Christmas Day

It finally came!  After hours and days and months of waiting, Christmas Day was finally here!

Everyone was so excited to see what was under the Christmas tree. 

Harry Potter Legos for the boys 

and Ravenclaw robes for the girls!

And lots of other treasures too!

Of course there were some things in Laney's stocking, too!

And just look at this incredible heirloom from Auntie Allison.  It fits Laney's personality perfectly- "How dare you, peasant." 

Noah told me that he would be willing to trade some of his Christmas presents for just a little bit of snow, but thankfully he didn't have to do that.  There was a little snowman kit in his stocking!

And Emma was extra excited about her slime kit- she made several different kinds of slime, the best of which came the help of scientist Daddy. 

We visited with family and put together a puzzle and all played with our new toys and ate lots of food and felt very grateful to be home together for our second Christmas in our new house. 

We heard a story during the Christmas season from Sister Nielsen, Elder Gifford Nielsen's wife, about Christmas when she was a teenager.  She talked about how beautifully her mother decorated their home and how much she loved the twinkling Christmas lights and the happy music and the good smells, and then she reflected on the worst present she ever got, which was a "bargain bin, out of style" swimsuit that her mother gave her, probably because it was all she could afford.  Sister Nielsen reflected with shame on what an ungrateful gift receiver she had been that year and how much she had to be grateful for but instead she just focused on the one disappointing gift.  (It reminded me completely of the year that I received a cute new shirt for Christmas only to find out that it was actually my sister's and represented a shopping trip to make up for the fact that I didn't have as many gifts as my siblings on Christmas morning.  Ugh, I was not a gracious receiver of that gift!) 

Sister Nielsen's message was to "focus on the light" instead of the darkness.  That was such a sweet reminder to me as I tried to make all the magic happen for all of my people this year.  

Focus on the light. 

We received a beautiful gold nativity ornament from our new bishopric that we hung right at the top center of our tree.  In the early hours of the morning when only the Christmas lights were on the nativity ornament reflected the light perfectly and shone so brightly.  It was a perfect reminder- focus on the light. No matter what comes under the tree on Christmas morning- the greatest happiness at Christmastime and all the time comes when we focus on the light.