Christmas Day Part 1

 Last year Christmas was crazy.  It was really, really intense so at the end of the day I made notes about how this year could go a little more smoothly.  One of the things I wrote was to put a Cliff Bar in the kids' stockings so they would not be hungry on top of excited.  It was really helpful!  We got up and opened stockings first.  Each child had a personalized ornament and bar inside.  Quintin's was one of my favorite.  It is so well made!  We plan on making the ornament/granola bar stocking a tradition. 

My AMAZING husband had woken up super early that morning and made cinnamon rolls and egg casserole and packed it all up.  After we did stockings we headed over to the Pali Lookout and hiked down to a flat area to eat.  It was so windy at first, but as we got further down it was fine.  The food was so good and we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 while seeing God's magnificent handiwork.  If you look way up in the pictures of the green mountains you can see Q and A hiking up.  They love this hike and asked to come back again the next week.  The night before we had told them that we were going to go to the Pali to eat so they would not be expecting to open presents right away.  No one complained and everyone had a great time.  "It's all about managing expectations" says my wise husband.