Jesus' Birthday

Well, Christmas has come and gone...sad. It was so special this year for so many different reasons. As has become our custom, my parents came down to stay with us. It is so fun to have them here, especially on Christmas morning. We all went to church on Christmas eve. I love our church, but they try to cram every possible thing into that service, which is not so fun when you have two sleepy little ones with you. But, Trip did really well, and Grandad worked his magic and got Mady to sleep on his shoulder for most of the service. We let Trip stay up late and watch Charlie Brown Christmas and then TJ and I got to work on our "Santa" duties. We had the daunting task of putting together a train table for Trip. We both expected to not get any sleep at all, but TJ was great! He had it put together in 3 hours! I helped a little, but it was mostly him. My parents stayed up to watch for a little while, reminiscing about the days they had to do this for Graham and I. Luckily, Trip is still young enough, to sleep all night until about 7:30. I think this is our last year of a good Christmas eve sleep. The hardest part of getting Trip to bed that night was convincing him to leave Santa cookies. 3 year olds can be so selfish. :-) The train table was a huge it! And, Trip even managed to pull himself away to open his other presents too. Mady seems to like hers too.

Graham, Katie and Nicholas came down the next morning to open gifts and share a meal. Trip did really well sharing all of his new toys with Nicholas. And, we even got all kids to nap at the same time. It was great! We were all so worn out by nap time!

And, now as life begins to return to normal, I am so thankful for all the gifts we have been blessed with this year, but most importantly, I am thankful for the gift of God's son and his saving grace. My favorite part of Christmas morning, was when we took a break from the gifts to eat a little breakfast. After we prayed, we decided to sing happy birthday to baby Jesus. I pray that Trip and Mady will always know the real reason we celebrate Christmas. I thank God daily for blessing TJ and I with two wonderful children and giving us the opportunity to teach them about Him. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!