What a wonderful Christmas season it has been. I love that the Spirit of Christ is abundant during December, even though many people who are not Christian, or even religious may not recognize it as that. Goodness and giving are plentiful. Speaking of giving, this is a picture of the family after making Christmas offerings to our neighbors. We made rice filled flannel warmers that you heat in the microwave. They are a favorite in our family and we lovingly refer to them as "cuddle sacks".
I told Maxwell and Sophia to leave Santa a healthy snack instead of cookies, so this is what they set out...water, pretzels and an orange. My favorite part of this spread is the orange peeler Maxwell was thoughtful enough to remember!
Maxwell was really excited about the AT-TE walker, and if you don't know what that is then you are so out of the loop! When he told me what he wanted from Santa I asked him if he was sure about this because it was meant for 9-14 year olds. He said, "yea, because then it will be challenging for me." Hopefully he still feels the same way when trying to decide whether or not to take organic chemistry in college!
Santa brought the most expensive gift he has ever brought to the House of Paynes...the most fabulous Barbie Jeep. Sophie asked Santa for a Barbie computer (which she saw at Costco), but I told her that sometimes Santa has something else in his workshop that he knows a child will like more than what she has asked for. Santa was right!
And here is proof that it was a Second Ammendment Christmas. We wanted to buy two of these guns for Maxwell so when he has a friend over they can each have one, but we didn't want Max to use the "they're mine" argument when Sophie wanted to play with him. Solution: Wrap one up for Sophie! It's pretty funny to see a plastic camoflauge machine gun in the back of a pink Barbie jeep!
