Monday December 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

It sure has been a fun day!

We pulled a pretty big surprise on the kids today!

For Christmas we will be taking them to HAWAII!!!!!

We will leave January 6.

We have thought and planned for this for many months.

If you've noticed that Brent has worked an unusual amount of overtime shifts lately.....

He wanted to do this trip without dipping into our savings.

He always makes sure to take care of his family!

Most of their gifts have something to do with the trip.

New luggage (which was badly needed for our trips to Wyoming/Utah anyway....)

New swimming suits.

Airplane neck pillows.

Little ones got Kindle's from Santa (airplane entertainment).

And the big girls got a GoPro type camera......not an actual GoPro, but has very high reviews, without the ridiculous price!

So, yes, it is kind of a splurge.

BUT....like I said, we thought long and hard about this.

It will not be very long until we are no longer here under the same roof.

Making memories are becoming more and more important to us.

So, this is what we are doing.

We are all very excited, like beyond excited!!!!

We made a giant sign and unrolled it while they were looking in their stockings.

They had a hard time figuring it out at first....Madi thought it said Harvard, Cassi thought it said Hong Kong.

Guess I need to work on my giant hand lettering!

Then the little ones were so focused on what the big girls were doing.

They finally figured it out, then they thought we were joking, pulling a prank :)

The rest of the day was filled with playing, puzzles, Nerf gun wars and going to the movies where we watched Jumungi.

Then back home for a yummy Ham dinner with sweet potatoes and homemade coleslaw :)

Ended the night with watching Frozen....and also putting together last years puzzle.

Tomorrow I plan to do the other puzzles.

I love looking through the year in review of pictures on each puzzle!

I am so grateful to be able to celebrate this day with my little family.

There was still fighting......will there always be fighting?????

But, I'm grateful for the chance that we had to focus this season on being more Christlike, with the #lighttheworld challenge.

I am so grateful that our Savior was born so that he could be an example to us of how we should be.

Grateful that he lived.

Grateful that he died for me.

He died so that we could return back to our Heavenly Father, together forever as a family.

I am grateful for that.

My goal is to show my gratitude by acting more Christlike.

It definitely starts here in my own home!

I am excited for a new year with a real focus!!!!!