On our way home from my parents’ house we stopped at the early church service. It was terrific and prepared our hearts and minds for the next day.

One of my favorite things about having a family of my own is building our own traditions. For you, a glimpse into said traditions:

Zach commences to baking his world famous chocolate chip cookies for Santa (but mostly me…not the cookies, the outfit, saucy!) 🙂

And we are, in general, at the beck and call of the kiddos who need presents opened, batteries inserted, etc. In this case, Dailah needed a watchful eye as she baked her own cookies in the Easy Bake.

Trysten wrote the letter to Santa.

Tariku and Dailah finished off their Advent calendar chocolate.

Dailah practiced her cheesy grins.

And the finished letter. “Dear Santa, thanks for coming. Thanks for the presents. Love Trysten, Tariku, Dailah.” Short, sweet, optimistic, to the point. I like that about him.