Christmas 2009!

We kept this Christmas simplistic, and we're quite grateful for it!

Blake & Addison were great fun this year and seem to be grasping not only the concept of Christmas, but the true meaning of Christmas...

They light up with the sound of the following jingle

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)...

"Nicholas, Nicholas, you know how to live, you see someone with a need and just like Christ you give!"

Thank you Veggie Tales! Regardless of where they learn it, or how they retain the knowledge, it's important to us... Blake also understood that Nicholas didn't have his Mommy or Daddy, and was quite distraught about it. They also learned that Santa works for Jesus, which happens to be the truth! :) And speaking of Jesus, if you had to hear them sing Happy Birthday to Jesus as many times as we did... well, you'd probably ban birthdays for a year... at least!

So, this Christmas and all year through, I'm going to feel blessed that our children loved their toys but also recognized that there is more to the story of Christmas!

Enough of my blabbing... below is a slideshow and some videos for my babies to enjoy when they're older... and for you to enjoy right now if you so wish! ;)

Below are a few seconds from the end of a FANTASTIC children's mass! Next we have a small clip (at the end of mass) just after the kids visited the adorable nativity in front of the altar. We look kind of creepy because Daddy switched on "night-vision"... so it's like a Halloween Christmas! ;) Anyhow, the last second of the video is crucial, as you can see my response to watching my son literally ride the cow from the manger... no exaggeration, the cow was about the size of a Great Dane and Blake managed to jump and straddle it .7 seconds... We definitely see rodeo in his future! This next clip is of the kids delivering/tossing their homemade birthday cards at the baby Jesus... it was sweet nonetheless! Next is of Christmas morning... next year we think we'll mount the camera somewhere panormaic so we can catch both kids at once and enjoy the moment WITH both of them! Nonetheless, it was great to see them understanding the event more this year! Here we have the opening of LEGO Blocks and sharing of candycanes! Finally, couldn't resist these last two videos of the kids at Grammie & Grandpa Blake's house after opening every parent's worst nightmare... a drum set! We actually hate to admit it, but the kids love it and so do we! Cousin Noah prominently leads the band in the last video!