The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I'm sure there are some people who still have their Christmas trees up so it's probably not too late to blog about our Christmas festivities.  It was so magical and wonderful!  I loved everything about celebrating Christmas as a family!  We did it all and had so much fun being together!

Growing up, we always did gingerbread houses.  And I'm not talking the gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers.  My mom made the dough, cut the shapes out of paper templates, baked the parts of the house, made the icing and then we all decorated one big beautiful gingerbread house.  This year she and my dad made the parts of the gingerbread houses and mailed them to us so we could make our own.  Ali loved decorating her house!!

Mom also sent us Mikulas cookies.

You're really supposed to wait till the new year to eat them (for good luck), but we couldn't help ourselves.  We're hoping to have good luck anyway.

Here are Ali's pieces all decorated and ready to assemble.

 We went on plenty of walks when the sun was out.

We played in the snow and tried to walk in our chunky snow boots.

I love Ali's face in these next pictures!  She is such a light in our lives.

 Jimmy had a fun idea that we should have Czech food on Christmas Eve.  I was so excited since a) I LOVE Czech food and b) I want my kids to know about their Czech heritage.  I decided to make the Czech national dish (and my favorite) Vepro-Knedlo-Zelo.  I was actually pretty nervous about it and searched for weeks before to find the perfect recipes.

The dinner turned out great.  I'm sure if I compared it to the real thing it might not taste exactly authentic, but for those of us who haven't been there for a few years, it tasted pretty good.

 After dinner, Jimmy read the nativity story and the kids colored a picture of the manger scene.

Then they decorated cookies for Santa.

Who is this Santa guy anyway and why are we saving him the cookies?  James didn't see any reason in that and decided to eat one.  I love his little expression in this picture!

Ali was totally into it and helped pour Santa some milk too.

The kids got in their new jammies and went to bed... with vision of sugarplums dancing in their heads, no doubt.

Christmas morning came and we were all so excited!

The kids opened their presents with squeals each time they saw what was inside.

They play together so well and loved their new kitchen.

James even got a turn with the new stroller.

After naps we had our traditional Christmas dinner of Turkey and mashed potatoes.

Jimmy cut the turkey (which we tried cooking in the crock pot and it totally worked and was delicious!!) and we had a wonderful dinner.

I could not have asked for a more perfect Christmas!  I loved hearing Ali talking about Jesus and Mary and Joseph and teaching my children about the true meaning of Christmas.  I hope to focus on it even more next year.  I will remember each moment that we spent together and all the happy times.  We are eternally grateful for the birth of our Savior and the irreplaceable role he plays in our lives.  I'm already so excited for Christmas 2013.  Only 11 more months!!