Christmas Day

 Our tradition is to do Christmas Eve with the Brindley's, Christmas morning just the four of us, then Christmas day go to my parents. Later in the afternoon my in-laws join us for dinner. It's really quite perfect. So these pictures are at my parent's house opening presents with my family.




Cousins gather at the tree. Ellie, Lilia & Alex. Olivia was too little to sit with the big kids.

Alex got an Avengers shirt and it came with an airplane that you fling with a rubberband. I think, no I know Matt loved it way more than Alex. Matt even took it outside to see how it would fly.

 Ellie is such a fun age (17mo). She comes into the house and all she says is, "Ooohhh, ooowwwhh," with lots of fluctuation in her voice. It's so cute!





Olivia is such a good baby. She was 3 months on the 26th. She loves attention already. AnnMarie put her in her carseat just to chill and she started to fuss after a few minutes. I went over to her and started talking to her and she was smiling and interacting with me so much. My brother said that she just wants the attention. It's amazing that she's so young and her personality is already coming out.

                           





                             My parents with Olivia.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning

 So much work goes into Christmas. The time spent on buying the right presents for everyone on your list and taking the time and care to wrap things. For each of the kids I started last year making their own gift "tags" which mark their stockings and their own presents. I started it last year because they shared a few presents and neither of them could read. I've carried on the fun, but time consuming tradition this year. Lilia's gift tag was the shape of a horse and Alex's was the shape of a monster truck.
In thinking about all the time put into Christmas, I feel like we all did a good job focusing on Jesus' birth throughout the month of December. We spent time talking about it as a family and reading the stores in our Bibles.

 This year Alex is into super heros. We also gave him his first Batman skateboard. Maybe we're nuts? Although when he first stepped on it he said, "You should wear a helmet with one of these." Ah, he's so responsible for a boy!

 Lilia is still super into animals, especially horses. She got lots of horse stuff, art stuff and her absolute favorite present was her real first aid kit. She asked me almost every day leading up to Christmas, "Mommy did you get me a first aid kit?" I would only respond with, "Do you trust me?' Thankfully she said she did.

We got the kids nerf guns so they can play spy with each other and get mom and dad.

Christmas Eve

 My in-laws came over Christmas Eve for brunch and presents. Everyone got great stuff. I think the kids highlights were horse slippers for Lilia and an Avengers rolling backpack for Alex.
Church was really nice. It was so perfect to come out of church as beautiful white flakes fell from the sky.
The service was shorter and there is no childcare so we told the kids to pack stuff to bring. The only criteria was that it couldn't make noise. Alex stuffed his new backpack with all kids of things. Towards the end of church he pulled out a red super hero cape he got for his birthday and asked us to put it on. It was hard not to laugh!

Grammy & Grandpop's

 Last weekend the kids spent the night at Dave's parent's house.
Lilia spent a lot of time with her best dog-friend, Lily. (Aunt Karen's dog.) In fact Lilia got Lily the dog a Christmas present this year, however no person received a present.

 The kids also helped Grammy and Grandpop decorate their adorable little tree.













The kids played outside gathering sticks, pine needles and leaves to make a nest.

Our Annual Chinese Christmas Party

 Saturday night we hosted our Christmas party for Drexel students. This year we also invited our Curtis students (pictured on right, the 2 girls in gray and black). This was the first time many of them were not only hearing the Christmas story, experiencing Christmas activities in an American's home as well as hearing the good news of Jesus.

Lilia the Teacher

During our Christmas party we spent some time singing Christmas carols all together. Lilia asked ahead of time if she could teach the Chinese students one of the songs from her Christmas concert.

As Dave was driving some of our guests home Dave was beginning to explain what Lilia wanted to be when she grows up. Someone chimed in say, "an actor!" We all had a good laugh about that one!

Lilia's Christmas Concert

 This is the elementary school singing. Lilia is on the bottom row on the left between the two heads sitting down.

Lilia's Christmas Concert Video

Last night was Spruce Hill Christian School's Christmas concert. It was so cute! Now, as you watch this video please bear with the hand that occasionally goes up in front of Lilia's face. I love the motions and how into she gets. I had to end the video because I was laughing and it was shaking too much.

Santa!!

I believe it was last year that I very tactfully explained to Lilia that Santa is not real. I also very clearly explained to her why she can't tell other children and she has been really good about it. I wouldn't trust Alex with such news, but I trust her.
I grew up believing in Santa for a long time. I figured it out maybe by 7 or 8 when I matched the handwriting on the gift tags to my mom's handwriting.
I told Lilia the truth about Santa because I want her to understand that Santa doesn't being presents, but we give one another gifts to celebrate and remember that God gave us His greatest gift; His Son Jesus.
This year has been funny. Lilia has been so excited about Santa. She told me, "I know he's not real, but I'm excited for Santa to bring me presents." She even wrote Santa a list.
Alex takes so many of his cues from Lilia and he has also expressed his excitement in Santa. He has even said, "I miss Santa," at one point.
I don't regret telling her the truth, but it is so fascinating to me that she longs to believe in Santa.
I'm looking forward to Christmas this year and watching the kids unwrap lots of presents. I love their excitement and expressions with each time they rip open Christmas paper. Especially at the ages they are now (3 & 5) it's so sweet, fun and beautiful!

Family

Our Family Christmas Tradition

 Dave, myself, and the kids drive to Wata Farm in Quakertown where we meet up with my parents as well as my brother, sister-in-law and their kids to cut down our own Christmas tree.
Bundled up and with our cart and saw we head into the trees to find the best one.

The Brindley's Tree

Dave cutting down our tree 

Alex was SOOO cold.

The Styles' Tree

Olivia, AnnMarie, Matt & Ellie (17 mo)

 What I really love about this tradition is that we are all together.
Everyone is helping one another, whether it is watching over the kids running through the trees or holding the tree while someone is cutting theirs down. It's really so much fun!

Matt cutting down their tree

"Libby"

This is my second and newest niece, Olivia. Matt and AnnMarie call her "Libby" for short. She is 2 months old. She is such a good baby and so stinkin' cute!

Lilia's Quote of the Day

We are doing advent readings over dinner each night, which I believe is what triggered this question from Lilia.
"What is God's phone number?"
I responded, "He doesn't have one. You just pray to talk to God."

She then asked, "What is God's address?"
I made one up..."777 Golden Street Lane, Heaven of the Universe."

She then proceeded to repeat it over and over with the attempt to memorize it.