Christmas Pondering

This Christmas had to be one of the best that I can remember in the past few years. I think most of that had to do with my attitude and some priorities that were made. All I kept thinking of was from Luke 2:19, "But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart." And that's exactly what I tried to do this year. There were less activities, less baking which added up to more time with my favorite boys and more contentment in my heart.
One of this year's favorite Christmas memories was singing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus. Gavin has a Fisher Price baby Jesus that he plays with in his pretend manger scene. On Christmas Eve, I was telling Gavin that tomorrow is Jesus' birthday and asked if he wanted to practice singing Happy Birthday to him. So I sang, with Gavin mainly bopping his head. When we got to the end of the song, Gavin blew on Jesus' head like it was a candle. Of course, we did this about ten times because Gavin kept saying "more." I have pictures, but alas, our camera in on the fritz, so in the meantime, I'm pondering. Besides, Mary didn't have a camera.

We got some good deals on Christmas presents for Gavin but my favorite item to give him was a felt Muno I made.
For those of you without toddlers, Muno is a character from a popular children's show called Yo Gabba Gabba. It's safe to say Gavin liked it.My husband was excited because I gave him my heart all over again. Okay, so he's always had it.
This year, we tried to teach Gavin a few Christmas tunes. Most of the catchier ones are Frosty and Jingle Bells. One song that Gavin would actually try to sing instead of just bopping his head was "Oh Christmas Tree." We were eating in a Mexican restaurant and out of the blue, Gavin pointed to their Christmas tree and started singing, "Oh tree, oh tree."
Christmas Eve was also a sweet time together. We went to an early Christmas Eve service with my in-laws. Gavin sat with us in the service and did really well. The last several years, D and I have tried to make a unique Christmas Eve dinner and this year we decided on making Pork Tenderloin wrapped in Brioche with a side of couscous. For dessert, we decorated a nine inch gingerbread man that Gavin named Ga Ga.
We truly are blessed to have our family close by and saw both sides on Christmas Day. Below are a few of the picture highlights.
We're enjoying having family time this week. There's lots of playing, napping and silliness going on in the Moore household. This past year was nice, but I for one am looking forward to this new year.