Early Christmas

We traveled back to Missouri today to start our family Christmas festivities, so we decided to let the kids open their presents from us last night. We went to an early dinner and then we drove around to look at Christmas lights. Let me just tell you that the lights in Dallas were A-MAZ-ING! I can't even put into words how cool these people did their displays. Obviously most of them pay people to do it, but regardless it is an amazing site...one I have never seen before. Things really are bigger in Texas! There were carriage rides through the neighborhoods and lots of traffic. It is a MUST see! We then headed home and did our advent devotional. We then surprised the kids and let them open the gifts. They get one gift from us and three gifts from Santa. Now, compared to my childhood that amount of gifts seem ridiculously not enough. (That was not a grammatically correct sentence but just roll with me.) However, our kids are used to it, it doesn't phase them, they know no different. And, this year due to a restricted budget the one gift from us wasn't anything extravagant, but I must say that it was the best reaction I have seen from the kids ever. Bubby opened first and he got an Armor of God dress up set. Sword, breast plate, shield, helmet, etc. Him and TW love to wrestle and fight each other so when we saw this we knew it was right up his alley...and we were right on! AKP opened next. For months now she has been asking for footed pajamas. So, we bought her a set. You would have thought she won a million dollars by her response. Pure joy! She thanked us continuously for the next hour. It has been her favorite thing. Addisyn opened last. She got a pair of furry clog type shoes. One of her friends at school has them. Uggs makes them but she got the off brand. :) And, she loved them. She hasn't taken them off since. Again, a total hit! What I learned is, its the simple things! Seeing the joy in their eyes melted my heart!