Christmas Aftermath

It seems anticlimatic to end our Christmas posts with what we got when I have made such a big deal about trying to focus on a Christ-centered Christmas.  So let me just put in a quick report that we finished all 25 things that we had planned to give to the Savior.  My days felt more filled with the Spirit and I was absolutely stunned to watch my children get so excited to do service for each other, neighbors, and strangers.  My heart was filled on the day that I had a list of chores with a list of how much each chore paid.  That day the children could do as many chores as they wanted, and all of the money that they earned was donated to an organization on their tithing slip.  I don't usually pay my children for chores, so I didn't know how they would feel about being asked to donate it, but they were so excited to earn as much money as possible and donate it, that it made my heart swell.  I am so proud of my little family.  I love them so much and I love my Savior.  It was a wonderful Christmas season.

 This was one of my favorite presents.  It is an amazing portrait of the temple taken by a childhood friend.  I love it above my fireplace.  And all of these pictures were taken courtesy of my new Sony Cybershot digital camera.  I love it!

 Charlotte loves her new scooter car.

 It turns into a walk along.  Am I crazy for encouraging this little trouble maker to walk?

 And Charlotte loves Ashlyn's new dog named, "Big".

 Ashlyn loves Big too.  She asked Santa for a stuffed animal dog, but she had no idea what she was getting herself into.  She loves it so much we had to haul the big guy from Grandma's house to Grandma's house Christmas Day.

 Ashlyn was so tired she tucked herself in for a nap yesterday.  When I went in to check on her this is what I found.

 There she is!

 Ian is in love with his new train set and was mad at us for leaving on Christmas Day because he just wanted to play trains all day!

 Most of Tanner's Christmas consisted of Lego sets.  This was a race car lego set that he got from Grandma Julie.  He was so enamored by it that he could hardly sit through Christmas dinner because he wanted to make his lego cars.  He had such a ball putting them together!

And of course Santa always brings bath stuffs.  Ashlyn and Tanner used color tabs to turn their water BLUE, so that they could pretend that they were in Hawaii.

Thank you so much everyone for the wonderful, thoughtful Christmas gifts.  We are so spoiled!