Christmas

Thanksgiving has come and went and yet again I have not kept up with my blog. My older sister came down for Thanksgiving and we spent the week with her and my brother-in-law. It is hard to be so far from them, but it sounds beautiful in Washington and they sound like they enjoy it. except for all this cold weather. Too cold for me. We will just have to visit them.
Christmas flew by. I cannot believe Christmas is already over. It seems like it was just Thanksgiving. Avery was a lot of fun this year. She really is starting get the Santa idea. She would tell us that santa was going to bring her presents, pink presents. If you asked her again she would say a dollhouse, piano, dolls, makeup. I guess she must have been very good this year becasue Santa brought all of those things. She went on the Polar Express train with Nonee and Popee. She loved it. She got to wear her PJs, drink hot choclate, sing Jingle Bells, see Santa, and then eat Pizza! She still talks about it. She didn't see the movie before she went but she did after and she connected some of it to what she did. Wen also went to Land of Lights (a big park filled with lights). Avery really enjoyed that too.
We celebrated Christmas with Chris's mom a couple of weeks before Christmas. She opened a few presents then she helped me open one of mine. It was money, but Avery was throwing the paper out of the bag and the money went with it. It was cute. We also told her that she didn't have anymore presents after opening a couple. She jumped down from her chair, said "Oh okay. Let's open my stuff". Of course she had more but it was cute.
Christmas Eve we went to the church service and then had dinner with my parents. We put out cookies, milk, and a letter for Santa and put magic reindeer food out for the reindeer. Christmas morning Avery was so excited she tore into her presents. As soon as we got done with one she would go to the next one. We went to Chris's dad's afterward, which was hard on Avery to leave all the presents she had just opened. We spent the day there and by the time we got home she was asleep so we put her in bed. At 3:30 she woke up ready to play with her toys. We finally got her to go back to sleep. We told her the sun was not up, when the sun was up she could play with her toys. At 8:30 she rolled over blinked her eyes and then shot up and said "the sun's up. I play with my toys" and jumped off the bed and ran to the living room.
Friday afternoon we went to my parents and had Christmas with them. Then extended family came down Saturday. Avery made a haul this year for Christmas. It is fun watching her get so excited about Christmas and presents and toys, but I also am trying hard to show and teach her the true meaning of Christmas. That God sent His Son to Earth to die for us. We would talk about it and read stories and things like that. I want her to enjoy Christmas and the gifts but I want her to know and live the meaning of Christmas.