Christmas Outtakes

I know I completely overloaded you on pictures yesterday, but I had to share this outtakes version:

The girls smiling sweetly and the boys wrestling.  All right guys let's try it again!  Christmas Eve picture in front of the tree take 2:

I give up!  Okay, I didn't really give up, I just reminded them about the Christmas presents they were hoping to open!

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My kids already get more than enough stuff at Christmas even with us holding down on what we buy them, so they definitely didn't need more things.  But, I do like the idea of them giving to each other and the spirit behind picking something out for a sibling and paying for it with their own money.  We didn't get around to taking them shopping until after Christmas, but I decided really that was best because it would spread out the gifts more.  

So, 3 days after Christmas my husband and I took them to Target.  Each child had unloaded money from their piggy bank and had given some thought to what they'd like to get their siblings.  The shopping was crazy!  My husband and I kept swapping kids because they couldn't see their own presents so it was like, "I'll take these two children to buy for this one and then we'll swap."  Only it was much less organized and had us shouting between aisles and covering kids eyes, and at one point unintentionally leaving the 2 youngest children unattended altogether while my husband and I were a few aisles over and suddenly realized, "If you don't have them and I don't have them, then who has them?"  Then there was the part about Little Girl bringing all her coins and spilling them all throughout Target.  Good times!

Seeing as how their gift exchange was 3 days after Christmas, we were completely over actually wrapping the gifts, so I grabbed paper sacks (really classy grocery store sacks, no less) and we wrote the "To:" and "From:" with black Sharpie!

Here are the bag children:

But, it all turned out really sweet and I think we'll do it again, just more organized on the shopping bit -- who am I kidding, it will be chaos no matter how I attempt to orchestrate it!

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Yesterday I said that we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of becoming a family of 6 on Christmas Eve since that's the date we brought Little Girl home from Ethiopia.  We had a great time at the park and with the pedal boats, but something funny happened and considering it was our "Family Day" it was all the more priceless.

Right after this picture was taken of my girls playing on the playground (in their matching outfits).

I called to the kids that we were leaving the park area so we could go get lunch.  Little Girl was nearby so I scooped her up playfully in my arms and held her like you would a little baby.  And a girl I didn't know from the playground who I'd guess was around 5 years old and happened to be black like our Little Girl, ran up to me and asked, "Why are you carrying her?" I replied, "Because she's my little girl."  And the 5 year old girl said, "But you don't look the same."  I smiled and said, "You're right, we don't.  But we are still a family!"

I love the honesty of kids, really I do, it is refreshing!  And I love that 5 year old girl's brazen spirit to ask about something that was bewildering to her.  Most adults just stare and wonder.  And I have no idea what they are really thinking and have no opportunity to share the truth with them.  We don't look alike, but we are a family.  Knit together by God alone!

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Happy Friday, Friends!  I've started on a few organizing projects in the spirit of the New Year and have big plans for more over the weekend!  I've learned my lesson, though, I have to get the stuff out of the house fast.  Just today the 5 year old changed his mind about a stuffed animal in the donate box and took it back upstairs.  

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