Christmas Day

As recently mentioned, this was the first Christmas that we have really been on our own...to do our own thing as a family. It was glorious. Absolutely perfect.

We woke up early. Not crazy early, but early. We got dressed, woke up Ammely and got her dressed,  headed downstairs and read the Christmas story out of Luke, and then tried to take some family pictures.

 It didn't go so well. Ammely looked bored. Ammon's head was cut off. The coloring looked like we were using film in the 70s. It was blurry. I have shining eyes.

 But we were too excited to try again for better. So we dove into our presents. We were excited. We'd been talking ourselves out of opening them for a week.

First up - Ammon's Christmas present from Dad. Even though Mom and Dad had already been here and we had already done gifts with them, Dad's present to Ammon had not yet arrived. So when it did, we saved it for Christmas day.

 As always, Dad's gift was extraordinary. Useful. Amazing. Needful. Exciting. Manly.
Thank you Dad!

Next up - Ammely baby on her first Christmas. We opened her three gifts.
(Our family gifting tradition is giving three gifts to each person on Christmas - one needful, one meaningful, one joyful. This we do as a sort of symbol of the three gifts Christ received from the Wise Men. Myrrh [needful] an incense used for cleaning and burial, foreshadowing the importance of His death. Frankincense [meaningful] an incense used in the temple represented His divinity. Gold [joyful] a gift for a king.)


Needful - baby gates for the stairs.
Meaningful - A picture of Christ gathering the children around Him (as seen here).
Joyful - Fisher Price Ring Stacker
 

And, I suppose, this is her gift from Santa this year...

 Ammon and I then took turn going through our three presents. I feel as if we did GREAT with each other this year. We both managed to get gifts for the other significantly on sale, which means we both got dream gifts. For instance, Ammon's joyful present:

 An X-box 360 with Kinect!

And Brelynn's meaningful gift:

 "I would gather Thee" painting for my kitchen! I have wanted this painting for years. And this year I have a house to hang it in! It is beautiful. It is a depiction of one of my favorite scriptures (3 Nephi 10:5, the voice of the Lord before He visits the people in the Americas). It is spiritual without being obviously "churchy" (though I certainly have a few of those on my wishlist too) and it goes perfectly in my country-themed kitchen. So so so happy with this gift!

After we had finished the gifting, we headed to Mama and Daddy's house to take part in the delicious pancake/bacon breakfast that is famous at the Baysinger household. So yummy! So nice to feel the fire going and spend a few hours with the family.

And then we headed to Christmas "dinner' (lunch) at my Aunt Tammy's house where the spoiling continued. Just look at those kids.

 And spoiling for me too! (Another winning decoration for my country kitchen, thank you Aunt Tammy!)

 The food and decoration here was incredible. It tasted like home to me. Ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cider, etc. Sigh.

And then we went to meet up with the Baysingers to partake in another long-lived Baysinger Christmas tradition - going to see a movie! We saw this:

  while sweet Amber watched our baby (not an easy task for our mommy-loving baby).

We ended the day at Mama and Daddy's again...unwinding with loved ones is the best. Plus, Grandma Baysinger (Mama) introduced Ammely to oranges. She. LOVED. Them.

Oranges are her new favorite. Merry Christmas Ammely.

 

A perfect day. A perfect Christmas.

Hallelujah.