Christmas morning just seems to be getting better and better each year. We blindsided Carson with a gift she didn’t even think of. Chandler had a sliver of an idea of what was going on…literally just a sliver. As you can see perfectly clearly in the first picture. I don’t know how many years we have left of Carson being overwhelmingly excited about Santa. I don’t think it’s many. =\  But I know she will keep her enthusiasm high for Chandler. She is by far his favorite person in the world.

I am also proud to say that this is the first Christmas in as long as I can remember that we did the whole thing without adding to our debt! If you have read my posts on my old blog you know that we have been following Dave Ramsey’s method of becoming debt free. 2014 was a GREAT year for us as far as finances and I’ll be posting another personal blog on that later. I’ve wanted to keep CAP debt free and so far it is. Which is SO hard, because there are so many shiny, new things I need, but they aren’t going anywhere and I know that.

So back to Christmas…..I never really knew that kids cried over being so happy they couldn’t take it. I’m sure I could find youtube videos about it, but I guess I should say I never saw Carson being one of those kids. When she broke down and ugly cried (yup! see pics below) over her iPad, it threw us all off a little. Carson was also more excited to give everyone the gifts she picked out than she was opening hers. A lot of people may say that, but all I heard the week before Christmas was “I can’t wait for Chandler to open the go-go (car) I got him.” They had a gift store at her school this year and they went in the first day to make a list of everything they wanted to buy. Then came and hounded the parents for money, and went back and bought the gifts. It’s a way of the kids being able to truly surprise their family members, and I LOVE the idea. She bought Chandler a car with flashing headlights…seen in the last picture of this post, along with Chandler’s awesome forehead bruise. She had major ants in her pants until Christmas morning. I know she’s 8 and is obsessed with getting her own presents, but I love that she looks past it (even if just for a moment) to realize that it’s more fun giving the gifts.

be silly. be honest. be kind.