Christmas Time

It was so special celebrating Lila's first Christmas. Christmas is so magical when you are a kid and it kind of looses some of that magic once you become a teenager/adult. But having your own child/children to enjoy it with just brings that magic back. So although Lila really had no idea what was going on this year, it was still magical for us and we look forward to the Christmases ahead with her.

We were supposed to go to Hawaii for Christmas to spend it with Paul's parents. We were so excited to go and bought our tickets. But when Lila had her accident, we decided it wouldn't be the best idea for us to travel with her in her brace. She wouldn't be able to swim or play in the sand, we would need to bring her special monster carseat that fits her brace, etc. We just felt it would work out better and be more enjoyable if we went later (we are going at the end of this month!!) We just planned on spending Christmas alone just the three of us, but then my parents and youngest brother, Justin, decided they would come out and spend Christmas with us. We were happy to be able to spend it with family and we had a blast having them come out here!

My parents and Justin came a couple days before Christmas so we had fun doing some last minute shopping, baking treats, wrapping presents, taking Lila to sit on Santa's lap. On Christmas Eve it's our family tradition to have spaghetti and meatballs. We read the Christmas Story in the Bible together and then we read a story that my great-grandpa wrote called, "Biddikins and Buddikins" about two kids that try to catch Santa. We sang some Christmas carols and then ate lots of yummy desserts.

Lila woke up pretty early Christmas morning. I think she was excited to see her presents ;) So we started Christmas pretty early. Lila had some presents laid out from Santa and some ones to open under the tree as well. She didn't really get the unwrapping idea. So we kind of opened them for her. But she had fun playing with her new toys. We had a delicious Christmas breakfast and relaxed the rest of the day. That night it snowed. So we had a white Christmas!

The couple days after Christmas we just had fun spending time with each other. Justin got the game, Bang, for Christmas so we played that like a million times over the next couple days. Every time Lila would go down for a nap we'd try to squeeze in as many games of Bang, Phase 10, and Ticket to Ride as we could!

Also, as a Christmas present my parents watched Lila overnight for us and Paul and I celebrated our anniversary. We went out to dinner, walked around Old Town and got hot chocolate, went to a movie, and then went in the hot tub at the hotel and had a wonderful night of sleep- including SLEEPING IN (which hasn't happened since Lila was born. She is an early riser)!! Such a good present!! But we did miss our little Lila and were happy to come back home and see her again.

So yes, we had a wonderful Christmas! I know as a kid I was really into the presents side of things haha! But definitely as I have gotten older Christmas has become so much more about spending time with family, traditions, the atmosphere and love and most importantly GIVING. We are so grateful for the ultimate gift of our Savior being born. He is truly the reason for the season. We really enjoyed this movie during this Christmas season. We probably watched it over 50 times. It just really brought the spirit of Christ into our home and reminded us in such a sweet way what Christmas is all about. Lila, who usually never sits still for anything, completely was entranced by it. Anytime we put it on she just watches it so intently and doesn't move a muscle till it's over and then goes back to crawling all around. I just wonder if she knows there is something special about it.

Here are some pictures from Christmas...