Christmas 2008

We are so thankful to say we had a wonderful Christmas! Lauren ran down to our room Christmas morning and said, "Mommy, Mommy, Santa came! And he brought me a camera." I said, "Yes. Did you open any presents? (wondering how she knew Santa brought her a camera)." She said no. I guess Lauren was very positive that Santa would bring her what she asked for. A camera was the only thing she asked for, and thankfully, she did get a camera. We saw flashes going off around the room throughout the day from Lauren taking pictures. Maybe she will grow up to be a photographer!

Anna is still too young to get into presents, but she tried to keep up with her big sister - playing with Lauren's presents as she opened them. Lauren picked out a baby doll and a purse to give Anna for Christmas...Anna loves carrying around purses and holding her baby doll.

We are trying to establish some Christmas traditions to help us focus on the true meaning of Christmas. We have been learning about what Advent means - anticipating the coming of Christ, both His first and second comings. This year we made happy birthday Jesus cupcakes and sang happy birthday to Jesus on Christmas morning. We also made star ornaments with some of the names of Christ written on them (well, I made them and Lauren helped...).

Side note...we play the white elephant gift exchange between my brother and parents...while we were playing we were talking about "stealing gifts." Lauren picked up on that right away and began saying that we shouldn't steal gifts from each other. I guess we need to use a different word...like trade, or something!