This Christmas season found us doing many things to get into the spirit of Christmas. We wanted to focus on giving more than getting and we made sure our children knew this. We spent very little on our children and helped them to pick out nice gifts for their cousins. We went caroling and sang to residents at the nursing home in Talus, a new neighborhood by Issaquah Cougar Mountain. At preschool I talked to the Real Street Santa (that's really his name) and invited him to come to our preschool. He was an amazingly loving man who has been doing his job for 35 years as Santa and he does it for free. He brought the children gifts and read stories to them. He even brought his Polaroid camera to take pictures of them so they could keep their pictures with him. What a sweet man Santa was!
When Christmas was getting near we took a trip to Leavenworth, a Bavarian town or Christmas Town as many people would call it. We drove on Stevens Pass and enjoyed the gorgeous mountains of the Cascades that make you go ahhhh. Leavenworth was a gem. The town was beautiful and so interesting. A long time ago a group of people decided that they would turn this city into a Bavarian village and everyone rallied in. All the shops had German writing fonts, even the gas station. There were so many tourists that it took us quite a while to find parking. We had so much fun shopping at the nifty shops and wish we had more to time to check out everything. You really could spend a whole day there. It's a great town for gift givers, hence the Christmas Town, though they decorate the town according to the season. Many people around here actually book hotel stays and have their Christmas celebration there. We didn't because our final destination was at our best friends, the Frasers. We did however, pile up on Danish treats until we got so sick of sweets, for an hour or two anyway.
We had the most relaxing Christmas ever at the Frasers. They were teasing us saying that we're always on the go so we proved to them that we could sit back and enjoy so that's what we did. The kids had so much fun playing together and us adults enjoyed watching funny movies and laughing our heads out. Christmas Eve was spent reading stories about Christ's birth and I read to the kids the famous Stevens Santa Claus story. We had a great time there and didn't feel like we need a vacation from a vacation like we usually do.
Although we did more of a giving rather than getting Christmas, we each got good gifts thanks to a wonderful family we belong to. For me, clothes make me happy, for Dan, his long board and gear, for the kids, $money to spend on whatever toys they want (Legos here we go!). But the best gift we got of all is Heavenly Father's gift of immortality through His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ we all will live forever. Best gift!
No comments:
Post a Comment