A Peaceful Christmas

Christmas this year was very quiet and simple. Other than going to church we stayed home all day and just enjoyed being together. Over the last couple of years we have tried really hard to scale down the amount of gifts we give to the kids. As a result we have saved a lot of money and it has been easier to stay focused on the true reason of the season.  I don't think our kids have suffered any ill effects from our smaller Christmases and I laughed when Alahna cheerfully announced that she got a "good haul" even though it was probably the fewest gifts she's ever received. 

Thanks to loving grandparents and aunts and uncles they still had plenty of things to open!

 

 

The stack of books the girls received. They got more excited about some of these than anything else!

The boys loved their knight costumes from Grandma and Grandpa! They are official dragon slayers now!

Alahna and Robert spent about an hour and a half building a Lego castle. It was fun to watch them work so well as a team.