A Very Merry Christmas

This is my first Christmas post. Not quite sure how I want to handle this one. I like Christmas, but it's not my favorite holiday. (4th of July) We celebrate and enjoy ourselves, the kids love going to the get-together's at Gran's for Christmas Eve and Grandma's for Christmas Day. It's all pretty traditional. I think I would like to take this time to talk about what we did differently this year.
The biggest difference comes in the form of our celebration of Jesus' Birthday. The tradition would be to go to church 45 minutes early and fight for a spot with the "Christers" (Pronounced Kree-sters, Christmas and Easter church go-ers, I guess nowadays that describes me.) This year I suggested we go to a live nativity scene. After speaking with the Pastor and actually driving to the location to confirm it's existence, my Mom agreed to try it. I thought it was so perfect. A heated barn, hay bale seats, live animals and the story of Jesus's birth, complete with a real live baby. Callie made sure she got up close and personal. Prior to church we sang Christmas Carole's to the residents at Great Grandma's Nursery Rhyme(Nursing Home). I thought it would be cheesy, but it was actually really nice.
Usually Chrstmas Morning we go to my Mom's for breakfast. I decided it would be less rushing for my family if we had the breakfast here. I hope to continue this as a tradition. It worked out perfectly. And my sticky-buns turned out fabulous! It's a big responsibility to make those sticky-buns, high expectations from the crowd! Carol would be proud!
As far as Christmas' go, I would say I enjoyed this one the most out of recent Christmas's.
The rest of this week has been particularly relaxing. Not much of anything on the calendar, very little driving. Staying up late, sleeping in. Trent and Marshall have been busy building lego Star Wars ships. Trent got about 2000+ pieces for Christmas. I told him I had built my last lego ship. If he wanted all those lego toys, he was on his own. No problem. He and daddy have it under control. Two more ships to go and the floor will be free of pieces....for now! Callie has been enjoying her Dora Pegasus. The gift she totally wanted and I totally did not want to get for her. (They don't make toys like they used to.) She got a baby that responds to her holding it, or feeding it. That thing hasen't been far from her arms since the moment she opened it.
Thank you to everyone for all the gifts, meals and wonderful celebrations. My favorite thing about Christmas is enjoying time spent together. Whether we are honoring old traditions or starting new ones.