Joys of Christmas....A child's Smile!

It has been a busy time with the kids lately. On Saturday my mom and I took the my 2 kids and met my twin sister and her husband and daughter at the mall, so the kids could chat with Santa. They all had a good time, mostly trying to push parents buttons, but all and all it went well. We stopped by my grandma on the way home to visit real quick. On Sunday I got the kids all dressed up in there Christmas attire for the childrens program at church. They had to do 2 performances, one for each service. My youngest was in the first group, they sang Away In A Manger, with hand motions, and then sang Jingle Bells. Here are about 12 little ones with jingle bells to ring while singing, which most of them had the bells just a going around in circles on their little strings. Yep, you guessed it a few managed to lift off....lol. My child's was one of the first to go. I thought there was going to be tears as we just stared at our bell laying on the floor three steps down from us, but she just stared at it, then picked it up and announced her bell was broke. During the second performance she announced that she did not want a bell. My oldest had a speaking part. She did great. All the kids had a great time. The best part for them all I think was the bag of candy they got at the end. Later my mom and I took the kids to go Christmas shopping, I took one child to shop for her sister, while mom took the other to shop for me, then we switched. Mind you the kids are 6 and almost 4yr old. Trying to get them to keep a secret is not easy....lol. They had a great time. Grandma helped them wrap their treasures and they got to put them under the tree. The youngest announced to me that my(item she bought which she said what it was) would not fit under the tree, and was not happy with it sitting just outside of the tree. This is the first year that Christmas has actually been fun for me so far. I still miss a lot of things that I use to do, but I have started some new ones. The smiles from the kids, even though they have their dads smile, is still a joy to me. We have played in the snow, read lots of Christmas books, watched lots of Christmas movies, and all with a grin from ear to ear. Doesn't get much better than that.