Everyone, well almost everyone, loved the little Folkmanis Finger Puppets
found in the stockings! They each received a few of them and we now have a basket full, since I found them on clearance this past summer. (Snuggles was initially terrified of them, but is slowly warming up to the cute little critters…)
Don’t you love seeing children get super excited about receiving books? I know I do! But then, books have always been one of my favorite gifts to receive, ever since I was Rascals age!
Can you tell that the boys were also excited about their new Rifles?!
I also really enjoyed watching the boys open these gifts, which were packaged in the *all too familiar* clothes boxes from Gymboree. Who knew that they could possibly hold anything other than clothes! 😉
The girls love their new dolls and have been taking them everywhere.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the day:
Though, I must admit, I love this one too:
Snuggles eventually stopped pouting and was pretty excited to open his gifts.
He has been playing with these nesting blocks everyday since Christmas and is really enjoying them… I knew he would! Though it does bother him that the purple part of the rainbow is
smaller than the blue. It’s
out of order in his little mind and so he keeps trying to but the purple block first.
The girls were also so so so excited about their new little doll house and fairy lodge. They are both SO cute!
In the evening we headed out to my parents home for dinner and a family “secret santa” gift exchange. I ended up drawing my dad which was HARD but fun! My dad doesn’t ever *need* anything, has just about everything, and is
usually annoyed by gift exchanges. However, he IS sentimental, so I knew he would love the book I found him earlier this year during
“B” week.
Yes, I bought my dad a children’s picture book…
The Blueberry Pie Elf
! Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my dad reading this book to us when we were little. He LOVED this story, and he passed that love on to us. It had been out of print for many years (it was reprinted a year ago) and his well loved copy was tattered and missing pages. I wish I had his reaction on video. He was very excited and immediately asked if my children had heard it yet… I love my dad!
He even saved some of the “wrapping paper” on which I attempted to copy a picture from the book, which is written by the little elf with “his slippery, sloppy feet, all red with cherry juice.” (Inside is a frozen blueberry pie.) And, although I did use another Gymboree box for the last package, it was filled with new reading glasses, a new John Grisham book
(his current favorite author), and a book light
. According to my sisters, I win the prize for the best gift for dad. Ever… there’s no way to top The Blueberry Pie Elf! 😉 It was so much fun!
There! I managed to finish posting pictures from Christmas Day, before the end of the 12th day of Christmas… barely! I’ll be back tomorrow to post a few pictures from today.
A blessed Epiphany to you all!
*Links to some of the gifts the children received this year can be found here.
Prayer of Mothers
Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.
+JMJ+
A Blessed Epiphany to you, too, Jessica!
Thank you for sharing your family's Christmas morning with all of us.
Snuggles has quite the personality! (Yes, I read the post about the bouncer, too.) Could he get any cuter??? =)
Thanks for sharing your wonderful Christmas pics!
I was wondering if would please share where you got the children's stockings?
Oh, I ordered one of those Mother Teresa dolls for my youngest for Epiphany, and it never came! I need to check into that and see what happened!
I've enjoyed reading all the Christmas/Epiphany/Baby Rose posts!
I especially love the gift you gave your Dad for Christmas, that is priceless! What a great idea!
I Love those dolls! Where did you get them?
I (we) have thoroughly enjoyed looking at your Christmas pictures! I may have missed it somewhere along the way (I am sitting in my van at piano lessons with children hanging over my shoulders, and the sunlight is making it hard to see my computer screen), but the dolls… where did you order them from? They are adorable.
Peace and prayers… JMJ
Thank you everyone! I really enjoyed sharing the pictures, plus it is so nice to look back and have some of the little memories written down to go with them since this is the only place I am good about doing that…
Gina ~ The stockings have been collected over the years from various local stores. I wish I had a link to share, but it is getting harder and harder every year to find stockings with either a Nativity scene (we have these for our boys) or Angels (for the girls). Thankfully we had bought an extra Angel one a couple years ago when we ran across it, which is now Rose's stocking. I DID find a really pretty Angel Stocking at JCPenny's this year, though I haven't purchased it.
Amy & Annita ~ I added a link, at the bottom of the post, to my post containing links to most of the children's Christmas gifts. I just love the dolls and they were really reasonable (only $16.95 each). I ordered them from Faith-filled Friends. It isn't pictured, but Rose received the St. Therese doll and it is my favorite! 😉
see we'd be the family in our jammies, mom and dad all groggy – downing their coffee, bed heads galor and lots of noise. maybe you had lots of noise too, but i bet we beat you there too 🙂
I just ran across these stockings and thought of you since one is an angel and the other is of the nativity! They are definitely pricier than the JCPenney ones though!!
http://www.christmasgiftgallery.com/religious-christmas-stocking.htm
Melissa ~ Thanks for the link! The top stocking is the one that Rascal has and it is BEAUTIFUL (though a tad on the small side in comparison to the other boys).
Shelly ~ I would prefer to attend Midnight Mass (which has been too hard these past few years) and then we too would be in our jammies Christmas morning. 🙂 Nevertheless Hubby and I WERE groggy and downing lots of coffee and there was definitely still lots of noise with Christmas music playing and very excited children! I love Christmas morning!