Christmas Magic

Christmas Morning was "magical" (ever seen Saturday Night Live with the imitation Drew Barrymore?) with the frost covered ground. Our kids actually thought that it had snowed...time we go visit some real snow! Santa had visited (see all the presents?) Our Santa only brings one gift and some stocking fillers.


We asked the kids to grab their favorite presents for a picture. Each one chose the gift that their siblings had bought them...ahhh, sweet. (except Walker, and he chose to squeeze Indi with all his might.)

Santa and parents were thinking cheap this year. Indi is sporting the two best finds of the season. Santa brought her some "My Twinn" dolls from Craigs list (originally selling for $140 EACH, but Santa got them two for $40--woohoo! They aren't the American Girl dolls that she was asking for, but she never knew the difference, and even if she did--she loves them.) Then, her mother (yours truly) was searching for some princess dress-ups and wanting something a little higher quality than the typical princess costume (aka--washable and won't rip after the first wearing like the cheap snow white halloween costume) and something far cheaper than the princess disney gowns (at the Disney outlet they sell for $70 on up--and that was during a sale!) She discovered a lady on Craig's List who was getting rid of her online business and selling all her princess dresses for $20 each. These dresses are amazing (all edges surged and finished) and lightweight (important for AZ) and washable...Plus, she threw in some free stuff (like the matching doll dress). Mom was happy, Dad was happy, and Indi was thrilled with her new dress-ups.

The kids were all perfectly happy and content with their christmas. Each child showed so much gratitude for their 2 or three gifts. Ryan and I wondered why we hadn't just stopped there--they were perfectly satisfied. That's when we brought out the big surprise...




Seriously. What were we thinking? Oh yeah. We wanted a little dirt bike for Rem to ride on, but we couldn't find anything on Craigslist. Ryan mentioned something about it to one of his business partners, who then said that he was wanting to sale his quads. They are old (10+ years) but well taken care of. We thought it was a great deal and could be tons of fun (especially since we have our own little "wilderness" to ride around on.) In a moment of insanity we went for it...and now we have over-indulged children on Christmas morning. Part of me shudders when I think about (talk about spoiled kids). The other half of me tells the shuddering half to not be a scrooge and just enjoy it. They have had so much fun and we have had several family adventures over the past week. Remington especially likes the independence. He would drive his quad in ahead of us, or just behind us when we drove into the mountains to one of our favorite campfire spots.

The best christmas magic happened around 1:30 p.m. when Aunt Corrie flew into town. Her presence was magical and she was as much fun to have around as she is cute to look at!

Just imagine the awesomest 20 year old you know, times it by 1 million, wrap it up with someone who lovingly and unselfishly plays with each of your kids hours on end, does your dishes, sweeps the house as she talks to her boyfriend at 1:30 in the morning, shops with you, does fun projects with you, and times it by 1 million again, and then you have someone almost as good as Corrie. She is awesome. We LOVED having her with us.



One last magical moment. Every Christmas we go to the Mesa Temple to see the lights, and we love to go through the visitors center and listen to the sister missionaries talk about the Savior as we sit at his feet (they have a large Christus statue similar to the one in Salt Lake). This year Walker noticed the marks on His feet and in His side. He was troubled that the "owies" were still there and he insisted that we put a band aid on them. We took him out of that area, and found a smaller statue that wasn't in an area with scheduled tours. He touched all the marks and asked many why ?'s. Why did someone hurt Him? Why does He not have a band aid on? Why did he die? Why did his owies not get better? Some were harder to answer on a three year old level than others, but I am glad he asked.

Christmas magic x's a million.