merry christmas!

I guess I'm a day late in wishing you all a Merry Christmas, but I certainly hope it was merry for you!  Ours was great!  I did stress myself out just a bit on Thursday, though.  I realized on Wednesday evening that we were missing a couple of gifts.  We didn't have anything for Jerad's grandparents.  I always have extra Arbonne in my product closet, but I didn't think that was something that his grandpa would be too crazy about.  Of course, they never want us to give them anything anyway, but I can't not give them something.  Then, I came up with the grand plan to make them something.  We were already settled in for the evening, so I waited until Thursday morning to make a run to Walmart to get some supplies.  Of course, there were multiple other things that I also needed to get finished.  One of those was making this yummy delight for the family gathering that night, which I knew was going to take a while.  I also needed to finish wrapping several gifts.  About 2:30 on Thursday, I begin the project.  I had it all organized in my mind on how I wanted to make it.  Of course, I did not schedule enough time.  I had both of my boys trying to help me at one point, but I got irritated, so they got irritated with me and quit helping.  About 5:30, my husband is telling me to stop the project.  It's obvious that I'm not going to finish it, but I keep on going like I have plenty of time.  Of course, I don't because the Christmas Eve candlelight service started at 6:00, and I still needed to wrap a few gifts.  I finally put the craft project aside, realizing what my husband already knew, I was not going to get it finished.  I hurriedly wrapped the few gifts that were still exposed.  We quickly threw the food and the gifts in the vehicle and headed to town.  Thank goodness it wasn't as icy as they were predicting it to be because if it were, we wouldn't have been on time for the service.  We had to stop to drop off the food so it wouldn't freeze during the service and got to the church just in time to get seated before it began.

The candlelight service was so moving to me.  I'm often moved to tears but taking the communion, realizing the reason for this season that we call Christmas, I was so humbled.  What an amazing gift that we've been given!  That is the reason we celebrate, and so often we forget.  We get so wrapped up in trying to find the perfect gift, or making sure that the decorations are just perfect, or worried because we've spent a bit too much, or multiple other things that may be going on in our minds.  Jesus is the reason that we celebrate this most awesome time of the year!  I love the candlelight service.  It's so pretty seeing the church lit up only by the individual candles while we sing Silent Night.


I caught a picture of Brickman before he blew out his candle at the end of the service.  He had fallen asleep during the service, but we woke him up when it was time to light the candles.  This is the boys'  favorite church service of the year.


After the service, we went to Nammie and Bumpa's house for supper.  It was delicious, as always, and we had a great time hanging out with family.  I love having such awesome in-laws!


When we got home, the boys were expecting a new pair of pajamas, which is always the one gift that I let them open at home on Christmas Eve.  I didn't have them opened yet, so they thought it would be fun if I hid them and let them try to find them.  Maybe we've started a new tradition.

Here's the boys' annual picture in front of the Christmas tree in their new pajamas.  They are getting so big!  Time goes by so quickly.


The boys enjoyed Christmas morning at home and were pleased with their gifts.  Braylon was excited about his microscope and Brickman loved his Fur Real chimpanzee.  I think my favorite part of the morning is watching them open the gifts that they bought for each other.  Braylon bought Brickman a Star Wars Transformer and a wallet, and Brickman bought Braylon a Transformer and a book light.  It's so cute to take them shopping.  They're always tempted to buy something that they would like themselves, but they always know (and buy) what the other one wants.  They played all morning with their gifts until it was time to head to my sister's house.


Christmas day was fantastic!  I feel so blessed to have the family that I have.  Unfortunately, my little sister and her family didn't make it home from being snowed in, but he continued to have a great time, knowing that they were safe at her in-laws.  We all ate way too much, and then later had fun playing a game that caused us to laugh until we cried.  The kids had fun tearing open their gifts and loved everything.  The adults played Dirty Santa.  We always joke that we each need to buy a gift for ourselves and keep it because many of us go home with our own gifts, but we know that we'd never actually do it.  So, even if we go home with our own gift, we've just bought something nice for ourselves, which we don't often do.  Jerad went home with his own gift, movie passes and a trip to the concession stand for the whole family.


Now, that I'm trying to catch up on the days past, I'm realizing that this is getting to be a bit of a long post.  I'll stop there with our Christmas stories.  We are so blessed!  I could go on and on, but I won't.  I hope that everyone's Christmas was a merry one!