Christmas Time

Ian sitting on the boxes of presents handed out to each family at church on Christmas Eve.

Family picture at church on Christmas Eve

Kids in front of our Christmas tree

Ian playing with the new kitchen set from Santa.

Natalie, Cami, Ben, and Ian

Ian enjoying a sled ride from Grandma

Ben sledding down the hill at Grandma and Grandpa's house

The kids have been excited for Christmas for the last month.  They have been counting down the days on Ben's red and green chain he made at school.  Each morning they would awake to pull off one of the links.  They would both count the remaining links to see how many more days!  Cami was excited for the presents for Jesus' birthday.  At preschool, she and her class had a birthday party for Jesus.  It helped her learn why we celebrate Christmas.  

We attended Christmas Eve service at St. Paul and then came home to a picnic style snack dinner and then opened Christmas presents.  Cami had fun handing out the gifts and quickly opening any and every gift that had her name on it, including one for Aunt Keri and Uncle Joe.  She figured whether it said  To Cami or From Cami, it did not matter, it just had to be opened.  She was definitely surprised when she opened a baking dish and serving set.  Ian was content opening one gift and then playing with it until Cami and Ben finished opening theirs and wanted to "help" Ian finish opening the rest of his gifts.  He was happy to let them open his gifts and proceeded to want the toys out of boxes.  "Help, help" he would say to mommy and daddy when he wanted something opened.

The kids headed off to bed and eagerly awaited morning when Santa brought gifts for their stockings and a few small gifts for each of them.  They even got one larger gift of a new kitchen to play with .  They spent the morning playing with the kitchen and the Tupperware kids cup and plate set from Aladodo and Papa.  

We got the car loaded and headed up north late Christmas morning to spend time at Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Neil's house.  We always enjoy going up north where the kids have plenty of space to run and play and always have a long list of things they want to do with grandma and grandpa.  Grandpa used the tractor to build a nice big hill for sledding.  Ben spent several hours going up and down the hill and then dug a tunnel through the hill.  

Cami and Ian helped grandma taste the topping for her Lemon Meringue pie.  

We spent the afternoon and evening with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Keri and Uncle Joe and Natalie.  It was fun watching Natalie and Ian.  Ian is a boy of very very few words, while Natalie, who is 2 months younger than Ian, is a little girl of many words.  They are both extremely fun and active.  The kids enjoyed opening another round of gifts and spending the night playing with all of their new toys and books.  

Friday we enjoyed some preperation time for the family Christmas party on Saturday.  With a short nap and lots of yummy food, the day went very quick.  On Saturday, about 30 people attending the Krizan family Christmas party.  There is always plenty of delicious food and lots of great company.  

Saturday went too fast and we had to head back to Madison to avoid some more yucky weather coming our way.  The roads were slippery and foggy so we took our time driving the usual 3 hour trip home.  

We can't believe that last year at this time, we were enjoying our first Christmas together as a family of 5.  We had finally received our best Christmas present for 2008, our son Ian.  He has been an absolute joy and blessing in our lives.  

When asking Ben just now what his favorite Christmas present is, he answered, "all of them" and then "actually, my favorite Christmas present is Jesus being born.  He is my favorite Christmas present."  My heart is filled with happiness and my eyes with tears that a 5 year old boy gets what Christmas is all about.  How often do we as adults forget the true meaning of Christmas.  We get caught up in the busyness of shopping and cooking and baking cookies, etc. that we forget why we are celebrating in the first place.  JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!