A Christmas Day in the books

Oh Christmas Day....what a day!  The whole month of busyness leads up to this day.  Expectations are always high, and honestly, things never work out exactly as planned.  But, the day is still filled with many wonderful memories, surrounded by those we love.

Our Christmas Eve service at church was beautiful!  The candlelight service we have is always one of my favorites.  This year Joshua preached and Silas read the story from Luke 2.  This Momma's heart was bubbling over with joy. 

Then, we came back and exchanged gifts with Joshua, Tabitha, Liberty and Freedom.  Liberty opens gifts very, very, meticulously.  She has to have every piece of wrapping and tape off before she looks at the gift.  It was so cute!  And quite time consuming, too!

We always like to spend our Christmas Eve doing a few family things together:  We reread the Christmas Story in Luke 2, and remember why we are celebrating.  We always talk about the Christmas Tree and what the many things about it represent. (Ornaments are the fruits of the Spirit we should have in our life, Lights represent that we should be the light of the world, etc.)  Each year we think of more and more things that are symbolic of the Christian Life.  I love hearing my kids ideas and input!   Then, we give our stocking gift to Jesus.  It's always a very special time for our family. 

But...this year someone had a headache and tummy issue.  Poor guy.  We knew he didn't feel up to it and went to sleep next to Mom and Dad's bed.  So, we decided to postpone our Christmas Eve traditions and just chose to do them after Christmas.

Then, bright and early Christmas morning came.  Everyone was feeling better and ready to open gifts!

We exchanged gifts with one another.  My kids are so thoughtful and I love to see them enjoy giving gifts to each other.  Brenna was so excited about the music arrangement she received, so she decided to stop and serenade us right then!

I have no idea why I gave my 7 year old a stink bomb set.  We slightly (well, more than slightly) regret giving him that gift!

My Callie is such a reader!  She even stopped and read a few lines of the book she opened!

We sold our chickens a couple months ago and decided to give the coop to Callie with money to buy new chicks.  Goodness gracious that girl was excited!  I'll post more on that soon!

I opened one of my gifts and was surprised to find the ring box that Patrick brought out 25 years ago when he proposed.  Inside it was a beautiful ring!  I LOVE it!

Then, it was off to Denise's house for a wonderful, delicious Christmas meal!
Everything was set up so  beautifully!

Have I mentioned lately how happy we are that Denise and Marc moved up this way?  Such a blessing!!

We gave a fun gift to our "Singles" group.  I'll post more on that later, too. :o)

What a wonderful day!  As I told the kids, we serve an amazing God.  On his birthday, he gives us many, many gifts and extra blessings.  He is so good to us!