the excitement of Christmas

It all started on friday morning. "Are we going to open our presents today mommy?" "Is Santa coming down the chimney tonight?" Our plans were to have our family Christmas on friday night and Santa was visiting our house early saturday morning. The excitement grew and grew all day long and we could hardly contain ourselves! It is truly amazing to experience this thru the eyes and ears of a child. We had a precious dinner with candlelight, a time of sharing stories and discussing Christmas' when mommy and daddy were kids. At last, the time was here. We had studied throughout the month that the wise men came to the baby Jesus and they brought three gifts to him as a sign of worship. We each had three gifts like baby Jesus. William went first and was so excited to see his CARS race track mountain/CARS game. He also received a book about a cowboy named Gideon (from the Bible) and a puzzle that helps him spell words like cat, fish, and boat. The excitement didn't stop there. He was so overwhelmed about seeing us open our gifts that it truly warmed my heart. As the night drew to a close, the questions and comments about santa started coming. "Will we hear his reindeer?" "I hope he likes his cookies." "He won't come unless I am asleep mommy." This was the ONLY time I have ever seen him ready for bed before 9:00pm! Needless to say, the excitement hit an all time high on saturday morning. We went in to wake him up and William says "did he come?" "Let's go look at our stockings." We hurried into the living room to find more goodies in our stockings and then the surprise under the tree. A bicycle! Santa brought me a bicycle were the words coming out of his mouth over and over. He was so pleased and wanted to ride it down the hall and he kept saying "thank you santa; thank you" I will cherish this excitment forever. The anticipation, the true happiness in his eyes. What a great Christmas!

Dondra