the twinkle in their eye

Christmas gifts.

Ian and I are full on in the stage of life where the fun part of Christmas is to carefully select gifts that will make our children's eyes sparkle.  I honestly think that shopping together for them was nearly as much fun as watching them open their gifts from us.  Nearly, not quite...  I can still hear the squeals over dolls and accessories and the Lightning McQueen seat.    

And of course after the fun of our 'little family Christmas' on the 23rd, there is still the excitement on Christmas day of gifts from Santa ~ who delivers at Grandma's house of course.

waiting to be released from the basement to see what Santa left

I'm not real sure exactly why our kids get super excited about Santa.  He's been pretty low key and practical around our parts ~ new pajamas for each child, games to share, a Christ focused book, a movie or two plus stockings are what he leaves.  However, despite the lack of big ticket items, they still race to see what he left year after year.

And after checking out their pajamas and reading their books there were gifts from Grandma S, Grandma M, Aunt CiCi & Uncle Adam, and Uncle Alex.  We may have given a few hints of sure fire 'eye sparkle gifts' to those family members...

But after it was all said and done, there were two gifts that were opened but not yet removed from their packaging.  To say that Natalie was on our hearts this season would be an understatement.

As a family, we're excited to have moved into the year that our Natalie will come home.  Can't wait to see the twinkle in her eye when she opens the gifts selected for her with love!