm my whole family came over...well almost everyone, Lisa is in Utah and Steve is in California (we missed you guys and your families & wished you were here!) We had a big dinner, visited and enjoyed being together.

The highlight of the day was the nativity story put on by the kids. Taylor was Mary, Kaden was Joseph and Jackson was a shepherd. Kate was of course an angel and Levi was the baby Jesus. (Caleb was going to be a wise man and Olivia the shining star...we missed you two!)
After, we all sang Silent Night with Uncle Scott and shared a few tears as we celebrated the true meaning of Christmas.