Six Reasons

There are lots of reasons why I love Christmas time with my family. Here are 6 (not in any certain order of importance and no real reason for 6 other than it's my favorite number):

1) Family Christmas movie night. We watch as many as possible before Christmas. Some on the list are Elf, The Polar Express, Fred Claus, Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version), The Santa Clause, A Christmas Story and The Nativity Story.

Elf is a family favorite. If you haven't seen it then, we think, you are missing out. Here's the trailer.

2) The artsy people in our house making hand made ornaments.....

 ......as well as getting ready for Santa's visit by making him (and the family) some cookies and sweets.

3) Shopping with the kids. They are so different (some take FOREVER and are indecisive while others know what they want, go right to it and are done in an hour or two) but we always have fun and it's always fun to see what they get.

4) Tracking Santa at the NORAD website (thanks Ed Hansberry for sharing this with us a few years ago). If you have kids that love Santa then you need to check out the site. It's pretty cool. Just click here.

5)  This family tradition that I love.

I know it's a little hard to see but it's all the kids sleeping together in one room last year. This tradition started a few years ago. The kids pick one room, turn on the air conditioning and all pile in to sleep in that room on Christmas Eve.

6) The excitement of the smaller kids in our house as Santa gets near. Anderson is a happy riser. By that I mean he has never woken up in a bad mood. Never. It's amazing. He always wakes up happy and ready to go. Around Christmas time the happiness is magnified by 10. Yesterday he woke up and came into the room where Benay and I were. He smiled and said, "It's Christmas Eve Eve." Today he woke up came into the room where I was, smiled and said, "Merry Christmas Eve!!"

I love Christmas with my family.

And we are officially ready for Santa's visit.