Christmas Memories!

Everyone's right about children making Christmas more magical... 

{even if they're too young to even know what's going on!}

We loved Christmas 2013 because of this guy:

On Christmas Eve as I rocked baby Eli to sleep, tears formed in my eyes as I had a greater appreciation for Mary wrapping her new born babe in swaddling clothes and finding a comfortable place for him to sleep. We're grateful for the birth of Jesus Christ - the real reason we celebrate Christmas!

We had a memorable Christmas with the Volks! It was fun having Megan and Jeff visit from Utah and I knew Eli would love them the second he met them - he couldn't get enough of them and I can tell he already misses all the attention and cuddles and loves they showered upon him! We had fun touring the city, visiting Mt. Vernon, and enjoying the Washington DC Temple lights.

Two days before Christmas I told Aaron I was sad for Christmas to be over. He looked at me confused and said, "It's not even happened yet!" But, you know that feeling the day AFTER Christmas when you realize Christmas is 364 days away?! Ooohh Christmas 2013 - thanks for the fun memories and Eli LOVED having his dad around for the week. Just look and see:

Happy New Year! I love a fresh start to a New Year - I also get overwhelmed sometimes when I realize all that I want to improve in my life as I set goals. I decided I'm going to have several goals I want to work on for the year, but I'm also going to set a monthly goal with one thing to stretch myself - like no sweets for a month, completing 5 family history names of my genealogy, playing all the songs in the Hymn book in a month, etc. etc. etc. {I'm still working on the list - if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!}

Cheers to 2014!