Christmas

We love Christmas and had such a great time. It strikes me as funny as Mom's we spend months planing, searching, buying, making,sewing, and wrapping for the big day and in the matter of a couple hours the whole thing is over. Someone is always a little disappointed that they did not get something that they were really hoping for. But we all love Christmas. Like always we got several games which enabled us to play games every night or day for the 10 days. This is a favorite tradition of everyone. The children all got to open up one present on Christmas eve, we all had matching pj's for Christmas morning. This was a lot of fun, and creates such wonderful memories. I think the little kids favorite present was a new toy kitchen. plus Katie, Brandon and Jason received dress up. Princess for Kat, Prince/knight for Brandon and Cowboy/Sheriff for Jason. There has been so much joy out of these it is unbelievable. We took the time each night to read Christmas stories, and thought we would share one we loved.

A Brother Like That
Paul received a car from his brother as a Christmas present. On Christmas eve when Paul came out of his office a street urchin was admiring his car.
"Is this your car Mister?" he asked.
Paul nodded and said"My brother gave it to me for Christmas."
The boy was astonished and remarked "your brother gave it it to you and it did not cost you anything? Boy I wish.."
Paul though he knew what the boy was going to say "I wish I had a brother like that" But what the young lad said surprised Paul more than anything else.
"I wish I could be a brother like that."
Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively added would you like a ride?
"Oh' yes I would love one"
After a short ride the boy looked at Paul with Glee in his eyes and said, "Mister would you mind driving passed my house?"
Paul smiled ad thought he knew what this boy wanted to show off to his neighbors and friends, but once again Paul was wrong.
The Boy asked Paul to stop right in front of his door then asked him to weight just a moment. The boy ran inside and came back a few minutes latter carrying a small crippled boy.
He set the little boy on the step and said there she is Buddy, his brother gave it ti him and it did not cost him a cent, and one day I will give one to you so you can ride a round town and sell all the sights I have been telling you about."
With a tear i his eye Paul got out of the car and went around and lifted the small boy into his car ad the three of them went for a drive all around town.
That Christmas Paul learned what the Savior meant when he said, "it is more blessed to give then to receive"
I hope we can all be a little more Christlike and give through out the year and not just at Christmas time.

Alex's Birthday

December flew by. Alex's big and log awaited birthday came o December 24Th she turned 12 years old. This was very exciting for her as she got to now start young women's. This was so hard on mom. I look at her and see my little baby that would fit in daddy's had and for arm. She was so energetic she was crawling around at 5 months when she discovered chocolate and needed to get to more of it. She started talking at 6 months and by the time she turned one she could say well over 300 words, She would talk in three word sentences. We should have know we were in trouble then because she has never stopped talking. She also Got to start wearing makeup. Not allot I don't want her to look like a street walker. just some natural colors in light shades. A little blush eyeshadow and mascara and some pink lip gloss. Alex has been dieing to wear makeup sense she was 17 months old and got into Mommy's makeup and fixed her self up. To go along with her new found maturity she also gets to start wearing earring that dangle up to 1/2 inch off her earlobe. I really want her to be able to enjoy being young and feel if she wears to dongle of earring she will get them caught in something (probably her hair) and rip them out of her ear lobe. Besides even though Alex is convinced that 12 is very old I know it still is a little girl, even though she is very mature for her age. To celebrate her birthday Alex got braces. It was very cute because she walked out of the orthodontist and the first thing she did was give me a big smile and say,"Don't I look cute?" I gave her the honest answer, " Yes honey you look absolutely beautiful." (I hope to have pictures posted with this tomorrow but I have to do that off of the other computer.)