Christmas Village

A local town has a wonderful park that has many different animals (kind of a mini zoo). It is great fun to go there any time of year to see all the animals.

Well, during Christmas, they also have an amazing light display through the whole park. We try to get there every year to see the lights, and thankfully, this year we were able to! We didn't get there in time to see the animals, but what we did see was well worth it!

Excuse all the pictures, but I just couldn't decide which ones to include. I loved them all!

Don't you just love Christmas lights?

Christmas, part 7

Ok, I think this is it for Christmas celebrations...

This one was at my sister's house with my whole family (that had already gotten together for Christmas Eve), but now we had another of my cousins and her family here!

We again shared good food

 Then we enjoyed skating on the rink my brother-in-law made!

my uncle helping one of his grandsons

me helping my daughter

my niece Bri pulling Aleah and my younger niece, Anna

Bri pulling Grandpa Dale!

The 3 "greats" that weren't here for Christmas Eve

Love that Grandma was able to come again.

Love that we could spend time with my family again.

Love that there were 4 generations together again

Love that we could celebrate the birth of Jesus again

Christmas, part 6

On Christmas Day, we travelled a bit to Mike's sister's home. We don't generally see both our families over Christmas as it is just too much travelling, but Mike's parents were coming closer to us this year, so we could easily make it work!

The reason they came our direction rather than celebrating at home? Mike's sister was 9 months pregnant, so couldn't travel home as she normally would! So, our next Christmas was spent with Mike's family at Sarah and Jesse's home. We got to enjoy family, talk about the upcoming baby, and share our excitement.

Note that I said Mike's sister WAS pregnant (since we were there, she has had their beautiful baby boy, but that will have to wait for another post!)

Handing out gifts (always one of Sarah's jobs, but she sat out this year)

(do you see baby Keegan??)

Uncle Dan

Mike and Grandpa Gene

(I missed getting Grandma Sandy in a picture. I'm sure she is disappointed.)

Barbie Jeep

(this was on her list, but ideally she wanted the kind that you can ride!

Come on Uncle Dan, isn't your only niece worth it?)

Lego boat, truck and camper (just like ours at home...kind of)

Dolls

Cotton candy (leading up to a larger present in a bit)

The smile says it all...

Rip Stick!! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

COTTON CANDY MACHINE!

This was the main thing on Aleah's list, and grandma and grandpa came through!

mouth full of sweet, puffy goodness

Showing off his presents

and hers

Loving on Aunt Sarah and baby Keegan!

We gave Sarah and Jesse an "Elf on the Shelf" to start their own tradition!

Thanks Amundson's for another great celebration.

I should also mention that grandma and grandpa brought and prepared all the wonderful food we had so Sarah wouldn't have to do extra work. Thanks Sarah and Jesse for hosting, and thanks grandma and grandpa for the great meal!

Christmas, part 5

Ok, this isn't really a separate Christmas either, but it is just easier to stick with one naming strategy once I started it.

Christmas morning, since I was a little girl, is when we open our "stocking" presents. These presents are theoretically from Santa, but I think I knew from a pretty young age that Santa wasn't real (sorry if I ruined it for anyone!). It was always a fun part of our tradition, but was not the focus of what Christmas was about. Stocking presents were generally small things like an ornament, fun socks, small toys or other little things like that.

Thankfully, I married a man who had the same Christmas traditions (main gifts Christmas Eve and stocking presents Christmas morning), so we have now continued that with our children. As I mentioned in a previous post, we don't put a lot of focus on Santa, and I don't know what my kids truly believe about him (it would for sure ruin it for them if I asked!). If they do believe in Santa, that is fine. If they already don't believe in Santa, that is fine too.

What there is no debate over in our house is what the whole reason for Christmas is! Our kids are probably already tired of hearing from us some version of "but you know that the presents and all those type of things we do at Christmas are because God sent us the very best gift of all...His Son!". They can probably quote it in their sleep, but that is good. It should come to us automatically when we are asked why we celebrate Christmas. I have made a new promise to God to keep life even more simple over this next year, and especially to focus more on Him throughout the year, and into next Christmas. I am excited to see how this will look for our family.

Anyway...the whole reason I started this post...Christmas morning:

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! (even though now it is New Years...)