Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was magical. Santa came. Boy did he ever. We were so blessed by the generosity of our loved ones. We woke up early and had to wait for Grandma Julie, Grandma Joyce, Ann and Suzi to arrive. Hayden was dying with excitement to go see if Santa came and what all lay in store for him under the tree. Waiting is so hard....especially on Christmas morning. He was a good sport about it and was laughing and teasing. We had so much fun while waiting. I loved seeing Hayden's anticipation build and the magic and sparkle in his eyes.

Hayden was in awe as he walked into the family room. Boy did Santa ever come. I think he had a hole in his bag and left a few extra gifts by mistake because Hayden sure was spoiled. 

I love Christmas morning. I believe there is magic in the air. Love, joy, happiness, goodwill, peace, the Christmas spirit, and hope are almost tangible and can be felt so intensely on the day of our dear Savior's birth. The world transforms to peace and love and harmony. I love the feeling, the excitement, the joy, smiles, hope and love that this precious day brings.

Our Christmas was better than perfect. It all went off without a single moment of anything but magic. I love Hayden's look of awe as he first rounds the corner and sees all the treasures and packages that await. I love that early morning moment, just before everyone arrives, Santa has come, the lights twinkle on the tree, stockings are filled and everything is still and right in the world.

Hayden immediately spotted his new Mobo bike that Suzi so generously gave to our entire family. Thomas and Hayden have both been out riding on it a lot and have loved it. Hayden also loved his score of a telescope. He is excited to look at the stars and planets that will give him a new inspiration for drawing and capturing life. All that matters was that beautiful smile and twinkling eyes on his face. He was as awe stricken and feeling the magic. It was perfect.

We all sat and watched Hayden empty his stocking, item by item. He was so excited when dead-pool spiderman legos ended up in his stocking. We all laughed as he exclaimed, "Thhhaaaannnkkk yyyooouuu, Ssssannnttaa! This is aaawwwweeessssoooommee!" He received a couple of DVD's, gadgets, fidgets, sensory toys, lego guys, training chopsticks, silly putty and many wonderful gifts. When the last thing he did was pull out an orange, he paused, he looked at the tree. He commented on the Christmas Oranges book we read and hoped that children everywhere were waking up to Christmas surprises! I am so glad he paused, even in his excitement to think of others on this beautiful Christmas morning.

I love this sweet family of mine and feel blessed beyond measure that they are mine. I receive so much joy from them. They love me, they cherish me and want to make me happy. I feel exactly the same about them. We are so lucky to truly be a family in love.

I sure love my boy and love that he wanted to sit with me on the chair to open gifts. I loved each minute of it, well, besides the times that I got knocked in the head with a box. Treasure him so much!

Grandma Julie surprised us with a beautiful gift. She told Hayden to get dressed one day in his church clothes. She came and picked him up. Hayden would not tell me where they went or what they did only that I would love my present. Well, he was definitely right. I adore it. I love that it shows him looking forward to going into the temple. It says, "I'll go inside someday". Hayden explained that this is to remind him he needs to make sure to live his life so he can be worthy to go inside at 18 and go on a mission. Love it! So sweet. So thoughtful. So perfect.

We love having the gathering house and that our loved ones want to be with us on Christmas. Everyone was so kind and so generous to all of us. We love having so many loved ones surrounding us. Ann was so sweet and made a book for me, Thomas and Hayden. It had all kinds of memories of things we have done together and then a section of all the things she has learned from each of us. So touching. So thoughtful.

I love that we succeeded in creating smiles, tears of joy and a lot of happy squeals and surprises on Christmas morning. Suzi is excited to go take trapeze lessons. What else do you get her? She loves adventure and I found something she hasn't done. I loved Julie's face when she unwrapped the guitar pick for her new guitar. It had "When words fail, music speaks" engraved on the pick. Joyce loved the temple packet, hand stitched with her name and the Mesa Temple. She was truly touched. Suzi and I knew that Ann is a struggling young adult trying to figure out bills, apartments and life. My approach was baking and cooking supplies, Suzi's answer was gift cards to Olive Garden and Chili's. Oh how we laughed at Suzi and I trying to help out a situation with such different approaches.

I absolutely loved my quilt that Thomas had made for me. Perfection. Hayden loved the Optimus Prime and Megatron transformers that we found him. Bonus, he had never seen them before and squealed with delight. Thomas was happy with all of his gifts and loved watching the rest of us.

Ann drew a picture of Suzi's brother Dave, that had passed away. Suzi was brought to tears and so touched. The drawing was utterly amazing. Ann is so talented. Hayden desires to develop his talent of art, just like Ann and was thrilled when he received professional art supplies from Grandma.

One of my favorite moments was giving Thomas his best present. What do you give a guy that is always busy taking care of all of us? How do you wrap up time? I spent weeks planning dates for each month of the year that I could actually do with my limited abilities. In each envelope was a date planned out down to the invitation, activity, food to be eaten, dessert, etc. I even have babysitting all lined up. Our dates are planned and completely ready to go. We also have an envelope of extra ideas, in case we get a chance to sneak in an extra date or two. He loved it! He loved that in 2013 we are going to make our dates a priority, even if they are at home dates.

Christmas was beautiful! It was perfect. Julie prepared a delicious breakfast of egg cassorole, monkey bread, fruit and of course diet cokes. After we ate, we put on a movie, Hayden played legos, we napped, we relaxed, we just hung out. It was peaceful and perfect.

Let me not forget that we talked of Christ, we rejoiced of Christ, we celebrated His birth and gave our presents to our Savior. Hayden's were so thought out and so perfect. I have written them down so that we will see them each and every day of this next year. That will be the true gift to our Savior, that when the tree has come down, life has returned to normal, doctor visits start back up and the gifts are no longer new, that we will continue to love and serve and take care of our brothers and sisters here. What more could the Savior want than for us to love and serve each other each and every day of the year. What a beautiful celebration of the birth of our Savior and Redeemer.