Merry Christmas!

Did you have a very merry Christmas?  I hope so!  We had a wonderful couple of days with lots of family and good food and fun presents.




A couple days before Christmas, Daniel's sister and brother-in-law got in from out of town, so we went to his parents' house to hang out. 





It was such fun to see the kids interacting with their Aunt Heather and Uncle Justin!  They don't get to see them very often, so it was very sweet to watch them play.

We checked out the "train man" in our neighborhood over the weekend.  Joel began building a train in his backyard when he was in his late 60's.  



He is now 81 years old and is retiring as "train man" at the end of this year. 



His train is fantastic!  It holds a couple dozen people/kids and makes about 20 laps in his backyard per ride.  And it's FREE!  And it's right in our neighborhood.  So sad that it's the last year.  But we definitely enjoyed it this year!



We also visited Richardson's Santa's Village after the train ride... and there was this random maternity/children's consignment sale in the civic center, and Dad found this goofy pacifier.   Isn't it funny?



Major highlight of the last week--I got a new camera!!! I've been saving towards a Nikon D610 all year, and this past weekend finally helped me get there.  Loving its high ISO capabilities!! Just need to read through the manual now so I actually understand all the functions!



We enjoyed the "carols and chaos" service at church on Christmas Eve. 







It was, indeed, chaotic with all the children present -- but it was so nice not to feel guilty about every time our kids made noise during the service!  Everybody's kids were making noise.




And after the service, we went back to my parents' house to exchange gifts and eat yummy soup.



The next morning (Christmas), we did presents with our kids and really enjoyed watching Lucy and Elliot unwrap their new treasures.



Then we made cinnamon rolls, and Lucy loved getting to help sprinkle cinnamon and roll out the dough.




We also made some cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' birthday!  Lucy especially really understands Christmas to be Jesus' birthday, and since we always have singing and cupcakes (or cake) and candles on someone's birthday, we did that as part of our Christmas celebration.




We had Daniel's side over for brunch--and more presents!  The kids LOVED this train set.  They loved all of the presents they received, actually.  But this train especially was a big hit.

 

Oh, and the kitchen.  Both kids just love the new kitchen, and Lucy set about to putting all her play food/dishes in it as soon as she got it unwrapped.  It was a mix of delight and frustration watching the kids play with their new toys.  So fun to see the enjoyment they received from the toys--but also such a challenge, acting as constant referee and trying to help both kids learn to share with the other and to be kind.  It's a life-long teaching, isn't it?  I know I'm still learning it.



I hope you had a great day and a wonderful holiday break.  As always, thank you for reading.