Christmas Morning

So Christmas is here! We’ve woken up – believe it or not, Mom and Dad were up an hour and a half before the girls (ok, so having a 3-day-old infant might have served as an effective alarm clock – no snooze button). We got to sit together and read scriptures and talk. It was a wonderful way to start the holiday.

We’d left some dough rising overnight, and we had a Christmas breakfast of hot chocolate, pecan rolls, and oranges. Yum!

Kristin and I have decided to rebel against materialism this Christmas and not open presents at all Christmas morning. Mostly just because we wanted to find a way to make it more about the Savior. Not surprisingly, we met with little resistance, since at this age we’re just starting our family traditions. As a result, our Christmas tree is still waiting the arrival of gifts. We thought we’d all gather our gifts and put them under the tree tonight, after we act out the nativity and have a devotional where we share our favorite stories of Christ’s life.

We actually adopted the idea a little from our time in Madrid, where they celebrate King’s day on January 6th.   This is when the three wise men supposedly arrive, and they’re the ones who bring the gifts. Since then we have found quite a few traditions that wait those 12 days between Christmas and Kings Day for gift giving.We’ll see if we make it all the way to the 6th once the presents are out under the tree. But either way, we liked the idea of just putting the gifts out on Christmas, since it kind of focuses more on the giving.

So now the girls are all dressed and we’re off to an hour of church! We’ll post more later.