Merry Christmas!

hope you had a great holiday season, so far!

It's the day after all of the holiday fun and boy, did we have fun?!?! I love having my kids all here. This year, I woke up first, let the dogs out, fed them, made the ever loving coffee and a wonderful breakfast for the kids: bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, toast, juice, fruit slices, and milk. After it was ready, I decided to wake everyone up to open gifts. It was great to be the one to wake them. It even took them a while to get up and at it. I thought that was so funny. I mean, I remember the days of staying up late, putting bikes together, toys together or even just finishing the wrapping. Then they would roll out of bed early, REALLY EARLY, and would come to wake us up because Santa had been there. We may have only had an hour of sleep some years! But, that's what it's about with little children. They are too excited and they make it totally fun.

But this year was different and I really loved it. It made me start thinking of what it will be like in the future when they won't be here on Christmas morning. When they will live at their own homes, maybe not even in town. That's when it will be strange to wake up on Christmas and not have anyone in the house. I don't know how my mom did it all those years. We would go see her sometimes on Christmas Eve and then later, after my ex's parents moved back to Ohio, we would see them on Christmas Eve and then we would go see my Mom after the kids opened gifts on Christmas Day. Then, after being there for a while, we would go to my aunt's house for dinner with everyone there. It was pretty hectic back in those days. But, it was worth it because everyone got to spend time with their families.

Part of what we still do now, is based on what we always have done. Like, we still wait to open gifts on Christmas morning. I hope that doesn't ever change. I hope that we always get together on Christmas in the morning to open presents together. It's fun because we laugh, pose for the camera, tease each other, tell stories, share memories and have a good time while we open presents. Beka always wears the Santa hat and passes out the presents. We take turns opening, one at a time, so everyone gets to see what was opened and who it was from. It's more fun that way! Plus, it does take extra time, but hey what else do we have on Christmas morning but time? :)

Then after we open presents, we decide what new game to play or movie to watch. This year, we played a new Sorry game with cards and then we watched Elf. Both were lots of fun, the game was different and we love Sorry, so it was a big hit. And the movie was hilarious! I was very pleased with the reaction to everyone watching it. We laughed and laughed some more.

Then after the movie was over, it was time to start getting ready to go to my cousin's for Christmas dinner with the whole family. I really look forward to it. It's just fun to be with everyone, eat dinner together, and generally be a happy family there all together. This year was the smallest crowd ever. The weather really had alot to do with it. Too much snow, too hard to travel. In fact, my son was supposed to be there when he got off work (worked 4-6) but he ended up working until 8, so he didn't come over. Instead, I brought him some food. This was the first time that he didn't come over. But we ended up with about 25 people or so. There was plenty of good food and laughter throughout the evening. We didn't stay as late as we have in the past, but we did get there pretty early, so that made up for it.

We got home and watched another Christmas movie, spent some time together and after a little time passed by, I was ready for bed. It has been a long day. Lots of fun, lots of blessings.

In retrospect, we did alot of things that we always do - we have some traditions and try to keep things going in that direction. But then, on the other hand, we also do quite a few things different all the time - like the breakfast, sometimes, I make it, sometimes, I just buy something to serve, sometimes, we just have cereal, it just depends. But Beka always wears the Santa hat, she always passes out presents, we always go one person at a time and always take turns. We always take our time opening presents. We always thank each other and always have a great time together. We always have stockings with presents in them, we always have homemade cookies, ham, broccili casserole, and always have chips and dip and cheeseball. We mostly decorate outside, but we always decorate inside. We always love each other and we always remember why we even have Christmas and we always give God the glory.

I loved our Christmas. I loved my gifts, my children were very generous this year and really took good care of me. My youngest daughter bought me several wonderful and thoughtful gifts, including an earring and necklace set in silver, extra earrings, the fuzziest and pinkest slippers! and my favorite: a beautiful gold ring with MOM written on it, diamond cuts around it. She totally understands the love I have for jewelry because she totally loves it too. Thanks soooooooooooo much. Then my son gave me exactly what I asked for: a wireless router, wireless pci card for our desktop and framed my Abbey Road poster that he gave me for my birthday. He also gave all of us the Purpose Driven Life. What great gifts! I'm loving the wireless at home, and I'm loving the framed poster. I fixed the desktop so we don't have to use the pci card, so he can return and keep his cash. My oldest daughter gave me a lovely sweater and scarf set. Pinks, purples, reds. I just love it. I felt so spoiled by the time we were done. The kids got lots of clothes, good smelling stuff, and jewelry. Exactly the things that they asked for. I tried to give them some surprises, but it's kind of hard at this age. But I managed to pull off a surprise or two along the morning.

It was totally fun!! totally great.........I love my kids. They are the greatest!!