christmas day '08

Here are some highlights from Christmas day with my mom and brother.  William was very excited to see his ah-goon.  =)

On Christmas morning, we finished reading the Christmas story with William.  I was a little distraught that I couldn't find an advent calendar that I liked, since I really wanted to find something tangible to help William begin to understand Christmas this year.  Thankfully, I am so grateful that the Lord helped me find this pop-up set called "What God Wants for Christmas."  (It's made by the same people who created the Resurrection Eggs.)  It takes you through the Christmas story the week before Christmas.  Each day, you read Scripture and open a present that contains one of the characters from the birth of Christ.  Then there's a poem to read that explains the story in a way that's easy to understand for young children.  There are follow-up questions for older kids, which we didn't do with William this year.  But I really loved it and thought it was perfect for William.  I think an advent calendar would have been too much for him.  Much of "What God Wants for Christmas" still went over his head, but it was a great introduction to the Christmas story in a fun and interactive way.  He could freely play with the characters in the nativity scene without me worrying about him breaking anything.  And it was great to see him excited about opening a present for each day. William liked to line up all the characters.     William loves to copy what Uncle Jimmy is doing.   William was delighted to receive more Thomas the Train stuff.  =)