merry christmas! i hope your day has been filled with wonder at the greatest gift of all, Jesus. our day has been sweet. the girls woke up early, crawled into bed with us, and sang the 'happy birthday' song. we strive to keep this day's original purpose in front of all the celebrating and gathering. our traditions are so different than most. on this day our children receive one gift from us. one gift representing the one gift of Jesus to the world. this year it was a waffle maker. we hope over time our tradition of one gift on this day with morph into being a gift of service we offer as a family to someone else, but for now, ( with the ages of our children, what society says is 'normal' and traditions brought in from both sides of our families) the physical something we are using as a tool for understanding. one of the first things ocean said this morning was, "what's for breakfast?" well well well.....they were thrilled with the gift! we spent another great day with cousins and family...playing inside, movies, talent show, outside games of tag and swinging in the hammock, my oldest brother and i built a new zipline for the children to use, i went on an adventure bike ride with my sister-in-law....it was a fun day. eric read the christmas story to us, it is always nice to take that time, sit back and reflect again throughout the day. i love that our children aren't bothered by doing this, it is a part of their tradition, their way of celebrating and honoring the day, it is special to them. christmas doesn't end for us now, it continues as we celebrate the twelve days of christmas and then epiphany. each year it has been different as we really make it our own. with all the different things we have done throughout the years, with all the little celebrations we do in december aside from christmas, i hope the concept sticks that Jesus is truly the reason for this, today's, holiday season.