A resounding success!

My goodness, we had so much fun! I loved Christmas Eve. It was a pretty relaxing day. Ty went and played a little basketball in the morning, did a little shopping. We just kind of tied up some things we'd been working on. Then Max's Tutu and Grandpa Ted (Max's adopted grandparents in the ward) and their son Jordan came by to bring Max his Christmas gifts. 'Oh my word' is all I have to say! They all three walked in loaded with presents, and as you can see in the pictures one of the presents was incredibly HUGE. It was super generous of them and I couldn't hold back the tears as we hugged them goodbye. I am so thankful to have "family" away from family.

This gift is Max's "year supply" of snacks and treats! Tutu always brings a little bag of treats for Max on Sunday...the box behind him should last until he's 5!

And the super huge present was this super huge horse! They said they were getting him a stuffed animal...:)After they left we started to get dinner ready. Our next-door neighbors, the Lintons, came over since they were staying home as well. And our friend, Charla, came with her little boy. Her husband is out to sea right now and she doesn't have any family around here. It was so nice to have all of them here! We had steak and potatoes and salad and asparagus and sparkling cider...maybe not your "traditional" meal, but it should be the tradition if you ask me. Everything turned out SO good! Our meal ended with some amazing caroling! One of my young women and her family came and they each played an instrument and did three songs for us. I was so impressed with their little setup and red tablecloth...it was great! They are the cutest girls!Afterward we had the three little people do the nativity scene which was pretty funny and cute. Mary just wouldn't keep her costume on, but she did a great job riding the "donkey" (the huge horse from Tutu and Grandpa Ted) at just the right time. Max loves babies and Charla's little boy is 6 months old. He was our Baby Jesus and Max (aka Joseph) kept hugging him, which I thought was quite appropriate. :)

Here's Max doing his darnedest to reach over and hug the babeThey left around 7:30 and then the doorbell rang. Max and I ran to the door and found that Mrs. Clause and her elves had left us presents! It was very exciting. We brought them in and opened them to find new pajamas for each of us. It was then time for a bath and bed for the Maxster.

Ty had given me the movie "The Nativity Story" for Christmas a little early (a definite favorite - if you haven't seen it, you should!) so we stayed up late and watched it. I love Christmas Eve because the day and the festivities are just more Christ-centered. And now that I have a babe of my own - and one on the way - I become really emotional as I think about the whole experience of Christ coming into the world and how Mary and Joseph must have felt. I love to think of their parenting of Him. I love to think of His birth and life and all that He came to accomplish. Truly the greatest man to ever live. I am thankful that He was born and that He fulfilled the mission He came to accomplish. I know that His earthly parents played no small role in that. My heart is so filled with gratitude...

The next morning we woke up before Max and took showers and then couldn't wait any longer so we went in and woke Max up. He is so cute! We came into our room and Tyler brought the stockings up. We each went through our stockings (hooray that my stockings held everything and didn't fall apart!) and had fun playing with a few things. Then it was downstairs for the presents! We wrapped a lot but left out the big things for Max to see as soon as he came in the room. I videotaped it and it was so cute to see his expression. He just stared for a minute at everything and then said, "Guitar!" and hurried to get out of Tyler's arms. The big hits have been the guitar that looks like dad's guitar, the basketball hoop that's short enough for him to "shoop" a basket, and the wagon full of big legos that he's super good at building a "tower" with. At first he stood and kind of turned in circles, looking at everything and laughing, not knowing what to play with first. He kept the basketball under his arm most of the time he was opening his presents from under the tree. It sure makes unwrapping harder when you're only using one hand! :)Such a fun morning! We got mostly through the presents under the tree before I couldn't go on anymore without eating breakfast. So we took a break and had German pancakes and sausage and orange juice. The rest of the morning/day was so relaxing and laid back. We got Max dressed, but Tyler and I never got out of our PJs!

About 10 a.m. we had our little Christmas miracle and it started to snow! I think Heavenly Father really loves me since the only days we've gotten snow this year was the day that we decorated our tree and home and then on Christmas Day. :) Both days when you WANT it to snow! It was beautiful. That evening after Max got up from his nap we bundled up and went out to build a snowman. It was dark, but I was determined. It took basically all of the snow in our yard to accomplish this task and Max didn't really want to touch it, but we succeeded. It was really wet snow and hard to work with and as we were putting on his eyes, he fell over but I made Ty keep going and we did our best to recuperate from the tragic fall. He turned out pretty deformed, but cute. Our first family snowman!

I had a little bit of time in the afternoon where I felt sad that we weren't with family...but we got to talk to everyone for quite a long time and see them on the videophone and web cam.

It was really so fun, though, to have our first Christmas together - just us! And as Max and our future kids get older, Christmas will just be more and more exciting. I LOVED watching Max be excited about the things that we really knew/hoped he would love. I love giving gifts. I love Christmas. I love my little family and our extended families! Merry Christmas to all, indeed. Now it's on to New Years...then Adam & Laura's wedding in Utah in 3 weeks, combined with a much-too-short trip to Vegas...then not long after that and Kelly will be born! So much to celebrate.