Christmas 360/365

First of all, I want you to know that if you feel left out because I didn't send you a Christmas card, then don't.  I didn't send them out.  Even with the best of intentions, I didn't take a picture until today.  I decided to torture them and have them dress up to take a picture.  Oh my children, they are a hoot!  So, this would have been our picture had I taken it before today.  It has been a great day!

Santa came and I couldn't believe he would think we needed something so big at our house, but it sure did make for one happy girl.  LeeLee doesn't like toys at all, so it was great for her to get something she actually loved.  She spent the majority of her day on this thing.

Speaking of LeeLee, I just have to say how proud I am of her.  She really has the most caring heart of all my kids.  This is huge for her!  A few years ago, we wondered if she would ever worry or care about anyone besides herself.  But praise the Lord, he brought the right tools into our lives to learn to help her through some rough times.  This just gives you a glimpse of her precious heart that has been uncovered.  She wrapped presents for everyone yesterday and wouldn't put them under the tree.  She took them upstairs, and I decided to let it be.  Then when it was time to pass out gifts he appeared dressed like this with all the gifts in a cinched up blanket.  It gave her amazing joy to give.  We all had wrapped gifts, they were simple and some of them were regifted things, but it was amazing to see that she was willing to give them to someone else instead of keeping them for herself.  One of the neatest things was a letter she wrote to Hope.....Hope, I saw how sad it made you to have messed up your candy cane present, so I wanted you to have mine. Love, LeeLee (these were bubble bath candy canes given to them by a friend.  Hope busted hers on accident.  They had both been so excited about them, so giving this up because she saw Hope's pain is huge!)  I'm telling you, night and day difference, and I am so thankful!

Some kids had surprises today.  Neither one of them were expecting new bikes, but I had found two to good to pass up deals, so they both shocked.  The only bad thing is we have been under severe weather warnings all day, so they didn't get to ride at all.

We enjoyed the special cake that we were gifted yesterday by Lynn.  We put a candle on it and we had our annual birthday party for Jesus.

At the end of the day, this was Hope's favorite gift.  It is Barbie's sleepover puppy.  Hope loves Barbie, and it was a Barbie Christmas for her.  She is my first child to like Barbie, and for her it is such a big deal to have a real Barbie.  Barbie is well known in China, but the real ones are very expensive.  The knock offs are affordable, but they fall apart as soon as you take them out of the package.  She cherishes each Barbie.  Hopefully she will remember to pick them all up so Rags won't chew off their limbs.  We have lots of special needs Barbies.

I took a picture of Hunter with some of his gifts, but I would rather devote some time later on explaining his gifts so I thought I would instead include a picture of him with his favorite gift ever (and ours too,) Rags!  These two crack me up.  Rags is terrified of storms, so he was happy to get right by his boy for some comfort.  I have his thundershirt ready so we can make it through the night.

Noelle's favorite thing of course is her new room.  It is beautiful and so her.  One of her prized things in her new room is this cat tree!  It was a gift from my mom.  Both Posey Brooks and Cheeto and so excited to have it.  Tonight will be her first night sleeping in there, and she is so excited.  

And, just in case you were wondering how much LeeLee really loves the beam.  So there is only one thing left to say....Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!