The Stephens Family: Christmas

Matt took off 12 days for Christmas this year. The kids were out of school on the 19th and Matt took off his time starting on the 21st. The nice thing is that he only had to use 4 days of vacation with all of the holidays. We had MANY things to check off our lists over the holidays. We started with decorating our gingerbread house and man.

Another day we went to the temple grounds. It was beautiful. We lucked out and went on a day with the temps in the 50's or maybe a little less.

On Christmas Eve we did a "traditional dinner." It was SO GOOD. I think we've found a tradition we like doing.

That night we watched all of the mormon videos about the birth of Christ. We had been doing every Family Home Evening about Christmas and what it means but this night we watched the videos and talked about what gift we want to give Jesus this year. I decided I want to be kinder (stop yelling) at my kids and mostly Matt. Will wants to be nicer to Mae. Mae wants to work harder at school and Matt wants to improve his personal prayers.

The night before we were getting ready for bed and Mae starts crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was afraid Santa Claus wasn't going to bring her anything! I asked her why and she said, "Because I'm always so mean to dad!"

Matt read The Night Before Christmas and Mae and Will could not WAIT to go to bed. In fact, they were begging to go to bed. When I was kissing Will he said, "Tomorrow's going to be the BESTER day ever!"

The next morning the kids were up around 7:00am.... not too bad! We got up and went through the gifts. Will was excited about his Green Machine and Mae loves her Ezy Roller. Both are toys that are more fun without snow and we it happened to snow for 3 days straight... sigh...

Will couldn't quite reach the pedals... sigh... but a pillow helped.

Later that day after some serious napping we headed to my parents house for dinner.

We had such a nice, quiet Christmas this year. I love visiting Cali and our family there, but its so different to just "be home." and have no distractions from whats important. I love my family. I'm so thankful to be a mom and a wife. I love that we can do our own traditions and enjoy so much time together! We spent a lot of time playing games and are continuing to do so as we still have a few days left of vacation.

The day after Christmas we got haircuts. Will was in desperate need.

Much better!

Mae patiently asked for a year straight and finally got her wish of having bangs. She is obsessed with them and loves them so much. I think it makes her look So much older!