The Twelve Days of Christmas

It's been a Christmas tradition since Carrie and William were small.

Grandma Atkinson prepares bags with individually wrapped gifts inside for each of the kids. The gifts are labeled with the numbers 1-12. Each day the kids get to unwrap a gift with the last gift being unwrapped on Christmas Day.



Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Brian came over Sunday evening to deliver the bags so that the kids could open their first gift of the season--Christmas ornaments!

You know, little kids wake up earlier than big kids, so on Monday morning, Josh just sat looking at his second gift while waiting patiently for Carrie and William to get up.



Matthew had no idea what was going on. He was just happy to have something new to put in his mouth.



Look at these neat little bottles of Coke! Aren't they cute?

Matthew didn't get Coke. He got some Apple Juice that he drank for breakfast.

No...I didn't let the kids drink their Cokes for breakfast--I made them wait until after they ate their breakfast. :)

I won't even tell you when I let them eat their Day #4 chocolates.

It's Christmas, right?



Once again, a Christmas tradition that Joshua doesn't remember from last year, but boy is he catching on. It's only Day #5 and he knows that you must get up early AND wake everyone else up in order to open your gift.

I guess I could let him open his gift as soon as he wakes up, but it's just so much more fun to have them all open them together. And, the gifts are usually all the same or similar, so there's no way that Carrie and William would ever be surprised if I let Josh open his first.



Thank you, Grandma, for this very special Christmas tradition.
I can only guess how time consuming this must be--not only the shopping, but individually wrapping and labeling each gift.
Wow!
A great example of the sacrificial love that God has for us.