I love Christmas Time!

The holidays are really busy for me and my work schedule. In trying to fit in all the fun I can along with helping my customers prepare for their celebrations with their friends and families, I get completely exhausted. After the Christmas season and putting away all the many decorations and getting my house back to order, I complete shut down. However, I can't complete shut down because I also needed to finish preparations for the first day of my new Primary Class on January 1st. I'm starting to come out of my total exhaustion and need to catch up on my blog/journal.

I started this blog at Christmas time, but never finished it:

It seems as I get older the less rushed I feel. I have more gratitude in my Savior Jesus Christ for his love and sacrifice for me. I'm thankful to know He came to the earth to show us the way back home to our Heavenly Father. His atoning sacrifice gives me hope that even though I am not perfect, he has paid the price for me to repent and try harder each day to be like him.

December 23: Last night as the fire was burning and all the Christmas lights were glowing .... I felt happiness! I love this time of year. I love being home and the comfort it brings to me. I love preparing for Christmas and sharing the joy with my children.

December 24: Jason and Sharon will come tonight and we will have a nice dinner of Heavenly Ham, crock pot cheesy potatoes, asparagus and home made rolls. They will stay the night and in the morning we will open presents and have biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Brady has a flight that leaves to visit his dad at 3PM Christmas Day. We will miss church at 1PM to leave for the airport. When Brady arrives to his dad's he will have another Christmas there. It should be a wonderful time for him! He will be spending the next week with his Dad.

 Christmas morning we woke up to stockings filled.....

 and many presents to open.

 The past several years Brady is always wrapped in a blanket, laying down and opening presents. He doesn't move from the laying down position. He is such a teenager.

 Sharon helped pass out presents to open.

 We are blessed! The abundance of gifts were overflowing. This year I decided that spending tons of money on computer/video games for Jason and Sharon was a waste of money - so I didn't purchase any.

I opted to purchase long term gifts like:

A tool box and drill for Jason.

A camera for Sharon.

Great gifts to start their life together with.

Even though these items were NOT on their Christmas list, they were a huge hit.

 Brady was spoiled this year. He did receive 2 computer games (he's still a teenager).

But his big gift was a .......

Laptop!!! He would need one in the fall anyway for college. I thought it would make a great Christmas gift. Now we have more then 1 computer in the house to fight over. Maybe I'll have more blogging time in my future *grin!

Brady also wanted new advanced levels of Piano books. He scored! 

He went right to the piano and started playing... I know that you thought he would immediately start playing with his laptop, but he LOVES to play the piano more.

In every stocking was a sack of coal. We were naughty this year *giggle.

This was Brady's post in facebook:

So, I was gone last the week after Christmas and didn't have access to my wonderful Christmas stocking. Through all the candy inside, I stumbled upon a strange object last night... Apparently my mom Santa has had this for 3 years and kept forgetting to give it to me every year :P But now it's official, I've been somewhat naughty this year *sexily raises eyebrows*

He makes me laugh!

I received many wonderful gifts too. The one Jason was most excited to give me was "Love you Forever" book. He told me that when he read it he started to cry. He remembers me reading it to him when he was a boy and me crying and barely getting through the book.

I love when your children get older and they see you through grown up "real eyes". They begin to love you more, as they remember the good times they had growing up (of course with a fantastic mom like me (sooo humble huh?) - LOL).

I sure love my boys!

I received a tri-pod for my camera. I hope that it will help me improve in my picture taking skills this year. I'm soooo jittery.

After all the presents were open, Jason made us breakfast.... Biscuits and Gravy. It was a wonderful Christmas morning. At 1:00 pm I took Brady to the airport to visit his dad for a week.

Jason and Sharon stayed until 5:00 pm and then my house was empty. I busily started to clean up the house and prepare for a busy week of after Christmas cleaning for my customers. I also was busy putting together items for my Primary class.

It's been a wonderful Christmas season. My home is back to normal and I'm starting to recover.

2012 is here and I look forward to a fantastic New Year!