Merry Christmas to All..

and Happy New Year!

We had the most wonderful, relaxed, Christmas this year! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays with your loved ones.

This year Valerie is finally old enough to really have conversations about preparation of our hearts during Advent season for the coming of Christ. We really focused on how Christmas is all about giving, grace, quality time with family and friends, and being greatful. She is just as much into Jesus's birthday as she is to Santa, which is good, although I sometimes have a hard time explaining how they BOTH fit into Christmas. For now, she believes that Santa loves God so much and wants to share his love with all the children in the world and that's why he gives us all gifts. I guess we have to start somewhere right? :)

To start out Christmas eve, Valerie and I made some reindeer mix (aka "Puppy Chow" or "Muddy Buddies") to leave for Santa.

During the day, we made cards for Santa, painted our nails so we'd look just "bootiful" for church that evening, and made lasagna for dinner! We went to a very simple church service at the Chapel on base that evening in which we read scriptures and sang carols. It was lovely, although I spent part of it outside letting Ellie run around screaming. Here is a photo before we left, the best I could do with a tripod!

After church, we came home and ate a very late dinner, italian style. The girls were excited to have their own sparkling champagne (aka grape juice). Every year I buy the girls Christmas PJ's in which they of course wear on Xmas Eve! We left our reindeer mix, carrots for the reindeer, and letters to Santa on the table.

Another tradition in our family is that Derrick reads, The Night Before Christmas before we tuck the girls in bed. Ellie didn't make it that far ;)

Christmas morning- We kept things pretty simple this year. We decided to stay in our PJ's and hang out, eating leftover lasagna and relaxing together as a family after weeks of craziness. It was nice to have a quiet Christmas with just us.
Just woke up:
Valerie's favorite gift this year was a sleeping beauty pony that walks/makes noises, very girly.

Ellie's was actually a toy train set that goes with some thomas trains but my favorite picture of her is of her shaking some of her new instruments!

We spent the afternoon on the couch watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and letting the girls play. I found Valerie asleep in her room amongst this mess, which took her only about 45 minutes to create!

That evening, we drove about a half hour west of here to the little town of Caltagirone. They have a tradition of lining their famous steps with flowers and setting a nativity up top. We missed the live nativity by a couple days I think; however were glad to check it out! We ate a couple pastries on our way out of town and that ended our wonderful little family Christmas!