The results of a Christ Centered...simplified Christmas

Well I did it folks....I simplified our Christmas...focused on the important things...such as Christ, and our Christmas was a success. I will say that my iphone filled with a playlist of beautiful / spiritual Christmas music that was playing pretty much non stop helped a lot!

We have enjoyed the past week with all the last minute parties, visiting family and friends, watching special Christmas movies that portray the true meaning of Christmas....and just all sorts of good stuff.

We spent Christmas eve-eve gathering stuff for the homeless shelter. It was very heartwarming to see my kids picking out things for people that they will never meet. To see them care about which kind of shampoo would be best...or what color of Toothbrush. They even gave up a lot of toys and clothes. We delivered it Saturday morning and it was very touching.  I didn't mention that experience to gain credit....but I will mention it because it made our Christmas a LOT more special, and we had MUCH more grateful kids after we did all that and they realized what a wonderful life they have inside their warm, clean, comfortable home. I hope it is something they never forget.

After we delivered on Christmas Eve Morning, my parents came and got us and we thought we would go on a “scenic” drive to see all the wildlife at the Ouray bird/fish refuge. We had a great time....but only ended up seeing 2 porcupines climbed up trees. That was IT! It was kind of humorous!!!

Christmas eve we did a non-traditional dinner of homemade Chinese food. Kayler snuggled with my Grandpa showing him how to run an Ipad thing-it was so cute. We opened their jammies and a toy from my parents and they were snug as little bugs by 8:45….Santa entered the building at 10:00 and was gone by 10:30 ;)

I told G.J. that we were so dang lucky….it was our twelfth year of being parents at Christmas time….and we have never been woken up by our kids. In fact we have had to wake them up most mornings-usually about 8 a.m. This was the first year that they came out of their rooms on their own at about 7:30 and they didn’t even touch their stuff until we were up. Lucky I tell ya..lucky.

I hate to bring a sad aspect into this whole wonderment….but for journaling purposes I will say that in the middle of the night Christmas Eve I woke up with a strange/killer headache. My head was filled with so much pressure so every time I changed position I literally wanted to die. When I tried to sit/stand, I would get super nauseous and dizzy. So I was SO sad….but I had to lay on the floor with my pillow and blanket to watch my kids open their presents. The blasted headache is still lingering a bit today (Wednesday) hopefully it goes away soon.

We had a very relaxed Christmas day. My kids were overjoyed at everything they got. We didn’t have one thing to return or fix. I don’t care one bit if I sound like a scrooge when I say that I was most excited on Monday to tear down all the cluttery Christmas decorations/lights. Thank goodness I had G.J. to help me. I also was so glad that I had simplified the decorating this year so there wasn't that much to take down. We got the house spic and span, and then went out on a little date while Hallie watched the boys. That was an event I had been waiting over 11 years for! I think we can now trust her to watch them whenever we need…which isn’t too often-but it is so refreshing to think that we may never have to pay a babysitter again.

So until next year-seriously, I’m not blogging again until next year ;) ….I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!