CHRISTMAS!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE:
So even though you all are probably as out of the Christmas mode as I am today's post is about our day of celebration as we remembered our Savior's birth. This year, as in many before, I would look around me and see hardly anything that had anything to do with 'HIM'. Rushing about getting ready for the big day didn't seem to have anything to do with his birth....and even as I reminded our kids over and over again that true Christmas had nothing to do with the presents under the tree....they are being bombarded on every side with the complete opposite that tells them Christmas is all about them. May nothing in our lives EVER be all about us....!

Anyway, I'm rambling - all is not pagan and heathen in our world yet as we were reminded at our Christmas Eve service, and at our gathering around the tree later that night to read the Christmas story in the gospels=) And then we opened presents!! Well, we opened one a piece as is our tradition. See the kids patiently waiting....Mine was the best of all!!! Chad got me one of my new favorite movies ~ "Cranford"! Jenna and Monica and I had already seen the first half so we stayed up that night with Chad and watched the rest of it=) Meanwhile, Matthew worked on some mysterious item out in the garage....(which I later found out was a handmade gift for me=) Later that evening we took the stockings in and set them on the foot of the beds of all our slumbering children (another tradition) and then pulled the rest of the presents out of their secret hiding places in our closet and put them under the tree. I'd been buying since May and we have lots of relatives that added to the pile so we had quite the stash of goods=) And then we went to bed.....CHRISTMAS DAY:
The stocking are always opened first thing and little piles are made all over the place as people claim their spots in the living room to get ready for the presents. This year we had an added treat to our morning as Miss Jenna sat at the piano and entertained us with some live Christmas carols while we all ate our Cream Cheese Bars for breakfast (yet another tradition) and all got in our places.Then the mayhem began. Daddy sat right next to the tree and had his 3 little elves as the delivery people. We don't tear through all in one go but we don't sit and wait for each other all the time either. It was dark so there aren't a lot of good pictures, but I have to give my vote to Monica as the most excited over a present....well wouldn't you be if your Uncle Chad had given you an I-Pod!!!!!
We are so thankful to friends and family who sent us wonderful, thoughtful gifts and to those who sent us gift cards so we could pick out our own wonderful gifts=) I love seeing what the kids get Matthew and I....sometimes it is so sweet (a heart shaped piece of wood for me that says "I love you"), other times a bit puzzlesome (a vehicle emergency hammer for Daddy), often rather funny (Uncle John's bathroom reader shaped like a toilet seat for Daddy), and also even mysterious (like the gift below)?!?!An yet another tradition is to go and try on, and model, all the clothes we all got. Alana says "Thank you, Grammy, for the purple dress!"
That's when the day became a bit untraditional as I got dressed and ready to head out the door to the airport in attempt #17 at getting Jenna to her parent's house for Christmas. We were again unsuccessful, but we sure did have a grand ol' time walking the short stretch from the parking lot into the airport as winds were approaching 60 mph....never, have I EVER, been in wind like that. I literally almost blew us away!!

So, after a 20 minute trip that resulted in yet another flight cancellation we turned around, drove an hour back home, and got Christmas dinner ready.

We enjoyed the rest of the day just looking at, trying on, playing with, liestening to, watching or eating our gifts. Also, we got to talk to each of our parents thanks to Skype=) It was a good day enjoyed among our family and we thank God for not only the gift of His Son, but the thousands of other blessings that we enjoyed all throughout 2009.