The 12 Days of Christmas!

When my first Grand-child, Kirsten was just little I wanted to do something to make Christmas last a little longer and have a fun time of anticipation of it. I started the "12 Days of Christmas" with her. Each day for 12 days before Christmas she got to open a small inexpensive gift from us. She enjoyed it and we enjoyed knowing she was getting to do this. Before too long we had another grand-daughter and the 12 days grew into 12 x 2 days. It was fun to know that two grand-daughters were getting to open a gift everyday for 12 days before Christmas. Even though we were not close enough to watch them open their gifts we would hear about it. Now we have 4 grand-children and so now we have 12x4 gifts. It has probably been more fun for me than for them, although I think they do enjoy it too. Now I start early and try to find each of them a gift that I think they would like. These are not expensive and while they are young it is easy. Now we have a teen-ager so it takes a little more imagination to find something inexpensive for her. I am on the look out all year round to see what I can find. This year the girls were here for Thanksgiving so they got to take their gifts home instead of them having to be mailed. I love thinking about what they are opening each day and if they like it. I do get to watch Tanek open his and he is always excited about it. He looks forward to it everyday and I look forward to watching what he will choose to open. We just have 3 more gifts to open and then on December 24th he opens all his gifts from us. We give him 3 gifts because that is the number of gifts that were brought to Jesus. His parents give him 3 gifts. I like that he is learning about the gifts that were brought to Jesus too. Today after church he came over to open his gift. Here are a few pictures of him opening his gift.

Today his gift was play doh. We will have a lot of fun with that tomorrow making things out of it.
He is always happy with whatever gift he gets. This Chrismtas season has been so good. We got to enjoy having our family here from Maryland for Thanksgiving and we celebrated Christmas with them then and having a 3 year old around everyday has really made Christmas so special. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child really makes it special. Tonight he will be an angel and sing in our Christmas service. He hs been practicing his songs and is excited about it. I can't wait to see him. Christmas is such a special time of year. I love everything about it. Especially the real reason for the season which is the birth of our Lord and Savior. So Merry CHRISTmas everyone. I hope you and all your family have a wonderul day and the whole season. I am SO thankful that God gave us His salvation and next to that family especially Grand-children. How Blesed we are.