Merry Merry

Yesterday we woke up and took the tree down, put all the Christmas decor away, and removed the exterior lights. The girls protested, but it was time. We made the most of December and packed in so much holiday cheer (here and here), I wasn't sad at all to pack the holidays away so soon.

Christmas was wonderful. We separated the gifts into towers the night before so the girls could eye their haul right away. They wasted no time and began opening before JD and I could pour our first cup of coffee.

 





































I never know when to stop shopping for Christmas gifts. At what point is it enough? 5 gifts? 10? I remember growing up,  my brothers and I each received 3 gifts from our parents (usually a pair of jeans, shoes, and a game or toy). It always felt like a ton of gifts to us. I figured anything over 3 gifts would be a good Christmas surprise for my kids. I was thoughtful about my gift-giving and really tried to select things that my girls would like for a long time to come. In the end, they each had 10 presents from mom and dad to open and several from their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Some favorites were a tiny sparkly J. Crew purse for Beatrice and a toy wooden coffee pot set for Penelope.

Christmas isn't about gifts though, it's about God taking on flesh to come to earth and walk among us, pay the price for our sin, and become our righteousness. It's about Jesus, the Light of the world. We attended our church's candlelight service on Christmas night. It was beautiful and a perfect end to our Christmas.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!