Christmas 2011

 Merry Christmas 2011

We did something different this year. We spent the vast majority of our Christmas budget on families in need and we had the best Christmas EVER.

 There weren't as many presents under the tree on Christmas morning but that's because we'd already delivered them to other places far and wide and to people who have far greater needs than we do.

I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas than spending it on others. As you'll soon see, the kids still got plenty of stuff...

 New Lamplighter books! We are part of the Lamplighter monthly book club. Sage wisely moved up two books in our queue he thought the children would especially like.

 I bought this for our science this year but had not used it yet. The kids don't know part of their science curriculum became a Christmas gift. LOL.

 From their aunt and uncle, the kids received gift cards. They came early so I went ahead and bought the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the 1950's version of Zorro for the kids.

 New Bibles! DragonFly is so happy to have a Bible that properly translates the passages in Job about the Behemoth. His simplified children's version was really annoying him by calling the Behemoth a hippopotamus. Buttercup was ready for the ESV Student Bible. She kept snatching my ESV Bible with commentary.

 The rest of the Jonathan Park series! This was another gift that I bought earlier in the year when Vision Forum was having its half off sale. We've given them as birthday presents and now Christmas presents. We all love this audio series.

 The kids love buying each other gifts with their saved money. DragonFly bought his sister a floating pen.

 Buttercup bought DragonFly this Lego Star Wars book.

 Thank you, Nena and Papa, for buying this book series about woman of the Reformation for Buttercup. She loves them!

 Thanks, Nena and Papa, for buying snap circuits. 

 For some reason stockings are always a huge hit in our house.

 It made Sage smile that Buttercup got a girly scarf and a pocket knife in her stocking. 

There's the after-gift-opening carnage.

Thanks to Christmas money received from Sage's parents and another aunt and uncle the kids were able to go buy....

MP3 Players!

Yep, we've finally joined the 21st century.

They are not anything fancy. No iWhatever. But the kids are having a blast with them. Librivox has become our new favorite website with all their audio books.

What did we do on Christmas?

We opened presents, went to church, went for a walk, and then watched the movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, since we'd finished the book.

Hey, wait. SOME of us watched the movie and others of us apparently took a nap.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!