Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!

It's been challenging for me this year to restrain myself regarding baking and decorating for Christmas...but I still haven't unpacked a lot of my kitchen gear, and besides a small tree we decided to not spend time decorating this house since we will be working on our new home for the next month before we move in.  But we have focused on the meaning of the day:  this year for the first time we used an advent calendar to read scripture each night about the prophecy and history of Jesus' birth.

For Christmas Eve, we had our traditional tamales, which was an easy meal to prepare after working all day at the new home.  Then it was Christmas!

 

Monsters U was the first movie our kids saw in the movie theater, and it's a great movie!

Natalie loves her new dinosaur book from Aunt Patrice.

Dominik opening some stamp pads...

...and I opened some beautiful pajamas from Patrice.

Natalie got four new long sleeved dresses and she loves them!

Tom had dropped a few hints on what he might like.

After we had unwrapped the gifts at home, we got ready for a day at our new home, where we surprised the boys with new bikes!  Here's Lukas out on his new mountain bike. 

Dominik is trying out the training wheels (that bike looks suspiciously like Konrad's old bike, which previously looked like Lukas' old bike).  He is still uncertain about pedaling, but he has plenty of room to practice!

Ok, we worked on the house a little, too...got another coat of paint on one room...

...took the baseboards off another room since we are painting and changing the flooring.  Here's Konrad pulling the finishing nails out.

And Lukas vacuuming...such great helpers!

Then it was time to walk and bike around the neighborhood.  Konrad definitely fits his new bike very well (I know, Konrad's bike looks suspiciously like Lukas' old bike).

Natalie was happy as a clam to be chauffeured on our walk...

 ...and the neighbor horses even came over to say hi!

We will always remember our first Christmas here!  What a great day of memories...we pray your Christmas was also blessed.

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