LEGOS, Baby Alive, hope for the future, and the magic lives on after all...

The Christmas spirit didn't come so easily for me this year. That seems like a terrible thing to admit considering my usually ultra-positive personality. I couldn't really put my finger on it, but I just couldn't shake an unsettled feeling in my heart. I didn't want the excess and the unnecessary. I wanted to protect my children from selfish hearts and attitudes of entitlement. I wanted it to be all about Jesus, but everywhere I looked, commercialism reigned, and He seemed to be in the shadows.

Because God knew just what I needed so many years ago, Tyler stepped in and saved the day. He gently brought Biblical truths back to my mind, assured me that our family priorities were intact, and even took over shopping and wrapping duties for the kids. Then he sent me to bed on Christmas Eve while he stayed up until the early morning hours prepping and pulling out presents for the kids that I had never seen before, so that I could be surprised right along with them.

Talk about bringing back the magic. He's good.

Thank goodness for fun husbands who remind us of the wonder of Christmas (along with my need for an attitude change!), and for one amazing one who reminded me that it is okay to have four little bodies sneak down the stairs with pure, innocent excitement on Christmas morning. They know Who we celebrate (every day of the year, not just one!), and my negativity might have just been dampening the celebration.

Sometimes we moms think too much, when what we should be doing is spending our time joining the rest of the family as they dance to the cranked up Christmas music in the kitchen.

Anybody with me? So the magic returned and the latest LEGO sets appeared. And you know that there's always room for one more LEGO set in the Daugherty house... I had to crack up at this fireplace scene. Tyler is a bargain shopper (and likes to buy in multiples... pretty sure this is a man thing...), and we all know that you can get Colts attire for a real bargain this season (90% off in this case!). But we're loyal fans, we believe there's hope for the future, so we'll be more than ready for next year. :) And the prize for the most ironic present goes to Tess, whose Aunt Stephanie thought it was imperative that she have a Baby Alive doll. You know, the doll that eats real food and then conveniently goes potty in her pants? And to solidify the irony, it's so incredibly fun to feed Baby Alive that she ends up going through A LOT of diapers.

Fabulous marketing scheme.

You know what this means, don't you? After nine long years of changing diapers and spoon feeding several small (real live) children, we only give ourselves a break for a year before we actually purposely pay to start this process all over again. That's right, I'm spoon feeding and changing the messy diapers of a fake, plastic baby (whose insides are bound to get gunked up sooner rather than later, don't you think?).

For fun.

Something is clearly not right with this picture. I will remember this for a long, long time, Steph. You just wait until next Christmas.

And since we're committed to celebrating Jesus every day, the celebrating is still going on around here.

And here I thought I wanted to just get it over with.

Lesson learned.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,” Titus 2:11-12 ESV