On Christmas morning, our church had just a worship service at 11 a.m., so we had plenty of time to unwrap presents before leaving to celebrate Christ's birth with our church family! We always enjoy being with our extended family at Christmastime, but we loved the change of pace of staying here with just us on Christmas morning, and being able to share in the joy of Christ's birth with our church body. Nathan preached the sermon on Christmas day as well, which was an honor and blessing for us! Here are a few pictures of our time before church on Christmas Day!
Our tree, which I LOVE! It's narrow so it doesn't take up a lot of space, and the colored lights are large and fun and, well, colorful--perfect for the eclectic set of ornaments we put on it every year!
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| I am not a big 'coordinate my wrapping paper' kind of person, but what I had on hand was red and white, and I love it...so when I bought wrapping paper after Christmas, I bought more red and white patterns. There will be different papers and bows, but the same color scheme in wrapping :-) |
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| Waiting to dive in! |
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| Diving in...before he realized that he needed to be able to read the tags, he couldn't just guess which present went where :-) |
I am the oldest of four children, and in my family we would always separate out the gifts into piles, and then we would go around the room and take turns opening the gifts. This started because one year we all dove into unwrapping gifts at the same time, and my mom never figured out which grandparent gave a couple of the gifts. That drove her crazy, and so we had to take turns and watch others opening gifts. It can be tedious, but I love how it shows the kids even in this small way that the Christmas gifts are not all for them--others are receiving gifts, too, and we must show kindness and love by watching them open their gifts and rejoicing in what they have received as well.
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| Baxter's 'pile'--we keep it simple, because they get lots of gifts elsewhere :-) |
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| Georgia guarding her stash |
This is a Phillips (and now Finn) family tradition--taking a picture of each family member with their Christmas presents. It helps preserve a record of what they received each year. They aren't always the prettiest pictures, but it is a tradition!
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| Georgia with her play kitchen, measuring cups, books and other toys |
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| Baxter with his Star Wars figurines, Hot Wheels, books and other toys |
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| Eleanor with her books, teething rings, and Mommy's candy bar :-) |
1 comment:
What a great Christmas morning! Love the picture tradition! We have everyone take turns too, and it really does make the pace slow down and allow everyone to see and show gratitude for each gift.
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