Christmas 2014

Christmas this year was great! The girls were both at such a fun age and just soaked everything in. We went to the candlelight service at our church and the girls stayed in the service with us. Delaney loves the candle lighting at the end every year. We have an amazing church and this is one of our favorite services every year. They do such a great job planning special ways to celebrate the birth of Jesus! Here is a recap of Christmas 2014!

We headed to David's sister Traci's house for our first family Christmas. Delaney was sick and almost didn't get to go. She ran a fever pretty much the whole week of Christmas, but I had her checked out by the doctor and it was ruled a sinus type infection. We let her go and I'm glad she didn't have to miss out on any of the family fun. We love spending time with David's family and the girls love being with all of their cousins! It was a fun way to start all of the family gatherings. 

Next, we headed to my mom's house on Christmas Eve. We always go around lunch and open/exchange gifts with her. That gives some time to spend before all of her family comes over for dinner around 5:00 P.M. It's always fun to get together as a big family, and I really wish we got to do it more! I'm thinking we need something in the summer so it's not so long of a stretch where we don't see each other! The girls got so many nice gifts and were content playing the day away! 

We also got to see Santa drive by on the firetruck before it got dark! 

That night after the girls went to bed Santa stopped by for a visit. The girls must have been really good this year because they got most of what was on their list. They were so excited the next morning! I was awful and didn't get any still pictures of the girls on Christmas morning this year. I did video but forgot to take pics. We also sing baby Jesus "Happy Birthday" on Christmas morning. I want the girls to know the real meaning of Christmas and that it's not really about the gifts they get. I was really surprised when I got some of Delaney's schoolwork back and she had written about this little tradition. The question they were asked was what was their favorite thing from Christmas break, and she wrote singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Wow! Out of the mouth of babes. Of all the fun and gifts she got for Christmas, this special and important tradition, was the one she remembered enough to write down. Jesus is the greatest gift of all and we are so thankful for our Savior's birth! 

After we had some family time that morning we got ready and headed to my dad and Susan's for our last Christmas. We had the best brunch and had fun spending the afternoon with them! The girls love their dog Gus and love to pet him. He is so sweet with them and will let them just love on him. Carter got tired after a little while so she and my dad took a little nap in the recliner. They were so good to us this year as well! We had a great Christmas 2014!!