Twas the Night Before Christmas (and Christmas Morning)

My kids woke up on Christmas Eve (morning) and asked right away if they could open their Christmas Eve gifts (which is usually pajamas), of course we said no and that they had to wait until night time.  They were not happy with that.  We stayed busy throughout the day, trying to get the last minute gifts and treats out to friends and neighbors, making goodies, cleaning up for John's family and getting bags of clothes and toys ready to take to the Road Home homeless shelter downtown.  We asked the kids to go through their things and pick out toys and clothes that they don't play with and wear anymore.  Everything was fine until the kids started deciding what the other sibling should give away.  Anyway, they were able to collect lots of fun things for other kids to have.  That night when we went and took these things downtown, we all had our eyes widely opened.  There were lots of other people there giving away bags of things and handing out food.  My kids really soaked everything up.  They all commented on how blessed they know they are.   Well we got home and let them open up their pj's and sent them to bed.  On Christmas morning (way too early) the kids woke John, me and Grandpa Reagh up.  The last gifts we opened were our homemade gifts to each other.  It was so neat to see the kids open up their gifts and watch the other kid who made the gift feel so good about it.  It was definitely one of the best parts of the morning.  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, we sure did. 

My Creative Daughter

My daughter, Baylee, is probably the most creative person I have ever known.  We decided to have the kids pick names for gifts this year (for each other)  and that they would have to make them.  (Thanks to the inspiration from the Swapp family).  Anyway, my kids kind of complained about it at first, but then decided that it would be really fun.  They have all come up with very fun things to make, from calendars, to jewlery, to pillow cases and other things.  But Baylee, I think, came up with one of the cutest ones.  She has J.P. and with J.P. being a huge BYU fan, she decided that she would cut out a big Y out of blue fabric and make a pillow.  I asked her if I could help and she completely refused, because she wanted to do it all on her own.  She tried to do one about a week ago and it was too small and then she let me help a little bit and it turned out so well.  My kids have found some talents that they didn't know they had.  We will definitely keep this a Christmas tradition.

Christmas

OK, so my sister has been wanting me to start a Blog for awhile now.  And I finally made myself do it.  But, of course, I can't think of a thing to write down.  Except for the fact that Christmas is in 6 days!!!  I think I'm more excited than the children.  If you know me then you will know that I have always been like this!!!  I had a wonderful childhood,  a loving family and friends.  The best time for me was always Christmas.  My mom always let us decorate the Christmas tree completely by ourselves.  (Wasn't that so loving and unselfish of her. ha ha)  We always had Christmas music playing, mostly Bing Crosby, The Beach Boys and even Elvis!!!   This was also the time that my older brothers and sister would come home from college.  We always took treats to our friends and neighbors, rang the doorbell and ran.  These memories have always stayed with me and made this time of the year my favorite!!!!  My husband has been able to keep from playing Christmas music in September and not until November.  I hope I can give my children the wonderful memories that I had during Christmas.