christmas morning

this was our 8th christmas morning to wake up as a married couple, but our first one to wake up in our house.

it was awesome.

dave and i had a good hour together before we started waking kids up. we sipped our coffee and opened our stockings to each other. we prayed together and talked about our expectations of the day and how we wanted to lead the girls through the madness of it all. it was such a special time for us. a very blessed early morning christmas hour.

we had to get the girls up to do all of our "stuff" before we headed to my mom and dads.

walking downstairs on christmas morning!


we did our very last jesse tree devotional and then opened the girls stockings


then we made eggs


and read the christmas story from the Jesus Story Book Bible. They break it up into three sections, we read some of it at our house and some more over at my mom and dads.






avery was very excited to hand out the gifts she picked out for us.

i got a calendar magnet

ian got a helicopter


ashton got a book


daddy got juggling balls.


it was so neat to see the joy she had giving out her little gifts.

they get to open one family present all together and then they each get three gifts just like Jesus got from the wisemen.

gold-their big gift
myrrh- a spiritual gift
frankincense- an educational gift

i love how beautifully this played itself out on Christmas Morning. We got to explain Avery's gifts to her before she opened them. "this one is to help you grow in your relationship with God...." "this one is to help grow your mind...."

and then after they open their two gifts under the tree, we send them on a wise man hunt! (our pastors kids talk about their wise men hunt all the time....so i wanted to do it too!) they each have a string to find on the tree and as they follow their string it leads them to their "gold" gift.

little ash got a car with big lego blocks


aves got a special princess building set


their coats were on because their "gold" gifts were in the garage.

i love the framework of giving three gifts. it feels so simple. each gift has a purpose. and it's a natural boundary setter for gift giving.

i really want to do something like courtney did with avery next year. i loved seeing her give to her family and really want to cultivate that desire to give not just to us, but to the world around her.

after our "just us" christmas, we headed to my mom and dads around 10:30....