Christmas Day 2010...

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love the special spirit and magic that we feel in our hearts. This year was even more special and complete with little Meili being home with us. What sweet moments we have had as we have watched her experience many new things during the Christmas season. One of her favorite things included the Christmas lights. I remember one night Russel and I got the Christmas trees out (YES we have fake ones), so that we could decorate them the following Monday for family night. When Meili got up I talked to her a little bit about the Christmas tree and then turned on the lights. Her eyes lit up and she started clapping. From then on, she would go around and plug in any garlands, trees, etc. that needed their lights on....even in the middle of the day. It was too cute and I knew she could feel that special spirit that we all feel at this time of the year. Christmas morning, the kids of course were up at the crack of dawn (well before that too but we wouldn't let them actually get up until the crack of dawn). Meili was asleep so the kids tear into room and tell her it's Christmas. I don't think she really knew what was going on or what to expect but it was pretty cute when she came in and saw one of her gifts that wasn't wrapped. She does a little funny thing with her mouth when she is trying to suppress a smile which is what she did when she saw the little pink kitchen Santa left for her. It was the cutest thing because you could tell she was way excited about it but she was a little shy about letting us know that. Once we started opening gifts, she didn't seem too interested but after about three gifts, she decided she liked it and caught on real quick. The kids had a good time just being lazy in PJs all morning and Russel made an awesome breakfast. Cousins came over later on in the afternoon as did Grandma Jo. Our favorite part of Christmas is spending time with family and feeling the love of our Savior. Things can get crazy and chaotic this time of the year but we try to stay focused on Christ and remember why we celebrate Christmas. When we do that, the Christmas season has real purpose and meaning and the hopefully those are the things the kids will remember.

I'm not sure who was on camera duty this year but whoever it was did not take the job seriously. So here are the few pictures we took that day. I guess we were just enjoying every moment and feeling so grateful for our beautiful children and the journey that started just over a year ago that led us to our fifth little angel.

We have felt so blessed this year and are so grateful for the many blessings we have. As the kids got ready for bed Christmas night, we got out our little treasure box (a friend told me about this tradition and I knew it was something I wanted to do for our family). During the month of December, the kids watched for good things in our home.....kind words, service towards others, etc. When they saw something good, they wrote it down and put it in our treasure box that we decorated. We read each of these acts of kindness and recognized that there are many good things that go on all around us and many times we do not take the time to notice. In fact the kids asked if we could keep the treasure box out all year. The memories we hold dear are the time spent together and the feelings and love that we share with one another.