Traditions

Ben and I have chosen not to do the tradition of Santa Claus in our home.  We want the focus of Christmas to be on celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  God's great gift of love.  We prayed a lot about it when Taylor was born and have felt this is the best for our kids.  It was also important for Ben and I that our kids never doubt their faith or their existence of God in their lives.  When we thought about how the whole idea of Santa was really lying to them about someone they couldn't see it made us really think about how it would effect them when they came to find out we had lied to them.  After talking with several friends we decided to not do this tradition in our house.  I know it upsets some of our family and friends may not understand but we feel at peace about our decision.  We are not against Santa Claus and in fact have several displayed throughout of house during Christmas.  I do love the story of St Nicholas and what he did so the kids have been told that story.  We just don't have Santa delivery presents.  We have told them they are delivered by daddy and mommy and the reason we get presents is because God has blessed us and that everything comes from God. 

With Taylor this year since he is older we focused on giving to others so he participate in picking out gifts to give to others.  It look him a few times to understand but I think he got it.  Through out the month we also talked about how his gifts he got were a blessing from God and the reason for Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birthday.  The day after Christmas I when I told Taylor we were meeting family for breakfast he asked me if he was getting more presents; when I told him no he had gotten all of his presents he said to me, "I think Jesus needs to bring me more presents."  I totally cracked up!  A 3 years olds understanding of what we had talked about during the month came out in the this comment I think and I just loved it.  He said it so matter of fact with no since of being upset by not getting more at the time.

We have made several other traditions in our family because we want Christmas to be a special time for them.   As they grow we hope the come to know the love of our God and the amazing gift he sent us by sending his son Jesus.


We want to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Jesus Cake

The kids and I started a new tradition this year.  My best friend Carly does this and we are copying her great idea.  On Christmas we made a birthday for Jesus.  Here are the pictures of Taylor and Hailey decorating.  We made a two layer cake and I think we did a great job.

It did have Happy Birthday on it until Taylor covered it.  I think it turned out great and both the kids had a great time.

Christmas

The kids had a great time at Christmas.  They both had a blast opening presents.  We also had a great time with family.

 

This is Hailey's new expression...her I'm not going to smile so I am going to frown at you face.

We got Hailey a bitty baby from the American Girl store.  She loves it and it now goes everywhere with her now.

Hailey loves her jewelry.

Taylor and Hailey's big presents.  Taylor got a tool bench and Hailey got a kitchen set.

Papa and Taylor.  Papa got Taylor a real riding fire truck.

Christmas Time

Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo

Taylor's Preschool Christmas program

I gave in and gave Hailey is pacifier.  I thought it would be better if she didn't scream during the program.

Taylor was so cute.  He didn't sing or participate in any of the hand motions with the song...stage fright I guess.  We really enjoyed seeing him up on "stage."

Taylor eating his Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

Decorating sugar cookies for Christmas with Nana.

Hailey did really well with decorating.  I thought she'd get bored after one or two cookies but she helped with all of them.

I tried to get pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits by our tree.  Getting both of them to look at the same and smile has proven to be more difficult.  I had to have them put their hands together because they kept pushing on each other.  I think they both are so adorable.

Attitude

I love the back of Hailey's dress.