A Blessed Christmas!

This was my kind of
a Christmas celebration.

I will share more than I
normally would for the
benefit of our family members
who read here from all over
the Country.
Blogs are great for that...

Our Christmas Eve service
was sweet with the young
people of the church doing
most of the sharing.

They sang as a group.
They played piano pieces.
A trio played piano, recorder
and violin.


Such talent!

Of course the highlight
of the service is always the
candlelighting at the end.
We form a large circle around
the sanctuary and each person
has a candle which we light from
candles lit from the "Christ candle"
in the Advent set.

The lights go down and we sing
Silent Night.

Beautiful!

After a time of fellowship
we came back to Mom's for
the opening of the stockings.



This year I found some "Crackers".
You know the kind you pull and a
gift flies out with a loud pop.



They are corny, but fun.

Christmas morning found me popping
homemade cinnamon rolls into the
oven in anticipation of the Moms
coming to open presents at our house.

What blessed me the most this year was
watching the kids share their gifts
with each other and everyone.

Jonathan had painted and framed
winter scenes for each of his
grandmas. He had to be first and
give them to them right away.

Then Mikey had gifts for everyone
that he could not wait to share.

Chelsea had made Jonathan a scarf.



She spent hours and hours making
this scarf. He loves it!
He wore it all day!

Finally, after all these years of
saying how special it is to give,
now that they have jobs they can
earn the money and buy or make
their own gifts and receive the
joy that giving gives.

I managed to pull off a huge
surprise for Chelsea. This is
so very hard to do! She is with
me nearly all of the time.
This year she wanted a pair of
rollerblades. I told her to go
ahead and order them and gave her
the money. The closer we got to
Christmas, the more disappointed
she was that she had ordered her
own major gift and that she wouldn't
have that present to open on
Christmas Day.

Well, I intercepted the call to tell us
that they had come in. She had no clue
that I went on Christmas Eve and picked
them up. So when she pulled back the
paper and saw a box that she recognized
as a rollerblade box her face was incredulous.
I mentioned that I like to "rebox"...



then she saw the blades!

It was great!
She was thrilled!



Mommy pulled one off!

I recieved several wonderful things.
Such as a waffle maker, two books that
I have wanted, gift cards to favorite
places. I am blessed, indeed.

We had Christmas dinner at Georgia's
house next door. It was nice to have
Pastor Mike join us along with
another friend from church. This man,
Denny, had been to Israel within the past year.
He, Mom and Georgia had such a fascinating
conversation comparing their trips and
sharing high points.
It was fun to
sit and listen.

Last evening we piled in the car and
went to the movie theater to see
The Blind Side. We liked it.
What a great story. There were things
about the movie that were a bit different
than the actual events...such is Hollywood,
but the basic story was there and it was
sweet.

One negative, the previews for upcoming
movies. They were absolutely terrible.
I thought all previews were approved for
all audiences. I was wrong. Apparently
because this movie was PG-13 the previews
were from other movies with this rating but
for many reasons. We were thoroughly
disgusted and caught by surprise by this.
So keep that in mind if you are headed to
a theater near you.

We look forward to New Years as we will
see Allan and Bev then. This year we had
to share them with her family on Christmas
but we are rejoicing with them that Bev's
Mother is doing well after a year with
serious health challenges. I am sure it
was special for Bev to see her mother
feeling so much better.

I look forward to reading about your
Christmas. What was the most memorable
or special thing that happened at your
home? I'll be around later to read your
posts. It seems odd that today is Saturday.
There is much to be done
before church tomorrow...and we
have a dog rescue to visit today.
Maybe...just maybe....

Much Love,