Christmas Day

Christmas eve while I was cooking the doorbell rang and we all went to the door to see who was there.  Nobody was at the door but a box wrapped in brown paper and twine sat at the doorstop with a little tag that said Robbins on it.  Upon closer look the tag said it was from Santa.  The stamp was labeled the North Pole, and Priority Sleigh Mail!  We opened it up and found brand new pajamas, perfect for a Christmas Eve night.
The kids woke up early Christmas morning, and we made them wait until Aubrey was awake, which ended up being about 7 or 7:30am.  The cookies and carrots we had left were nothing but crumbs now and in their place were letters from Santa, and treats for us.  And the room was filled with gifts galore.  We read the letters that Santa left while we waited for Aubrey to wake up, and the kids shook the gifts and tried to imagine what was inside.  It would have been the perfect time to take pictures before the tornado hit, but I didn't.  But imagine a scene that is clean, magical, and festive.  It is a faint memory.  What took one hour to undo took many more hours to clean up.
Porter went through his gifts like a little terror!  He couldn't hold the suspense any longer and wanted to know what was in every single gift.  Tyson on the other hand wanted to know who each gift was for.  He would then bring it to that person and had to wait and see what it was they got.  He was just as excited when it was for someone else as he was for his own gifts.  I can still here his little gasp of surprise and him yelling "Mom this is for YOU!"  Aubrey was just excited to be in the middle of the madness, she had no idea what to do with her presents, so we helped her out.  She got the giggles when she saw what was inside of them.  She is our little angel baby, I think her presence brings everyone in this family joy.
I am thankful for another beautiful Christmas year.  I just love that despite this crazy world we live in, there seems to always be this special time of year when people are a little bit kinder, a little bit softer, where the spirit of Christ seems to be more alive in all of us.  I hope to be the type of mother that can keep this spirit in my home all year long, but what a beautiful thing to have so much of the world looking to have that same spirit during this time of year.  It is what makes this time of year so MAGICAL!  Merry Christmas!