Not because of what I received, but because of how excited I was to give gifts to my family. Months were spent planning out who would like what, budgeting, setting up childcare to get the shopping done, hiding presents, wrapping them all and watching little eyes light up when they were ready to pick out gifts for others. I even happily encouraged my husband to spend some of his time off helping with our church's nativity. So much so, I think he even thought I was trying to get rid of him. I wasn't. Just trying to encourage him to do the stuff he considers fun.
Last year was a really tough Christmas. Pregnant, hormonal, broke and being overwhelmed made for a toxic pre-Christmas combination. Both Jim and I were determined to not have a meltdown like occurred last year. And thankfully, it was avoided.
Lesson learned. File that one away in the never-do-that-again drawer.
Our Christmas lasted 2 days. Christmas Eve we had our massive breakfast here with my side of the family. All of my side showed, including Aunt N and the grandparents. What a treat!
There were insane amounts of food and we even got to have a family cooking day preparing for it the day before the crew showed up. The kids got to help me pick oranges for the ambrosia. K helped me roll the sausage cheese biscuits into balls. N helped stir the cracked eggs for the casserole and both of them helped Daddy with the Monkey bread.
These pictures are precious to me. Grandpa is 89 years old, less than 3 months away from his 90th, and Brandon is 7 months old. Brandon has more of a crotchety old man face than the almost-90-year-old. Two generations are sandwiched between these two men. Boy the changes that have happened in this world in that time span. sigh
We even had time to make it to Cousin N's house for her annual Christmas Eve supper before heading off to the Candlelight Service.
So here's my story about the Candlelight Service: Our boys were in the nursery for the majority of the sermon. Towards the end, I got them out and brought them into the service. I love watching the warm glow of the candlelight on their faces while singing Christmas hymns and soaking in all that Christmas is and means. Tears me up every time. This year was no exception. Except this time, we as parents were out-numbered, and none of them are old enough to hold a candle correctly.
So as we're singing Silent Night, I'm watching our children's faces stare at the candle's small flicker of light, smelling the tops of their heads, feeling their warmth, and I manage to hold back the embarrassing sob-fest it could easily turn into and squeak out a couple of tiny tears. Not even enough to need a hanky (although I'm sure Jim was prepared). I'm successfully holding back the tide of emotion by swallowing the lumps in my throat and willing it away. Our sweet little family of 5 is sitting in a half huddle, just enjoying the moment and then I hear Jim say quite loudly, "Ouch hold the candle up straight, that hurts! It's burning me, hold it up straight. Don't tip it, Nathan!"
It was loud enough for people in the next 2 aisles to turn around and snicker. In Nathan's defense, he has no idea how fire or hot wax behaves because WE DO NOT LET HIM PLAY WITH FIRE! So he kept dripping it on Jim through the low-grade screaming. Jim couldn't protect himself because he was holding his own candle, was steering Katherine's candle in the right direction and helping Nathan hold his. He was stuck, unable to protect his own body. It took me a while to assist him because my tears quickly turned to laughter and my hands were full anyway holding a candle and a baby who wanted to constantly reach for the beautiful flame. Finally, Uncle R stepped in and rescued the waywardly tilted candle from leaving anymore Christmas marks on Jim's hands.
A fun time was had by all. That's how I measure a good time: tears to laughter in a split second.
When we got home that night, we scattered some reindeer food on the sidewalk and left some cookies and eggnog for Santa.
This year was a neat milestone: Katherine wrote her own note to Santa.
It says: To Satu I love you
She's learning how to sound out and spell new words and no way was I going to correct her. You go girl for trying. Santa knew what you were saying.
Christmas day arrived and Brandon woke me up at 6. I patiently waited around until 6:45 when the rest of the crew got up and the excitement began. They were so excited, surprised, thankful and interested in every single one of their presents. It was so much fun. I loved every second of it. They are at such a sweet age for Christmas. The entire time, I kept chanting in my mind, "Remember this. Remember this. Remember this." Kind of like, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19.
Here are our Christmas morning pictures.
And here are the few I took prepping for the family placement and testing the self-timer function. They were too cute to delete.
Sister love with the dollhouse bigger than her.
Ultimately, this Christmas will be hard to beat. I've learned a very important lesson though: my sanity is directly proportional to the amount of preparation I put into it. A friend of ours refers to Christmas as the Mother-Killer and I can see why. Thankfully this year was a beautiful, quiet and precious time to reflect on our most beloved and valuable gift.
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