I had this vision of an enormous blog with a million pictures, alas I'll be splitting it in 2 parts (possibly more). There are so many pics I want to share with you but it seems I can only do so many at a time. 
As the kids get older, Christmas becomes more and more fun. It reminds me of when my mom and I took them to Disneyland a couple summers ago. I don't remember the last time I went before that, but taking the kids made me see Dland in a way that I had forgotten. We didn't do any fast rides nor go at the speed of light in order to get in as much as possible. Instead we took our time and did things that I don't know if I ever did or even noticed before, and seeing it through my children's eyes made the experience so precious. Having our kids had made me look at Christmas in a way that I haven't in a long time.
Our holiday season started with a visit from my brother and his wife for Thanksgiving. It was such a treat as we had not seen them in a couple of years. They had served in Japan for around 4 yrs and are now in FL. Hopefully we can see more of each other while we are on the same side of the country. The bad news is I hardly took any pictures :( But the kids love their aunt and uncle and seeing them at christmas was great too.
The kids were in the Christmas program at church. J a shepherd boy that held a cross and E and angel who held a Bible and a heart. They were both so cute. E really surprised me with her amazing stage presence as well as her effort to enunciate the words to the songs, and to keep mouthing the words even when she didn't know them.
The Saturday before we left for CA we had Christmas with Dennis' family. The cousins love playing together. That was an important part of growing up for both D & I and we are grateful that our kids can have that as well.
Dennis has a friend who's dad is really into trains. He has a mini train that goes around his property. This year they held a train ride that took you through a (small) lights display. It was freezing, and a super long line, so out of sensitivity to the people behind us (we waited for almost an hour) we four crammed into a roughly 2 1/2 by 3 ft. box car. It was a moment I had to capture.
The Thursday night before Christmas we headed out to CA to be with my family. The kids were fairly good on the plane. It definitely gets easier as they get older. While we were there took the time to relax and catch up on a variety of things, such as...........
Reading,
baking,
lounging in front of a TV with more than 2 clear channels,
and some arts and crafts (gingerbread house).
Christmas eve was filled with the traditions of ......
going to the candle light Christmas Eve service.
singing happy birthday to Jesus (actually this was new, but someone always gives my dad the christmas tree cake)
and Christmas pj's!!
more to come..........
