Christmas

Christmas...

Just the word conjures up so many memories, so many emotions.

 

The tree, the lights, the food, all the decorations, the carols, the fellowship with family and friends, the traditions.

I just love everything about Christmas!

 

Christmas 2011

Christmas at our house...

my little Country Christmas tree

Christmas Time

My favorite Christmas decoration... it holds a prominent place on the mantle above the fireplace. I actually have several nativity scenes placed throughout my house. I am reminded that Jesus humbled Himself and came to this earth to die for my sins...

One of my very favorite Christmas stories to read aloud to my family...

making the gingerbread house... making memories...

I always love seeing how it will turn out when they are finished.

my blessings

dh and Lizzie, sporting her new winter coat (hehe)

I fill a stocking for everyone... even our furry and feathered friends...

Christmas morning

I love Christmas! I love the sights, the sounds, the smells associated with this special holiday. I love decorating my house, inside and out... stringing lights along the roof line, hanging wreaths on the doors, draping greenery around doorways, mantle and porch rails. Picking out a tree, putting the lights on it and hanging the ornaments. Hanging the stockings by the fireplace, placing the nativity scenes around the house.

I love having hot cocoa with my kids after we finish decorating the tree. I love baking cookies with my kids to share with loved ones. I love watching them make a gingerbread house each year. I love going caroling with our Awana group at church. I love that we memorize and recite, as a family, Luke chapter 2 each year. I love reading special Christmas stories with my family, celebrating the Advent, anticipating the arrival of a savior.

I love picking out gifts for friends and family, thinking about each one, and what they mean to me, how they have blessed me. I love going to celebrate Christmas with our families. I love getting together with them, I love our time together, our visits.

I love all our traditions and the special things we do to celebrate Christmas each year... but more than this... more importantly than all these... I love the WHY of our celebration. I am literally amazed anew, every year, at God's remarkable gift.

I'm amazed that He would leave glory, descend from His throne. That He would wrap Himself in human flesh. That He would choose to be born to the poorest of parents, to be born in a stable. That He would choose to announce His arrival to lowly shepherds.

I marvel that He left the glories of heaven, that He came to this earth. To make a way for sinners, to close the gap that eternally separates us from Him. That He died for the sins of mankind. For my sins. Yes, that is the marvel and miracle of Christmas. That is why we celebrate.

For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord ~ Luke 2:11

Merry Christmas!

Wow! Where did the time go? I mentioned before that when basketball season kicks in, it gets very hectic at our house! My dh coaches varsity b-ball at our local Christian school, and right now we are having 3 games per week! Plus my daughter and son both play on Upward b-ball teams, so we are out of our house all the time it seems like! We've been in b-ball season since November, but the really hectic time (3 games per week w/ dh plus children's Upward games) only overlaps through January! It's crazy around here, but we do seem to survive!

Here are the kiddos posing for the Christmas card photo this year

I hope your Christmas season was a blessing to you as it was to me! I absolutely love Christmas! And although we didn't get any snow (we never do), it was actually cold here for Christmas! That's a record for us, because here in south Georgia, it is usually very mild, if not warm! This was a special Christmas for me because we went "home" for the holidays! We packed up on Christmas Day and traveled home to be with our families. That was quite interesting traveling on Christmas Day! It was also kind of strange, because we are usually at our house (so far away from all family) and I always cook a traditional meal for our Christmas dinner. On this day, of course, there were no restaurants open; the only restaurants we found open were in a bigger city just off the interstate and they were Waffle House and Hong Kong Palace. So...we had Chinese for our Christmas dinner! Something we will definitely always remember!! I love making memories.

my kids with my dear daddy

my kids with my dear father-in-law

A big change for us over the holidays was having our oldest son move BACK home again! After all my fretting and being so down over the summer because he was moving out in the fall, and here he is, back at home! He decided dorm life was not for him...yet. And since we are only about 40 miles from the college he attends, he decided that he'd just move back into his room and commute to classes each day. So, at first it seemed strange, having him back here again. But I've had the holidays to adjust. And an adjustment it has been! College kids....they keep the strangest hours! (LOL...it really has not been THAT long that I have forgotten what it was like!) It's been nice having him back home.


Another highlight for us during the Christmas season was having the Children of the World International Children's Choir back in our town again! We were able to host the same two little girls in our home again! What a joy they were...and what a privilege for us to be able to share in their lives! Our church raised enough money (since they were here back in October) to put in a well in a village so that 1,000 people can have clean drinking water! God used these children to touch our lives in a way that we could never have imagined... I'm sure you remember reading my post about them back in October!

my family with Pashi and Aljane and yes, we wish so very much that we could adopt them!