An early Christmas

This year we celebrated Christmas a few days early since we will be going on a cruise to Mexico with the Goodmans from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. We made sure to write Santa a letter to let him know of our plans and asked him to find us before we left at Nana and Papa's house. He did just that!

Ethan's one and only request from Santa this year was a Mega Man toy. Over the last several months Ethan has gotten to know about Mega Man through his video game playing with Danny. Mega Man is a video game that my brothers played when they were kids, but the game and action figures are no longer sold in stores (which makes it difficult to come by - but nothing is too hard for Santa!)

My parents and Danny spent many countless hours trying to make Christmas special for our boys. Mega Man has a blaster that shoots and they wanted to make Ethan one of his own. They went all over town to find the material they needed, and not only surprised Ethan but Jared and me as well. We were impressed!! It was made with a water pitcher, the top of a salad dressing shaker, all kinds of wiring to light it up that had to be soldered together and finished with blue fabric. Not an easy task! It looked like they bought it from the store it was so nice and well done. It lights up on the side just like the real Mega Man blaster.

This year the boys also got a Batcave and Batmobile and that was a hit. Tanner got a doctor's kit, a puppy, a tractor and his favorite crayons with a coloring book. Our day was spent playing hard and eating yummy treats.

We are so grateful for the work everyone put into our Christmas this year. Thank you!! Jared got some new dress shirts for work along with some new church books. Jared surprised me with a new BBQ that we have been thinking about for our food storage as a way to be able to cook in an emergency situation and for daily use.

We ended the night with the nativity story, ringing the bells, and the little boys dressed up as shepherds and wisemen. It was neat to see the excitement on their faces while opening gifts, but at the end of the day what was even more special was knowing that they have an understanding of what Christmas is really about. We are grateful for the birth of our Savior, for his life and perfect example he showed us and for his atonement that makes it possible for us to return to him again someday.