Glimpses of Christmas 2011

We did not travel over Christmas this year.  This statement is huge because I can't remember ever having "Christmas morning" at our house on Christmas Day.  So, this year I have no dramatic stories to tell of how we spent 48 hours stranded at a faraway airport on Christmas Eve through Christmas Day. I have no interesting tales of how we camped out at an airport two hours from home all afternoon on two different days with the hope that our flight would finally depart (snow kept cancelling flights). We finally gave up and drove 22-24 hours each way to visit my husband's family.  We did not get snowed in at the in-laws this year.  There were no blizzards.  In fact, temperatures reached the low 70s over Christmas.  I have no wild and crazy adventures that have made for great blog fodder in the past.  Let me just say that I loved not having to travel this Christmas.

This was our first year in over 10 years of marriage to actually  see what our city of residence had to offer during Christmas because we were actually here!  We saw The Christmas Carol musical, and we went caroling.  We viewed The Nutcracker  ballet and Christmas lights.  We attended Christmas parties and cookie exchanges.  Christmas was wonderfully relaxing and uneventful except for an unexpected trip to the Urgent Care.

Our son was so eager to place a gift he had bought for his sister (with his own money) into her stocking, that he forgot our warning not to touch the stockings.  Down came the stocking holder, and it bumped his head....hard!  The nurses debated whether to give him stitches or just use Dermabond.  He kept saying, "But I'm too young for stitches!" and asking "Do stitches hurt worse than cavities?", so he was relieved when they decided to try the glue instead.   We soon learned that another friend's daughter did the same thing and had the same injury that same day.  Last Christmas, another friends' boy ended up with stitches after a stocking holder fell on his head. 

Public service advisory to all parents, guardians, and those hosting children during Christmas:  

Skip the pretty stocking holders, and just use duct tape!

We let the kids open one gift each on Christmas Eve morning.  Then that evening after we concluded our advent reading, we were ready to open the matching Christmas pajamas that Grandma gives every member of the family each year.  Since most of the family went to Disney World together this past fall, she went with a Mickey Mouse theme this year.  The outfits were not identical, but they were all Mickey Mouse themed and were carefully chosen for each person.  For example, my husband was formerly an officer in the Navy, and pictured on his shirt was Mickey at the bridge of a ship navigating the boat.  All the girls in the family received Mickey Mouse ears with Christmas sequin bling.   We also opened the Christmas gifts that my husband's family had shipped us that night.

Either our kids are growing or our tree is shrinking

Christmas Day began bright and early, because my husband had deacon duty at 8:30.  We got up around 6am which is about three hours earlier than I normally wake up during Christmas vacation.  My husband made cinnamon rolls for breakfast to keep his mother's Christmas Day tradition.  He used her recipe and took special care to let the dough rise by the fire the night before.   They were so tasty!

Church was extra special that morning with a family worship and sharing format.  I enjoyed having our children participate in that worship service with us, and it just seemed so appropriate to be worshiping Christ in church on Christmas morning.

After lunch at "Chez Le Père" as our son now calls meals eaten at home, we drove 75 minutes to my parents' house.  It was a nice day outside, so we enjoyed playing a Duck Hunter game my MIL sent to our family.  I had so much fun with that gun that I think I'll add skeet shooting to my list of extracurricular activities in 2012.

We exchanged gifts with Mom and Dad and my brother's family, laughed, watched the kids having a blast with their cousins, welcomed more family who came later, exchanged more gifts, and feasted on breakfast foods for dinner as is our custom.

It's always interesting to discover which gifts our kids liked best.  One of our daughter's favorite gifts was a personalized spiral notebook.  Something so simple was so meaningful to her because she filled the pages with comic strips she drew and wrote herself.   She is so proud of those comics and has been asking us to start a blog for her where she can keep posting her comics.  When the comics are actually funny, I'll publish a blog for her.

Some of the kids' other favorite gifts are shown below.

I was thrilled to see our kids enjoying the electrical circuit kit so much.  The have built over 100 different circuits already.  A mama always likes to see her kids following in her footsteps, but when it comes to showing interest in running, they take after their daddy.

The magic rock set was just an inexpensive last minute add-on gift. Since it was for ages 10 and up, I figured we would just store it away for future use when the kids were old enough to be interested.  Our daughter began growing rocks before we left for church on Christmas morning, and completed the entire growing process when we returned from visiting my family that night.

The kids have thoroughly enjoyed the Marble Mania Galaxy Grandma sent, but my husband grew weary during the assembly.  It has over 480 parts and the assembly instructions included 79 different steps. It glows in the dark, so in addition to providing hours of fun, it also serves as a fancy night light in our playroom.

While the kids certainly do enjoy making gifts for others, shopping for gifts for others, and receiving gifts from others, a day didn't go by this season when they did not express thanksgiving for God's greatest gift to man, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.