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This is why daddy is so much fun

January 26, 2010 by Kelli

Nearly every evening, our home is filled with delighted shreeks, hysterical giggles and the occasional tears – and all of it is caused by the man that our kids call “Daddy.”

He’s a good daddy. He knows how to love his kids. Even if he’s exhausted, if they come to him with big eyes and ask him to wrestle, he will almost always say yes. Particularly if Tia blinks her huge blue eyes in his direction. Usually I have to scrape his heart off the floor so he can answer her.

The wrestling is loud, it’s crazy and it’s rough. He doesn’t hold back – not even with the girl. And when she cries, he reminds her that if she wants to play she has to buck up and be tough. And she will take a deep breath, brush the tears off her face and dive back in.

And it’s not only wrestling – there’s also tickling, some hide and seek and a good deal of chasing. In short, it’s good, good fun. I leave you with evidence.

What about you guys? How do your kids have fun with their daddies?

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Lee

My view from here

January 21, 2010 by Kelli

The kids are with my mom this afternoon. I have a small chunk of time in which to be productive but I don’t know where to start. So I’m writing a blog post. And I’m convincing myself that it’s necessary – that it’s work. Because that’s how I roll. Some people, when they get overwhelmed, get hyperfocused…but me? I get flustered.

This is me, flustered.

If you’ll notice Tia’s coat is stratigically placed to cover the dishes in the sink, which it seems pointless to have done since I just told you the dishes are piled in the sink.

*sigh*

Yesterday, as I surveyed my disaster of a home (a home that had, incidentally, been spotless just days before) I felt entirely overwhelmed. So I sent out an SOS on Facebook. Because that only seemed natural.

The responses I got ranged from funny (cry publicly until someone decides to help you out, drink heavily and let little magical elves come in and do the work) to poignant (hang in there because time flies and pretty soon you’ll be old, the house will be empty…and it will still be a mess.)

But one response really struck me. It’s nothing ground breaking – I’ve heard this before and I do know it, but my friend Tina’s word were so sincere and true that I wanted to share them with you. She said:

“Although we spend most of our time like a pet mouse running round and round on a wheel never seeming to get anywhere, I have seen the fruit of seasoned mothers with older children, reared with responsibility in the love of Jesus. It gives me hope that I will reap much fruit for my labor – it is just not quite harvest time.”

Isn’t that a great word?

Yes, my house is a mess and it will always be a mess. Yes, there are drawers and cabinets that are literally bursting they are so full. They practically scream at me to unload and organize them each time I pass, and yet they also remind me that they hold the treasured possessions of my treasured possessions. And right now my work is to pour into those three tiny lives.

Yes, I can better manage my time so that I can get a few things done at a time (something that goes almost completely against my personality, I should add. I like to knock it all out at once, not do a little bit. It’s sort of an all or nothing approach that’s not all that condusive to managing a home with small children…I’m working on it.) But really, in the end, will it matter if my house is immaculate? Do I really want to sacrifice the quiet moments when I am pouring into their hearts and ministering to their spirits just so the laundry can be properly put away?

No, I don’t. And I don’t say that just because I hate putting away laundry. Well…maybe I do.

Today, I choose to put aside the gloom and flustered-idity (mm-hmm, that’s exactly what I said) of my circumstances. Today I choose to rejoice in the few moments of solitude and go about my work joyfully, despite the fact that there is more than I could ever hope to accomplish. Today I choose to enjoy the moment and not wish it away.

And I encourage you to do the same.

(Although, if I’m being honest, I have to say that I’m kinda holding out hope that magical elves do appear in my house armed with Comet and a toilet bowl brush…but that’ll probably never happen.)

Now, I’m off to accomplish the one things that I can do in my short amount of time and it really is something I must do. I’m going to take a shower.

And empty the dishwasher.

Yay me!

Filed Under: Family, Motherhood

More Things I Never Thought I’d Say

January 18, 2010 by Kelli

This time last year, I posted the first edition of Things I Never Thought I’d Say. This is the follow up.

“Please don’t wipe your boogers on your brother. In fact, please just don’t even pick your nose.”

“Guys, quit kissing each other. Brothers and sisters don’t kiss like that.”

“If you’re out of toilet paper, let me know…please don’t wipe yourself with the towel.”

“Are you eating one of the dog’s treats? Gross!”

“No, honey. I’m sure you don’t have the spotted mountain fever.”

“I know you’re mad, but you need to fix your face and shape it up.”

“You can kiss your wife like that someday, but you may not kiss mommy that way.”

“Why is my underwear on your head?”

“Don’t forget to wipe and flush.”

“I’m glad you’re having fun, but daddy’s saw is not a sword.”

“You found a slug? Oh great. No, he can’t sit at the table with us while we eat.”

“No, I don’t think that girl is looking at you because she wants to marry you.”

“What’s that sticking out of your diaper-Did you put something in there?”

“I think he just swallowed a penny.”

“I digged through the poopy diaper and I found the penny! Yeah!”

“I’m going to bed at 8:30 tonight. I don’t care if it’s Friday.”

“Because I’m the mom and what I say rules.”

“Hey! There’s one mommy and three kids – you guys are going to have to give me a break.”

“You NEVER cut anyone else’s hair. EVER. Never-ever-ever-ever-eveeeer.”

“Honey, if you’re naked and your brother is naked, please wait until you’re dressed before you start wrestling with him, okay?”

What about you? What are some things you never thought you’d say? Do share!

Filed Under: Family, funny stuff that happens, Kids, Kids do the darndest things, Motherhood

Brain dump

January 14, 2010 by Kelli

With the temperatures warming up to a balmy 42 degrees, I am snapping out of my rebellion against all things weather. We took the kids sledding at the local park again the other night. I’d love to share pictures or video to document, but I brought the digital camera without the media card inside it and the video camera had roughly 45 seconds of battery power. Awesome. Go mom!

But I can paint a word picture. I’m better at that anyway. I have to say that snow is a huge perk to cold weather because sledding is good fun. And finally, Praise be to God, Tia realized what fun it could be. Within about 15 minutes she was sledding down the hill by herself laughing the whole way. It’s a pretty steep hill so the sled gets to moving which means her laugh was a combination of terror and delight.

Sloan brought a neighbor friend with him and they were practicing boy law by competing for who could be the loudest and could say “That was awesome!” the most. I think they tied.

Then there was Landon. I wasn’t sure about how he would do. He’s a little guy…a little guy who loves sledding! He would plop himself down face first on the sled, curl up in a little ball and bark, “Push!” And Lee and I, like Pavlov’s dogs, would comply. We’d run beside the sled about half way down the hill to keep it from picking up too much speed, then we just let him bounce the rest of the way by himself.

He came up with a grin every time.

In the words of my six year old, “It was tooooootally aaaaawesome!”

__________________________________________________________________________

With colds and fevers circulating around our house, we’ve had a couple of rough nights sleep. There is nothing worse than having to get up in the middle of the night when it’s freezing cold and stumble out to the kitchen to get water and medicine for a crying child. So last night, I decided we were going to be prepared.

Before bed, I rubbed down everyone’s feet with Vaporub. It works wonders. I don’t know how, but it does. I plugged in mentholated vaporizers in their rooms and they were all asleep by 7:30. And I went to bed knowing that I was prepared thereby ensuring that I would maximize my own sleepage (should be a word).

And nobody woke up. They all slept through the night.

It’s amazing what being prepared will do!

____________________________________________________________________________

My heart hurts for Haiti. Pictures like this one bring bitter tears to my eyes. (The picture is graphic and it involves children- I just want you to be prepared.) Lee and I talked with the kids today about the earthquake and how we can help them as a family. Sloan remembers the small earthquake we had here a couple of years ago so he kind of gets what happened.

We told them that we were going to be sending some money in to help with the clean up and rebuilding and suggested that they think about what they could give from their wallets. We decided to give them the freedomt o give as much or as little as they feel they need to give.

I’m interested to see what they decide to do.

______________________________________________________________________________-

Today is my nephew Eli’s 7th birthday. We love that little boy – particularly Sloan. He and Sloan are two peas in a pod. I wish we lived closer just so those two could spend more time together.

Happy Birthday, Eli!

___________________________________________________________________________

I’ve run out of things to say. Shocking – I know.

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Life Tagged With: Haiti Relief

Top 10 ways to know you’ve watched too much Little House on the Prairie

January 8, 2010 by Kelli

10. When the kids are exasperating you, you burst out, “I declare,” in a huff.
9. Your six year old comes to you, clutching his stomach and says, “Mom, I don’t feel good. I think I’ve got the mountain fever.”
8. You have a sudden and bizarre urge to sew something…even though you don’t know how to sew.
7. You wish you owned a pair of snowshoes and a rifle.
6. You ring a bell to signal to the kids it’s time to eat.
5. You have a hankerin’ for a raspberry pie.
4. You use words like “hankerin'” in conversation.
3. You’re craving cornbread and honey.
2. You feel the need to read your Bible in the King James version.
1. Your kids are calling you Ma.

Day two of a snow day (this time due to frigid temps) means we’ve been bunkered down in front of the fire watching more of the adventures of the Ingalls family. We’ve seen Carrie fall down an old mine shaft and Laura survive the Spotted Mountain fever (although in reality she only had poison ivy). We’ve seen Pa swim through a creek and battle three armed men to get Doc Baker and we’ve learned that Mr. Edwards lost his first wife and child to the fever.

And we’re experiencing a little cabin fever of our own. We will have to go out later because there are a few necessities that we need, but otherwise, we’re in for the day. Here are a few shots from our snow fun yesterday. I did manage to get the kids to a park to sled, but the wind was whipping and it was so bitterly cold that we didn’t last long. In fact, Tia, Landon and I sat in the car and watched Sloan sled for most of the time.

Ah well – I tried. Happy snow day everyone!

Filed Under: Family, Kids

Battoning Down the Hatches…or something like that.

January 7, 2010 by Kelli

Well we didn’t get the eight inches of snow they were predicting yesterday (it looks more like 3-4 inches to me) but it’s still flurrying a bit out there so we’ll see what happens. The kids are enjoying their first ever snow day and right now are all piled up on the couch in their soggy pull ups and diapers watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse.

The weatherman says that the snowstorm is finished (but what does he know?) but our temperatures will be falling throughout the day. Falling from 17 with a windchill of 1. They’re saying by midday we should have wind chills hovering somewhere around -15 to -20. I told you the other day about my extreme hatred for cold weather. It makes me all flustered and cantakerous.

To compound things, Lee is currently at the airport waiting on a flight to take him to Phoenix for a work meeting. Phoenix…where it’s warm. (mutter, mutter, grumble, grumble)

So, like Ma Ingalls, the children and I shall power on. We will survive our manless estate during these record low temperatures. I will brave the weather so my kids can sled down the small hill in our front yard. I will throw salt on the driveway and shovel away some of the snow. I will churn the butter and bake corn bread from scratch…

Okay, I’ll probably just rip open a box of Mac and Cheese. I’m more of a modern day Ma.

And we will likely spend most of our day inside where I pray the children do not eat each other alive. If you try to call later and I don’t answer it’s because I’ve locked myself in my bedroom and curled up in the fetal position.

Hopefully all our together time looks like this:

Happy and Gettin’ Along:

We’ll drink hot cocoa and eat the oatmeal cookies that Landon and I made yesterday:

Yes, we will enjoy this snowy morning and we will gather before a roaring fire when the wind chills dip to dangerously low levels. We will read books and eat cookies and watch movies.

It may not be so bad after all.

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Life Tagged With: Winter snow storm

I’m married and dating a younger man!

January 5, 2010 by Kelli

Did you ever fear when you got married that you would miss dating? That you might long for the excitement of going out with someone new and different – the butterflies, the joy of a shared moment, smiles exchanged, hands held?

I will confess – I did worry about it. It wasn’t a worry that kept me up at night or made me question whether or not I should marry Lee, but I did think about it some in the months leading up to our marriage. I was barely 22 when we got married. I was very young and I knew that by marrying so young I was giving up a bit of “life.” In fact, when Lee proposed to me I was only eighteen months out of my teens.

In short, I was a baby.

Of course, I didn’t think that at the time. I felt more than grown up and I was mature enough to step into marriage. But looking back at it now, 22 seems so very young.

So yes – a couple of times during our engagement, I wondered if I would miss dating. I worried that maybe the thrill of the chase would be over and I would never get to experience that excitement again.

Now that I’m so old (eyeroll), though, I have a little perspective. First of all, I’m happy to say that I still get excited to go out on a date with my husband. How naive I was to think that marriage would squeeze an ever tightening noose around the neck of excitement. If anything, I get more excited to be alone with my husband now than I did back in those early days when I took for granted the endless alone time we had. My husband can still make me giggle and he still gives me goosebumps when he comes out all dressed to the nines and dapper. That didn’t die when we said “I do.”

But, I also now have the opportunity to date someone else. And going out with this young man gives me a new and different kind of excitement. When he smiles at me, my stomach flutters and my heart skips a beat when he holds my hand in public. And he’s only six years old. I never imagined it could be so fun to date my child. Seeing his eyes light up at the prospect of having alone time with me is better than any new romance I ever experienced in college.

I also get to date my daughter. Tonight she and I went swimming at the gym. Just the two of us. We giggled and laughed. We talked directly to one another without interruption. We played and splashed and hugged and kissed. And I had the time of my life. And soon Landon will be old enough to date – although I have to say that the alone moments he and I get when the older two are at school are priceless and precious.

So gone are the feelings and fears that life will somehow be monotonous with the same person day in and day out. I experience a lot of feelings on a day to day basis and I can guarantee you, monotony is not one of them. I am dating more now than I ever did before and while Lee and I don’t do the best job of carving out alone time with one another, the fact is we don’t really have to. I’m perfectly content sitting right here with him as he plays LEGO Star Wars on the Wii and I type away on Lucy. I don’t need the fancy dates that I needed back when I was but a whipper snapper.

I just need my husband by my side and my children close by and all is well.

Although a glass of wine would be nice too…

Excuse me.

Filed Under: Family, Life, Marriage, Sloan, Tia Tagged With: Dating after marriage

2009 – A “Wordy” Review

January 3, 2010 by Kelli

I got this idea from C-Jane’s blog. I’m not quite as spunky a writer as she is, but I liked looking through my 2009 posts and remembering the fun and crazy words that composed and marked the past year.

January:

– The Inauguration: Thoughts From a Conservative: This was one of my few ventures into politics on my blog. I don’t do it often, but sometimes the urge to comment on the political temperature of our country gets the best of me. Political posts always lead to interesting comments. I also ended up on the news during this particular event.

– Boredom Leads to Strange Things: An Epic Battle: In which Sloan and I developed an entire story using his Star Wars figurines and a doll house.

Feburary:

Hoops and Tears: This was one of my more poignant and introspective posts of the year. I don’t often venture into the recesses of my heart on my blog, but this was a decisive moment in my year and it’s a prayer that my heart still whispers for my child.

The Master Cleanse: A Reflection: Perhaps one of the funnier moments of our year. This was the description of mine and Lee’s abismal attempt at the Master Cleanse diet.

March:

Minivans are HOT!: I got my new site up and running with this post.

Memo to My Husband: My kind (and fecicious) way of asking my husband not to screw the lids of the kids’ sippy cups on so tight.

April:

Sick and Twisted or Just Plain Funny?: If my children ever end up needing professional counseling, this post may contain some explanation as to why.

Easter Blunder: My husband made a man blunder on Easter Sunday of all days. It made for a great memory…and gave me a reason to laugh at him – good naturedly of course.

May:

Can I Just Go Back To Bed?: The Infamous haircut heard ’round the world. It was Sloan’s lone foray into hair maintenance – he was fired, effective immediately and lasting for all of eternity.

The Art of Taking Tea: A friend and I threw a kick-butt tea party.

June:

The Lotus in a Field of Mud: I love yoga – I just don’t understand it…

Why I’m in Turks and Caicos: I got to take the trip of a lifetime with my mom as we travelled to her childhood home in South Caicos. It was amazing.

July: This was a big posting month for me…

Six Years: My baby turned six. *sob*

Then and Now: I took these comparitive shots of Landon on our favorite stretch of beach.

Heavy and Light: In which I go all introspective again.

I’m sorry but it’s all I’ve got today…: My pitiful, yet painfully honest, admition that I would gladly allow Zac Efron to make a Cougar out of me (though since I’ve written this post I’ve been informed that a woman in her thirties is actually referred to as a Puma).

August:

On Immunizations: I ventured into another hot topic and posted our decision to alter and withhold some immunizations for our children.

Missions Week: I hosted my first Missions Week in which I featured missions organizations and missionaries that are near and dear to my heart. You can read all of the posts by clicking on the link at the top of my page.

September:

The President’s Address to Our Children: I got political again and in doing so stepped in a big pile of *&%! This particular post ended in me getting an email from Fox and Friends to be interviewed on their morning program. Unfortunately I was out of town when they needed me and was unable to do the interview.

A Party in the Heavenlies: My son asked Jesus to be his Savior. A momentous day for sure.

October:

Don’t let the door hit you in the –: The one where I admit that sometimes my mothering skills are reduced to clapping my hands.

Pumpkins and Funnel Cakes – A Lovely Combo: I worked on taking and posting better photographs with this post.

November:

I Blame it all on Them: This post found me lamenting my dying brain cells – a phenomena I blame entirely on the children.

Mature Woman my BLEEP: My dermatologist had a severe case of verbal diarrhea.

December:

The Three Wise Men, The Construction Worker and the Lady Down the Street: This one is pretty self-explanatory.

The One Where My Mom Claws Come Out: I almost had to take a girl out at the mall. Don’t make mama bear angry!

Whew – It’s been a fun ride, this blogging thing. I’m so glad I have these stories documented and I’m so grateful to have you guys journey with us. I know I’m not the most talented writer out there and I don’t always spin the most fascinating stories, but this blog has been a fun release for me and I enjoy your company!

I’m hoping to improve my writing skills in this coming year, while also providing a fun and witty journal for my children to look back at one day. This is the literary road map of their childhoods. I just pray that I do them justice.

Happy 2010.

Which, can you believe it’s 2010? I really thought we’d have flying cars by now…and Hoverboards.

Blast those Hollywood movie makers…

Filed Under: blast from the past, Blogging, Family, funny stuff that happens, Kids, Kids do the darndest things, Life, Missions Weeks, Random

The One Where My Mom Claws Come Out

December 30, 2009 by Kelli

*update* I returned to the mall today to file a formal complaint and noticed that there was a phone number on the sign in front of the trampolines (where the same girl was working again today, I might add). I called the number and spoke with the man who owns the trampolines. He was very kind and extremely apologetic for her behavior. He told me that this was the second complaint in two weeks he’d gotten on this girl…and she only works two days/week. Yikes. Anyway, he apologized profusely and told me he would be calling me in the next couple of days to set up a time for me to bring the kids in and let them bounce for free. So I just wanted to put that out there – it was the employee, not the establishment and I’m very pleased with the outcome. Happy New Year everyone!

Tonight I had the privilege of taking Sloan on a date to the movies. We are not movie folk. Lee and I don’t love going to the movies (it’s more that we don’t love paying for the movies) and so we rarely go, which means I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve taken Sloan to the theater.

Needless to say, going to see a movie is a HUGE treat. So huge, in fact, that as we walked through the mall, Sloan grabbed my hand and put it on his cheek and said, “Thanks for taking me to the movie mom. This is the bestest night of my whole life…AND of my whole year!”

Glad I could finish out 2009 with a bang for you little man.

We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks. Sloan thought is was HI-LAR-I-OUS. He slapped his knee, he bent over and gripped his sides, he cackled and I think I even heard a guffaw. Even I thought it was a funny movie, though I had considerably more fun watching him clutch his sides in hysterics than I did watching the screen. (The two scenes that had him laughing until I thought he might have an accident? When Alvin gave the football jocks a wedgie and when Theodore got trapped beneath the sheets after Toby passed gas. Ugh – is he all boy or what?)

After the movie, Sloan wanted to walk around the mall for a bit and since it was date night, I decided to give in and let him pick one more special thing to do. He chose to jump on the inflated trampolines in the center of the mall. Lucky for me, I still had Tia’s wallet in my purse from a trip to the store the other day and I was able to borrow the cash needed from her to allow him to do that.

Remind me to replace that before she starts looking for her wallet!

We approached the gates of the trampoline area and Sloan asked if he could jump. The girl in charge looked up from her soup in a bread bowl long enough to roll her eyes then slid off her chair and stomped over to us and flung the gate open.

“Take off your shoes,” she barked at Sloan.

“What?”

*eyeroll* “Take. off. your. shoes,” she said all slow and snotty like. At this point my blood reached a simmering point. I took a deep breath and told myself that maybe, just maybe, she had low blood sugar and our interuppting her dinner was causing an adverse reaction in her body. Benefit of the doubt. I was working hard on it.

Once Sloan had his shoes and jacket off, he climbed up on the trampoline all giggly and smily – oblivious to the snotty girl yanking the belt around his waist. She jerked the straps up then gave him a little shove backwards to the center of the tramp. And my blood reached boiling point. I literally had to grip the sides of the gate to keep myself from lunging over.

At this point, another family walked up and their daughter headed in to the other trampoline, receiving the same rude and rough treatment. The other mom and I made eye contact. I could see that her blood was at the same temperature mine was. Her knuckles were white too.

Our kids commensed to jumping. Sloan wooped and hollered and had the time of his life. I tried to enjoy his glee, but I was too busy watching the girl, making sure that she was doing her job and keeping an eye on the jumpers. She wasn’t. She was busy pouring her soup into her bread bowl and taking a bite.

After a few minutes, she lowered the kids down and without a word motioned for Sloan to step forward so she could remove his harness. He wasn’t looking at her so he didn’t see her. She motioned again. He still didn’t see. So she kicked at the tramp with her knee to get his attention and when he looked at her she motioned vigorously and rudely for him to step forward…still not talking and asking him politely. Then she yanked – and I mean literally yanked – his harness off and stomped over to the other tramp.

When she came to me for the money, I was taking very deep breaths. My face was so hot I feared it might spontaneously combust into a flaming inferno. I leaned way forward and put my nose about an inch from her and began speaking through clenched teeth.

I said, “I understand that it’s late and you’ve probably had a long day, and I see that you are trying to eat some dinner so I’m assuming you’re hungry, but the way that you just treated my son is unacceptable. You’ve been nothing but a snot from the moment we stepped up here and I want you to know that I was watching you and I don’t appreciate it.”

At this point, she rolled her eyes at me. She ROLLED HER EYES AT ME. Perhaps I misjudged her earlier. She didn’t have low blood suger, she had a freaking death wish.

To my credit, I kept my cool and never raised my voice, although my hands began shaking with fury.

“Nobody pushes my kid around, do you understand? That’s my kid right there and he deserves your respect and you will respect him. I don’t care if you like your job or not – you have no right to push my kid around and think you can get away with it.”

I then handed her the money and said, “I will pay you this money, but I want you to know that I am going to the Information desk where I will be filling out a complaint and recommending that you be removed from a job that requires you working with children since you clearly don’t want to be around them. And I sincerely hope that you shape up your attitude and treat the children standing in line behind me better than you’ve treated my son.”

She stared at me and did not respond. Not even a nod. Oh my Lord, you guys, it is by the grace of God I was able to step away I was so furious.

I grabbed Sloan’s hand and as calmly as I could walked away. As I stopped to put his shoes on him, the dad of the other little girl that was jumping with Sloan walked by and gave me two thumbs up. I also noticed a mom who had been standing in line behind me leave the line.

Good.

When I got to the Information desk, they told me they were out of complaint forms (!) but I could come back tomorrow and fill one out in the main mall office. And you better believe I’ll be doing that. That girl has no business working that job.

As we left, Sloan asked me why I told that girl to change her attitude – I decided to use it as a teaching moment and explained to him that that girl was rude and disrespectful not only to me, but more so to him.

“We’re a family, kiddo, and if someone isn’t treating your family right, you need to defend your family.”

He nodded and I think he got the message. He’s a perceptive kid and he knew that she wasn’t acting kind. (Kind! She wasn’t acting human…she was a little monster.) For my part, I’m actually pretty proud of how I handled the situation. I have a tendency to, ahem, fly off the handle and when she rolled her eyes at me I had to fight H-A-R-D not to raise my voice and use a few choice words. Seriously – just thinking about it right now I’m biting my lip with such force that I may pierce it.

But I knew little eyes were watching and I kept my cool. And I think she got the message. I don’t think she cared, but she got the message.

Yay me! *deep breath*

Now I’m off to go release on the punching bag in the basement…

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Life, Motherhood, Sloan Tagged With: Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakqual

Christmas Is

December 28, 2009 by Kelli

Christmas is the excitment on little faces at a sea of gifts filled with unknown treasure.

Christmas is little boys grinning from ear to ear.

Christmas is Santa Clause coming to town.

Christmas is the thrill of a surprise.

Christmas is family.

Christmas is being together, celebrating the birth of our Savior and relishing the blessings that have been bestowed upon us. Christmas is my favorite time of year.