The Best of Christmas in Denver

Christmas PJs for all the cousins!

and Uncle Mark too.

and Mom and Dad. 

Sleeping Under the Christmas tree on the night before Christmas Eve - a Maxwell Family tradition!

Getting to see Maxwell Studio up and running and doing extremely well!

Sledding! (where, luckily, they actually had a decent amount of snow since the boys got snow tubes from Santa for Christmas.)

Swimming at Grandpas Hotel

BFFs (Jack & Amee - Mom's best friend's kids; makes as good as cousins and Colton and Amee are practically twins since they were born just 14 hrs apart)

Spending time with Great Grandma Likely (who is 102) and Grandma Barbie and Grandpa Bob (who just moved back to Colorado from Portland)

Sleepover with Matt and Layna!  Pizza, video games and 3D movies, what could be more fun?!

Christmas Nativity Pageant - another Maxwell Family tradition!

Mary and Joseph

 the Angel

 the Wisemen

 the Shepherd

The whole cast

And then of course, there was Christmas itself, but that will have to another post . . .

Keeping Christmas

Love this poem by Henry Van Dyke:

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world--stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death--and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

Oh to be a kid again

At 4:30am the two eldest Jensen children sneaked a peak at their goodies, were caught at the top of the stairs and were hurriedly shewed back to bed by their mother.  At 5:30am, mom hears beeping and other noises and finds little man downstairs all alone playing with his presents.  He goes back to bed with mom and dad until 6:15 and then is shut in his room to look at books and wait . . . until 6:45am, which we tried to make 7, but finally gave up and decided to let the joyousness begin!

How it works at our house:  You are allowed to check out your stockings and your gifts from Santa at your own will, but for all other presents, you must take turns, youngest to oldest.  The kids really don't mind that much, and it kind of makes it funner to know that it is "your turn".  And maybe its just me, but (1) I can't stand the "free for all" present opening and (2) I want to see my kids open the things I got for them!  Plus, I think its important to make sure they know who its from, so they can properly thank them later.  (My husband and I have differing views on this, can you tell?) 

Despite our early start, we had a great morning.  We even took a break in the middle to have a yummy breakfast - crepes!  The boys' favorite!

Cody and Colton loved their play kitchen from Santa, and Grandma Jill had no idea that her aprons would go so perfectly.  They have been put to use many times already.  Daddy loved his mug from the boys that had pictures of them on it.  It will get good use at the firestation.  Cody loves his BYU jersey, since he goes to school there, and would wear it everyday if I let him.  I think Corbin's favorite, at first, was his Diary of a Wimpy Kid book set or his drawing book, but since he figured out his electricity science kit, it has definitely topped all presents.  Colton's favorite and most used present is his toy vacuum - and would you believe, it actually sucks things up!  We will put that to good use! 

And before we went over to Grandma & Grandpa's we had to try out the fingerpaints from Grandma Jill...

 

The rest of the night was filled with cousins and food and games and more presents, of course.  With 14 grandchildren, it was a house-full, but the boys sure had fun!  Thanks to everyone who made this such a wonderful holiday for our family.  We hope everyone else had a day of joy and cheer as well.

 

Merry Christmas!

On the Eve of His birth

I think it is because of our traditions growing up, but I have always liked Christmas Eve to be the "spiritual" part of Christmas - forget about the presents and Santa, the treats and the parties, and just focus on Christ.  We have had several discussions and activities throughout the month about Jesus Christ and the "real" meaning of Christmas and I think my kids actually "got it" this year.  It made me so happy to listen to them re-tell the story themselves and to hear them telling each other that we were really celebrating Jesus' birthday.  So this year for Christmas Eve, we stuck with our tradition (for the 2nd year) of going to Temple Square to see the Nativity and the Christmas lights.  And the evening turned out to be just right.

We rode the "train" into downtown and luckily planned a little better this year and instead of eating at the first place we saw, we had a perfect dinner at the Olive Garden.  We actually don't take the kids out to eat very often, so this was a treat.  How can you go wrong with all you can eat breadsticks and noodles?  And the best part of dinner was that two people came up to our table and told me what a lovely family we had and how well behaved the boys were.  (Maybe they were thinking about Santa coming.)

After dinner we bundled up and headed 2 blocks over to Temple Square. The beauty of it never disappoints. The pictures really don't do it justice.  I am always amazed at how every tiny limb is illuminated, and of course the temple was gorgeous as always.

The boys and I squeezed up front to see the life-size nativity.  For just a moment, it is possible to completely forget about the cold and to be enveloped in the story.  Even though it gets crowded, and even though it looks the same every year, I love it every time.  And I love seeing the renewed awe the boys have as well.  (I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the wise men and the shepherds, it really is quite neat.)

All in all it turned out to be a great night.  Most importantly, we spent time together, we made memories and we rejoiced in the birth of our Savior.  So until next year...

 

Twas the night before the night before

When I was a kid, we had a tradition of sleeping under the Christmas tree the night before Christmas Eve.  And I was so excited to start this with my kids this year!  Last year Cody was still too young and Corbin didn't really want to do it by himself, but now it's begun!  We had a great night of cuddling and reading Christmas stories and eating Egg Nog ice cream sandwiches (that may be a new part of the tradition).  And I was quite surprised that once we settled down, the boys didn't really have any trouble going to sleep (or maybe that's because it was already an hour past bedtime).  I love these little angels!

All I want for Christmas

I woke up one morning to find that quite a bit of wrapping paper had been unfurled . . . so before Daddy got home, we hurried and wrapped up a present for him.  He liked it.  :)

"Gingerbread" houses

Graham crackers, leftover Halloween Candy (+ a little extra) and some creativity makes for a fun evening.

I think they turned out fantastic and three happy kids say they had a great time - and that's what counts!

A Fire Station Christmas

The Murray City Fire Dept Christmas pajama party is an annual holiday tradition we have come to love! 

There's lots of food and friends and a visit from Santa with individual presents for each child!  This year they also had face painting and Christmas crafts to keep the kids occupied while waiting for the big man.  It was great!

Ready for Santa!