Christmas 2010

I really love Christmas time. I love what it means to me as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I always think of Mary and how afraid she must have been. I think of how inadequate she may have felt to have the responsibility of bearing the son of God. I think of Joseph and how he stood by Mary. They endured together and soon, the Son of God was born in a little stable. The savior of the world was born in very humble circumstances. Thinking about the story of the first Christmas brings a lot of emotion. I am grateful for what I know to be true. I am grateful for the birth of Jesus and for his life and sacrifice. What a blessing.

Our Christmas was full of joy. Lincoln is 3 and he really understood a lot about Christmas this year. He knows the story of the first Christmas. He knows about baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men and the Angel.
He also understands about Santa Clause. It was so much fun to watch him on Christmas morning. When he woke up that morning, I went into his room to get him out of bed. I told him that Santa came and I asked him if he wanted to see what Santa had brought for him. He replied with an enthusiastic "YES" and then asked if I would take off his diaper... :)
When we walked out to discover the gifts, he gasped and said, "That's so nice for Santa to give me presents."



We were able to have Michael at our house on Christmas morning because he is living with us while he finishes his student teaching in Hurricane. Santa even brought him a few things.


Lincoln was dying for Santa to bring him a spaceship. When he unwrapped the present containing the spaceship, he was so excited, he could barely talk. He started speaking very raspy and broken up and said, "It's...a.. SPACESHIP!"
Thanks Santa. The spaceship is a hit!

Lincoln also had a great time checking out the gifts in his stocking.

I love these Christmas morning moments...

David said we are going to start a new tradition. The PJ Elf can come on Christmas Eve, but we are also going to have the DUKE elf visit us every year with new DUKE shirts. :)



Later that day, we went to Parowan to celebrate Tori's and Dan's birthdays. It's fun to have so many things to celebrate on Christmas. It really helps the day last long and we really get to enjoy lots of time with each other.

Lexi loved her tu-tu from Corrin and her mom's new scarf.

After Tori's party, we opened more presents from Grandma and Grandpa Edwards.

Michael was in fine form. He wanted me to take head-shots for his Facebook profile (which does not exist). I think this one is a winner. Don't you?
Later that night, when the kids were in bed, we got out some new games. One, called Word on the Street is really fun. We played that for a while. We also played another one called, Would You Rather. I think the consensus was that we would rather not play Would You Rather. However, we laughed a lot.

Daniel and Corrin had to drink water out of cups like a dog.
Dan and Tori had to hold a pose that was positioned by Kathi and me for 2 rounds.

I slow danced with a mop.

We loved our Christmas holiday. Spending time with family is my favorite thing to do.