Mandy's Marbles: December 2011

Christmas this year was so much more than we ever expected it to be. We went from a Christmas with just Sophia last year to this year with FOUR little ones! We were so excited to share this holiday with our new family. The girls have been waiting for Christmas to come for so long now! We spent most of December with Alfie (our house elf) coming and going and reporting back to Santa whether the girls had naughty or nice that day. Every morning they would wake up so excited to go find him. Here are a few pictures of some of the places we found him around the house.

He brought us back some red and green
milk from the North Pole

It tasted like Christmas :)

Stole this idea from my sister Michelle.

Ingredients to make chocolates :)

Surprises from Santa!

We had a lot of fun with Alfie this year and the girls really got into it. Maybe next year I'll be a little more prepared, because this year there were a couple of nights where he didn't go to the North Pole... oops... :)

We let the kids believe in Santa and have a lot of fun with it, but we also talk to them a lot about what Christmas is really about. They learned the story of baby Jesus being born, and that this day is to celebrate his birth. We teach them that Santa brings us gifts to remind us of the gifts that Jesus received on his birthday. We also teach them about giving to show others Christ's love. They each filled a shoebox this year for the Samaritan's Purse, and they were so excited to give presents to kids who didn't have very much. They love to sing and talk about Jesus :)
We went to our Christmas eve service on Saturday night and it was the first time the kids had come in to "big church," they usually go to their own class. They enjoyed the music and sat so quietly the rest of the time. We were really impressed with how well behaved they were.

Here they are sitting in church. They got to wear the
Christmas dresses my mom made for them.

After church we came home and let the girls open their one Christmas eve present (always pajamas). My mom sent them this year, they were nightgowns and matching robes.

The girls all moved into one room together this weekend. Sophia and Ansleigh got bunk-beds and they could hardly contain their excitement! After opening their gift and getting ready for bed Derek got out some jingle bells downstairs and we made it sound like Santa was right outside. The girls went CRAZY scrambling around trying to get in their beds and fall asleep so he wouldn't skip over our house. Sophia was running around the room with toothbrush in one hand, toothpaste in the other just screaming, lol. It was so funny. Then they jumped in their beds and were soooo quiet! They have never gone to bed so well before. If only Santa came every night.....

Passed out in their new beds.... dreaming about Santa

Then it was time for me and Derek to play Santa. We still had a few gifts to wrap, and some toys to put together, and I had to finish crocheting hats for the girls.

Haha, Derek putting together some toys.

Around 2:30am, Santa had finally arrived. And after everything was all set out we stood there in amazement realizing that apart from a few stocking stuffers and the hats I made, we literally didn't buy a single gift for our kids this year. People from all over who have heard about our story with the girls have showered us with gifts for our family this year. It's hard to provide for 2 extra kids when you were not planning to do so, but God has been so good and He has put AMAZING people in our lives. He has been using these people in big ways, and we feel so blessed.

After about 3 hours of sleep, Christmas morning had finally arrived!!! We heard three little girls squealing outside of our door. They were a little confused by this:

Santa had blocked the entrance to the stairs so that no little kids could get by without their parents... He's a clever Santa.... :)

Ok, I know some of you are just dying to see the faces of these girls when they came downstairs... so here are the pictures. There are a TON! So enjoy :)