Remembering The Little Things: Jesus is the Reason

I look around and wonder where to even start this post, when my heart is so full and I have so very much to be thankful for. This Christmas season has been all about starting new family traditions as it has been our very first Christmas as a family. Our desire was to make Jesus the center of this holiday season which always gets so carried away with presents and Santa and materialism. While we did succumb to buying presents for one another we also wanted to center and focus this season on the real reason. We started a new tradition of an advent calendar that I had picked up at the thrift store in November. It came with an advent book that has a story for each day of December with the Christmas story. On the chain there is a new name for God for every day of the month. It has been very special for both the girls and Steve and I. Today as we finished up the book and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Jesus, complete with a homemade chocolate mousse cake- Danika asked if we could do this book every year. And this morning before we opened presents I asked the girls what they learned through reading the book and Danika recited the entire Christmas story, which totally blessed both Steve and I.

This morning was everything I had hoped it would be and more! Steve and I wanted a simple Christmas day with our family, spent in our new Christmas jammies and having lots of family time. And that is exactly what happened. After our Christmas Eve service last night in which Steve sang in, we went to our friends the Olson's for appetizers and we didn't get home until late at night. So this morning both the girls slept in until 8:30 am. I popped in my Christmas morning 'Wife Saver' Casserole and we went and opened our stockings. The girls were completely satisfied after they opened their stockings and played until breakfast. We had a nice long breakfast and then went and sat down and opened the rest of the presents. We were all so blessed and spoiled!! I loved watching my Danika's face as she opened up her beloved Maplea doll she has been asking for, for 2 months. And Adessa's face as she squealed with delight in opening her presents and her contentedness of wanting to just play with what she opened before moving onto the next. I loved watching Steve's face as I pulled out the hidden fishing rod that he has secretly been coveting.
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with new toys, talking to our families and thanking them for all the amazing presents we got from them. We then put our Christmas dinner together which consisted of ham, salad, scalloped potatoes and homemade french bread. And we took off outside with our toboggans to enjoy the white Christmas that had been falling since morning. It was perfect outside, the snow was quite wet, but enough to get in a few runs down the hill and a couple of little snowmen! When we got home we had our yummy Christmas dinner complete with white tablecloth, china and wine glasses filled with our classy Martinellis!

Many times today I caught myself just staring at my beautiful family and just smiling. I know that there is so much hurt and pain in this world and I just feel so blessed to have everything so perfect right now. I have 2 beautiful, healthy girls, a husband who is my absolute best friend in the world and a little miracle growing rapidly inside my belly. I don't want to sound like I am bragging- I just feel so blessed. God is so good, I know hard times come and I pray I can be as thankful as I am now today, in this moment.
I pray that our world would come to realize how special and amazing the gift of Jesus is and that we would savor His goodness and blessings because they are all around us!

Enjoy a few snapshots of our last few weeks...