A Wonderful Christmas

We kicked our week off making sugar cookies to leave out for Santa (and for us of course!). That same day Grammie and Poppy arrived from West Virginia. It was a great week of cooking and eating, and cooking and eating, and cooking and eating, and then an outing or two. One outing was to a old historic mill called Clifton Mill to see Christmas lights.

It was beautiful! The white lights twinkled to look like water running into the stream below. There was a light show and a HUGE village to admire, Santa's workshop to see, and a monster line for hot chocolate...we just hit Tim Horton's on the way home.

The family going through the covered bridge.

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, the bible story, and songs. And then Joel kicked off an old Thorson family tradition of the kids performing a Christmas pageant. Anna was Mary, Asher was Joseph, and Jesse was the angel using a flashlight to shine the glory of God on baby Jesus. As you can see we had many animals at the scene, including a crocodile, turtle, monkey, and an unknown Dr. Suess creation.

Then the kids get to open one present, which is always pajamas. Sounds boring but they love it! Here they are ready for bed, but they stayed up pretty late waiting for Santa to come.

Christmas morning was lovely. Having kids makes the morning so much more exciting! It was such a joy to see their faces with each gift they opened. Jesse could not enjoy a gift until every piece of wrapping paper was properly removed.

Anna received the "big big big big big big big" dollhouse she has been wanting.

And Asher got his remote control helicopter. Can you tell that he is happy?

Is was a wonderful Christmas together. Now we are enjoying the company of Joel's parents and will bask in the after glow of a special time before the break is over, the decorations come down, and everyone returns to school.