Christmas has come and gone

The Leonard's have had a great Christmas. We have sang, ate, watched movies, ate, shopped, ate, opened Christmas gifts and ate some more! We have attended 3 Kids' Christmas shows at church and 1 Christmas Cantata at School for Clara. We had one "iced" out for Molly and will be attending it in January! We have decorated cookies (that tasted HORRIBLE) and gingerbread houses! We have played yahtzee, The Ladybug game, Monopoly, I doubt it and unending hours of Wii fit and Wii outdoor challenge! We have laughed our heads off at everyone dancing to the Dance Dance Revolution and Beau has been given encouragement that maybe he can ski again on Wii Ski!
We have heard squeals when the kids opened their favorite gifts - a cell phone for Molly, a camera for Ellie, a DS for Clara and Silas just loved opening it all!
We have had sad moments as we have thought of Mary Ann and how much we miss her and how much she would have enjoyed all that went the Season. But we enjoyed our Christmas Day with the Thomas Family! Boone & Silas had so much fun all day and we are even noticing them "covering" for one another! Brian said that is a great thing outside of the house, but it is a scary thing for us parents!
It has been an incredibly fun Christmas Season, each of the kids have brought so much joy and excitement and I will cherish every memory we have made! Our prayer is that through it all we have remained focus on the true meaning of Christmas, we have spent time every day in Advent (Thanks Linda) focusing on the meanings of the Season! The little girls have learned tons at church this year and I was so pleased as we were playing a Nativity Trivia game with Ellie that it was hard to stump her....when we asked her how many angels came to the Nativity she said a lot and we said like how many....and her precious reply was a "heavenly host"!
I pray that the memories of this Christmas will remain in their hearts for years.
We are so thankful for the family in Maryland that we have made this year and we are so thankful that where our hearts have a place missing that God has brought so many people to us to help fill that gap!
Merry Christmas to all of you!