Christmas Fun

It all began on a not so snowy night.  Ok, so a no snow night.  We have begun our own Evans Family traditions this year.  On Christmas Eve, Madison and I spent time together making raisin oatmeal cookies for santa (a favorite of his).  I simultaneously made a pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner and some cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.  Our house smelt of Christmas spices and everyone was happy.  The girls opened a present from their cousins Mesia and Anna and played with them well into the night and even the next morning for 30 minutes in their room from 7-7:30am.  It was then time to see what Santa brought and both girls ran down stairs and I hear a squeal from Abby and then, "I love Santa."  Both girls just looked at all the presents and then we came down, ate oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, and a green smoothie and then it was off to church for a beautiful Sacrament meeting filled with singing and the true Spirit of Christmas.  It was such a spiritual experience to celebrate Christmas in a nice dress and to sing hymns before opening a present.  Madison and Abby were both so patient.  In church Abby whispered to me that she wanted to go to nursery and I told her, "We aren't having nursery today, just Sacrament and then we get to go home and unwrap the presents" to which she responded with, "but I want to go to nursery, I don't want to unwrap the presents."  Feeling this was really odd I rephrased it and said, "we are going home to open the presents."  To this Abby's face lit up and she said, "I want to go home right now."  She thought we were going home to wrap presents:-)  The first thing they both opened was the long awaited baby alive from Santa.  They weren't interested in any more presents after that and we opened them slowly throughout the day.  We still have two left under the tree for tomorrow.  I guess they really only need one thing:-)  I totally got shown up by Santa.  What a spirit filled day of love, family, warmth, and the true spirit of Christmas.  We spent a few hours watching home videos of Brian when he was a baby, first learning to walk, etc.  It was so touching and fun to see his siblings when they were all so young.  How Brian's mom ever did it with 9 kids I will never know.  I stand all amazed.  I feel so blessed to have had Brian home with us this Christmas season and know that not everyone has that miracle or blessing.  The girls loved sharing it with their dad and I loved having him home.  I must admit it was a bit untraditional in the fact that we ate pumpkin pie, asparagus, and cinnamon rolls for dinner.  Madison had one asparagus, two pieces of pie with cream, and a cinnamon roll for dinner.  After I brought out the asparagus on a plate for everyone to eat off of while watching the home videos Madison asked what else we were having for Christmas dinner.  I felt bad knowing we had Happy Meals for Thanksgiving and she wanted a turkey then and for Christmas dinner I didn't make anything really.  I then told her she could have pumpkin pie and eat it in the living room.  I don't think this will become a tradition, but it worked this time and she was very happy:-)  Pictures to come...I did document our Christmas:-)