Our Christmas this year was very relaxed and joy-filled! We did not have any family with us this year, but instead celebrated with some of our dearest friends and simply bonded closer together as our own little family (actually, we aren't so "little" anymore, are we?). The celebrations began at the boys' Catholic school Christmas program. Dominic and Michael each had special speaking parts that they had memorized. They spoke loud and clear and made this mommy's heart beam with pride! Joseph played violin in the new school orchestra, which impressed everyone in the audience because all the musicians have only been playing their instruments since the school year began.
Next, we celebrated a pre-Christmas dinner with some of our dearest friends--Glen and Lisa with their 4 beautiful little girls (Lisa just had baby girl #5 yesterday!!!) One of our favorite priests, Fr. Sean, also came to have dinner with our two families which made the evening extra special. The highlight of the evening was the music recital that the children performed after dinner was over. The youngest Cronk girls each played a Christmas song on the piano, and Agnes, who is the eldest at age 6, played "Silent Night" on her fiddle. Our boys each played a few songs on the piano, and Joseph played two songs on his violin. What a joyful noise the children made that night!
On Christmas day, we celebrated with some great friends from Paul's office: the Amos family. It was a delicious meal with wonderful fellowship. The following morning we left for a mini-vacation to Bozeman, Montana. Paul and the older 2 boys went skiing at Bridger Bowl, while I took the younger 2 boys to the very cool Museum of the Rockies (which we call "the dinosaur museum"). Nathanael was a bit intimidated by the life-size, ready-to-eat-you-looking dinosaurs, but he loved the Lewis and Clark play area where he could pretend to go camping, catch fish, and all sorts of hands-on activities. In the evening, we all loved swimming in the hotel pool and playing "Angry Birds" on mommy's new iPad that she got from daddy for Christmas :)
All in all, it was a lovely, Christ-centered Christmas. We chose to have only 3 presents for each of our kids to open, since Jesus (the real Birthday Boy) had only 3 gifts from the Magi. Having a 3-gift limit really helped our kids to focus less on what they were getting for Christmas and more on the true meaning of Christmas. Someday I would like to adopt Ann Voskamp's tradition of having NO gifts under the tree and to focus on giving gifts to those in most need instead. I would love to train my children's hearts to think of others more than themselves, but I know this will take time. A few years ago I started the tradition of having our kids think of a gift they can give to Jesus each year, since it's His birthday after all. Last year each of our boys picked a gift from the Compassion International catalog to send to poor families to please Jesus for His birthday. I think the boys picked some baby chicks, a water pump, and a month's worth of rice from the catalog. This year, the boys decided that they wanted to each sponsor a Compassion International child as their special Christmas gift to Jesus. To sponsor a child means to give a monthly donation to a particular child to help feed them, clothe them, and share the Gospel with them through your love and letters. The boys really got excited choosing the child they each wanted to sponsor---they got to pick what country their child was from, choose the age of their child, read about their child's life, and even see a picture of their child. Almost immediately they started writing letters and drawing pictures to send to their child. I think Jesus was very pleased with this gift from our boys, because whatever we do for the least of His children, we really do for Him. It only costs $38/month to sponsor a child, but I have a feeling the rewards will be eternal for both our family and the children we are sponsoring.
I pray that each of you had a Christ-centered, peace-filled Christmas too! May the infant Jesus live and grow in your hearts throughout the New Year and always!
Below are some photo highlights to recap our Christmas celebrations...enjoy!
May your Christmas sugar-high JOY last a lifetime!!!
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