Our first Christmas tradition was handed down from the Ross family. As a child, I have great memories of selecting a Christmas tree. Of course we could not go to the grocery parking lot like all the others - we wanted a FRESH tree that we cut ourselves. I am not sure if this tradition began as a financial plan to save money or if the smell of a freshly cut tree was a draw to my parents. Anyway, many memories
surround these outings. As a young child, my perspective was that Dad would see a nice tree on the side of the highway and he would jump out and chop it down. Now hopefully we were not
destroying property that belonged to the highway department but actually had permission from someone to take a tree or two. I also remember as I got older complaining to my Dad that our Christmas trees were not pretty. They were cedar tress with little or no shape of the traditional Christmas tree. So one year we actually had two cedar trees tied together to give them a little "fuller" look.
We have continued this tradition with our family. We have a great tree farm right outside of Little Rock. It is a lot more sophisticated than my memories from growing up and it is something my girls look forward to every year. The farm has a hayride, hot chocolate, Santa's workshop, and new this year - pig races with pigs named after Santa's reindeer. We found the perfect tree and are enjoying the first of many Christmas traditions.
We had a wonderfully relaxing Christmas Day. We decided to buy one large family gift this year instead of lots of little gifts. The girls had drawn names and were excited to give their gifts to each other. Rachel made Abigail a cape for her to play dress up. Elizabeth gave Rebekah a sports watch to time herself running. Rebekah gave Rachel a cosmetic bag to carry her toiletries. Abigail gave Elizabeth a book light so that she can read in bed at night. The rest of the gifts were given as group gifts to all the girls. We had a slow morning opening a gift and then allowing the girls to play with it for a while before opening something else. We actually had very few gifts to open but no one seemed to care. We have had a great time playing our new Wii game system. The girls especially love to beat Daddy in boxing! On Christmas evening the Franklin family came over for some food and games. we are thankful for friends to spend the holidays with.
Another Christmas tradition here at our house began when the girls were young. We did not want the focus to be on gifts but on celebrating the birth of Christ. So instead of placing our gifts under the tree, we have our manger scene under the tree. Each morning one figure arrives with Baby Jesus arriving on Christmas day. The girls love rushing down to see who has come each day. We have a great memory of one Christmas morning when we finished reading the Christmas story and I told them that I would get the presents. One of the girls said in a surprised voice "we get presents?" Oh, if we could all capture that attitude about the season.
Abby is proud to show everyone that she lost her first tooth this week.
Our first Christmas tradition was handed down from the Ross family. As a child, I have great memories of selecting a Christmas tree. Of course we could not go to the grocery parking lot like all the others - we wanted a FRESH tree that we cut ourselves. I am not sure if this tradition began as a financial plan to save money or if the smell of a freshly cut tree was a draw to my parents. Anyway, many memories surround these outings. As a young child, my perspective was that Dad would see a nice tree on the side of the highway and he would jump out and chop it down. Now hopefully we were not destroying property that belonged to the highway department but actually had permission from someone to take a tree or two. I also remember as I got older complaining to my Dad that our Christmas trees were not pretty. They were cedar tress with little or no shape of the traditional Christmas tree. So one year we actually had two cedar trees tied together to give them a little "fuller" look. 
