Christmas

Well, Christmas and New Years is over and we're back into the swing of things.  It was great to be home and not having to go anywhere for a few days.  But somehow it was still plenty busy with family and friends' get togethers and it went by a little too fast for me.  So today I am very thankful for a day at home by myself so I can recharge a bit while kids are at school.

We had a really nice Christmas though.  Our little family celebrated Christmas Eve together which I just love probably because that's what I grew up doing.  We don't leave our presents under a tree before Christmas and it brings so much more excitement to the kids when we come home from the Christmas Eve service and they see all the gifts that angels brought (another thing I grew up with).  It was just a nice family time and before we opened the presents we did something different instead of reading the usual passage that we read at church and other places already.  It was Ehren's surprise for all of us and made our night more special.

Ehren was busy making a little wooden stool while I got the dinner ready and after we ate we went on a "journey" around the house, with the stool.  Kids had no idea what it was for but they were excited to do something different.  It actually did feel like a journey because the snow was almost up to our knees and poor Kason had to jump like a rabbit. :) Anyway, we were pretending to be Mary and Joseph and talking about a long journey to Bethlehem.  We stopped at one point close to our woods and we pretended we were looking at the shepherds with their sheep and then looked at the sky to see where the angels would have appeared.  And we made our way  to the front of the house where our only Christmas lights are - a lit up Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus.  The last couple winters we had a joke going around how Mary and Joseph are always looking for baby Jesus because he was always buried in the snow.  So our big finale was to put the baby Jesus on the new stool Ehren made so he was no longer lost. :)  It was really cute, something different and makes me think of other things like that we can do next Christmas. 

Kason and Anika were really excited to open presents and they both got lego sets which they have been getting more into recently.  Especially Anika was so excited and kept saying over and over how she got the perfect gifts and it is the best Christmas ever!  Kade is getting a bit older and even though he does get excited to open gifts, it's not the same as when he was younger.  He is starting to get to a point when he can't even think of anything he would want when we ask him what he'd like for Christmas.  Mainly it's because he feels bad asking for something that costs too much and he also doesn't feel like he needs anything.  His favorite thing must have been an under armour sweat shirt that I know he's been wanting but didn't ask for it.  It is funny but when you go to Elementary school or Middle school in our town, you'll see kids wearing these everywhere, almost like it's some uniform. I am not about following the crowd with the clothes but Kade only wants to wear sports clothes so I thought I could get him at least one hoodie.  But, I'm not sure if it was a smart thing to get because now I am waiting and waiting for him to take it off.  He's been wearing it every day and I think if he could he would sleep in it too. :)

On Christmas Day we got together with Ehren's family and it was great to be together and have the cousins play and have sleepovers together.  There are 9 Hanson cousins and they are great kids.  It's 6 girls and 3 boys so they are a bit outnumbered but they still have fun.  And we just found out that Kjell and Jess are expecting their 3rd in August so it will be an even 10.  We are very excited for the new baby in the family and our Anika was so excited to hear about it.  For some reason, when my niece Emily found out she was very upset and cried for a long time because she didn't want a baby brother or sister. :)  Our Anika was there shortly after playing and Jessica overheard them talking.  Anika was trying to help Emily feel better so she said "don't worry Emily, sometimes babies die." And Emily said "you're right, they do die sometime" :) I could not believe that even came out of Ani's mouth but I know she didn't mean it in a way that she would wish for it to happen.  I think it was us talking a while back about little babies dying because there was a friend who lost a baby and our kids saw the pictures of the tiny baby.  I think we need to have another conversation about that though.

I have been just waiting and waiting for a warmer day so I could go cross country skiing.  They just groomed a brand new path for skiers in our town so I'm really anxious to go but it will never warm up enough.  We had one day here and there over the last 2 weeks that was ok but we were either doing stuff with the family or I was watching our kids and Emily and Aveah so I couldn't go.  We did at least do a bit of skating (in the indoor arena) and one time we went sledding which was fun, but the kids are really bummed they can't be outside more especially when they had the week off school.  We go through this every winter seems like but this year it started way earlier.  Today Kason was asking when we'll be able to build a snow man.  Poor guy will have to wait until Spring for that I'm afraid. So, we're praying for a warm-up soon so we can enjoy the outdoors more.