Sunday, December 28, 2008

Coming back to Real Life...Sigh...

Wow! We have had such a great holiday! Jeff's company shut down for two weeks, which means we get him full-time for two weeks, and it has been so nice. We have had so much fun doing family stuff...stuff that obviously did not include blogging. So, here is a whirlwind tour of our Chrismas. Enjoy.
This is on Christmas Eve. The girl hasn't even received a stocking full of sweets yet. She is so excited for Santa to come.

Here is what we ate on Christmas Eve. I would say the girls actually look forward to this more than opening presents. I love this tradition. On Christmas Eve, we eat our Shepherd's dinner on a blanket on the floor. We try to keep the food simple. This year we had roasted beef, homemade bread, grapes, home-canned grape juice and assorted cheese. We talk about the shephards, what they were doing before their angelic visitation, and then how they left to find the Savior. This year we also read a children's Christmas story by Helen Ward, "The Animals' Christmas Carol". A good friend read the story in church and I loved it and it's message that each of us has a gift we can give to the Savior, and for each of us it is different but equally important. Regan and Hadyn liked the story, but kept saying, "Why is Mom crying?". Curse my emotions! :)
Fast forward to Christmas morning. Santa brought the girls Barbie clothes, and several costumes to add to their dress up chest. Here is Daphne (Regan and Hadyn LOVE Scooby Doo, and especially love Daphne) and the Snow Princess.
Here is Hadyn with her favorite gift. Regan picked out a beautiful snow globe for her that plays Christmas music. She carries it around everywhere, and wound and wound it all Christmas morning. I don't know how fragile it is, it seems pretty sturdy...I'm sure we'll find out soon enough...

Then, here we are on Saturday. We got dumped on with snow. We played in the backyard, and went sledding with Uncle Matt's family. Good times. I'm glad we went then, since it has been raining today, and all we have now is a lot of slush.
Merry Christmas from the Luke Family. We hope you all had, and continue to have a great Christmas holiday!




4 comments:

Beth said...

What fun pictures! I love the Daphne costume. And I love your Christmas Eve tradition. I might have to steal it next year...

Deb said...

happy new year, maria! we saved regan's message on our machine and play it regularly. the boys love it. :) and i might have to steal your shepherd's dinner tradition as well.....

The Prestwich's said...

Now that is a smile that tells it all! What great traditions you have. We hope you had a great Christmas!

Garth and Linda said...

Maria, I went to visit a new family in our ward tonight and their names is Jones, they moved here from Gilbert, I said I had a nephew that had moved to Boise from Gilbert so they asked for a name I said it was Jeff and Maria Luke and Lisa said, "Oh, we were in the same ward in Gilbert" "I was just thinking about Maria"
I said well I know them and would let you know where they were.