We celebrated Christmas Eve and Day with just our family of five. It was wonderfully low key and relaxed. It was nice to celebrate in our new home for the first time (although it is the 3rd year in a row that we've been in a new home for Christmas...ha)!
After focusing on Char's birthday for the morning on Christmas Eve, we put the kiddos down for naps/rest time and started working on our big meal. We had Swedish meatballs, homemade crescent rolls, green bean casserole, and my mom's famed Christmas star jello. I loved using our new dining room and pulling our my Grandma Millie's china for the meal.
After we ate, we headed to the 4:00 candlelight service at
FBCG. It was a lovely service and I enjoyed having the girls with us to worship as a family. My heart (and eyes) were overflowing as we sang praise to God for his unmatchable gift of Jesus. Hearing the girls raising their voices with us...priceless.
We have a few established traditions, one of which is to open one gift on Christmas Eve (and guess what.. it's the same every year... christmas jammies!) and then grab some cookies and head out on a jammie ride to look at Christmas lights.
After the kids were in bed, Justin made us chocolate martinis and we sat on the couch and reflected on the whirlwind this year has been. We reflected on God's goodness, His leading, and the way He continues to challenge and stretch our family out of our comfort zones. We talked about the joys and stresses of managing three children, the wonderful and not-so-wonderful parts of both of our jobs, and the way that we've adjusted to never feeling adjusted. In the end, we agreed that this crazy journey, the ups and the downs, all of the goodbyes and the unknown and newness and starting over and pain.. all of it is part of our story together. And, goodness, it has united us in a deep way. And for that, I am thankful. We fell asleep with happy and thankful hearts.
We instated a strict no-getting-up-before-7-am rule for Christmas morning. It worked for the girls but Charlie rebelled and had us up by 6:30. We let the kids open their stockings right away. I love love love seeing the joy on their faces as they discover the gifts we carefully picked out for each of them.
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| Who knew a pack of gum was this exciting?! |
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| I forgot to get anything for Charlie's stocking, so it's a good thing my BFF send him one! I threw it in there at the last minute and he was thrilled. :) |
We ate breakfast, read Luke 2 and prayed together, and then opened gifts. It warmed my heart that the very first thing Emma wanted to do was to give Claire the gift she picked out for her. She had been asking for days to please let Sissy open it and she insisted that it be the first gift opened that morning.
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| Reading Luke |
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| Emma could hardly contain her excitement! |
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| It was new clothes for Claire's American Girl doll. :) |
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| Claire picked out a pretty throw for me. |
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| Claire made Justin a new work bag. *enter melting heart* Not pictured - Emma picked out a hairbrush for Justin! ;) |
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing with new toys, eating leftovers from Christmas Eve, and generally enjoying time with no schedule.
It was so lovely and wonderful and peaceful and perfect. Merry Christmas!
