The Extra Special Gift

Once again the Christmas season has come and gone so quickly. Due to the economy I am sure we are not alone when I say this Christmas was a very "slim" one in respect to gift giving. In a way I am glad we had to experience a "slimmer" holiday. It really caused us to focus more on being grateful for the everyday blessings we have that we would normally take for granted. For example, dad/hubby has a job, we have a warm home...it has gotten COLD in Florida, folks.....we have our health and our cupboards are not bare! Also, while we always make Jesus the focus of our Christmas, this year I think it made us focus on Him even more!

The two older boys graciously said they would rather see their two younger brothers have a nice Christmas and they would be okay with no gifts. While it did my heart good to hear this, I was not about to give all the presents to half my children while the others did without. So, I did the best I could and I think everyone was pleased and grateful!

There was one extra special gift, however. This gift was a huge secret and everyone was in on the secret except Brandon and Bryceton. For over a month my sweet husband worked hard on this gift every spare moment he had.

What was this gift? Well, here in these boxes was the first clue for the boys.
After opening the boxes they each found a key. A key to what?
We made them close their eyes and go outside. Ricky led the way.

Taa - Daa!!! Their very own swamp buggy!! Nurse/niece Rhonda don't look ;-)

Just look at the excitement on these faces! I am sure this moment made every late night of working worth it all for their dad!!

Brandon even picked out the paint job colors (camo of course!) without even realizing it was for him! The entire time they knew their dad was working on a swamp buggy in the barn but they were led to believe it was for someone else and the buggy was already sold. It was so funny. One day while watching his dad work Brandon made the comment that something would have to be wrong with this "guy" if he didn't love that buggy! Well those "guys" ended up loving that buggy ;-)

Big brother, Brent, took everyone out for a Christmas morning drive.

The Lord is so good to us. This buggy cost us so little in money. Monroe was able to barter with different friends and our boys had a wonderful Christmas because of it.