Christmas at our home....unusual gifts

We had a great Christmas this year. It's probably our oldest son's last year at home, since he's engaged to be married in the Spring. I video-taped and savored every minute of our day. It may not be our last Christmas together, but it'll be a little different since he won't be at home and he'll be married.  Still a wonderful thing since I'll now have another daughter!

The first thing we did Christmas morning was open our most precious gift, which is in a red box wrapped with a gold ribbon.  Our oldest son read from Luke 2, the birth of Jesus.  Then we opened the box and took baby Jesus out as a reminder of the best gift of all, and we prayed.  This helps us keep Jesus at the center of the reason we celebrate Christmas.

This year we decided to pick names from a basket and do Secret Santa. We figured this would be a good way to help our son as he's saving for his wedding and marriage.  Some of us went beyond our Secret Santa and got gifts for others, too (like mom).  I can't not get gifts for all my kids and my husband. :)  But the lists that each person made were really helpful in knowing what to buy. Since I put all the lists in the basket, I got a peek at them before we each picked a name. Everyone was really happy with the things they got because they were all things they needed or wanted.

Amber got her penny board.  She had tried her cousin's penny board at our Thanksgiving get-away and really wanted to get one. It's kind of a skate board but smaller. Samantha's favorite gifts were her new shoes, a slinky and a Boogie Board.  Both of our sons' favorite gifts were instruments.  For some reason my kids are musical. Neither my husband nor I play an instrument. As a matter of fact, I don't think either one of us can sing either. My husband and I got Noah a Doumbek, and Julian got a Didgeridoo.  I know, unusual instruments, but it's what they like and asked for.

Our kids and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law

Including these two instruments some of the instruments my sons and daughter play are the piano, guitar, ukelele, bongos, and trumpet.  Noah is playing in a band with a group of friends, and he likes to play the guitar and drums. They played at a couple of events this Christmas. Amber plays the piano and the ukelele.  She wants to learn to play the guitar.  Julian plays the trumpet and some piano.  He can pick up an instrument and teach himself to play it.  Even our daughter Samantha, who has Down syndrome, is not to be left behind with the musical bug. She loves to sing and dance.  She had a lot of fun last night at our friends' home playing Just Dance on the Wii with her sister and cousins. She also likes to play art games and musical games online.

We usually take time off from school until the the New Year.  Daddy, big sis and big brothers are working today, so Samantha did a little bit of learning.  Although she thinks she was just playing.  It's a rainy day and pretty quiet at home today. And being that it's the day after Christmas, the stores and the roads are busy.  It's a perfect day for baking and just relaxing at home. While we wait for some cookies to bake, Samantha is playing some keyboarding games online, which help her with her hand-eye coordination.  She's also using her sight word list as she practices her typing.  So she's learning to type as she practices spelling and her sight words! Killing two birds with one stone, as they say.  And she enjoys it.  It's a fun challenge for her.

So how was your Christmas?