Christmas Day

It has been a great Christmas Day. The kids were up bright and early this morning waiting to open their gifts from "Santa". Well, actually, Cameron was up bright and early as usual, but Anna had to be prodded out of bed. I think Cameron went by her room and made her getting up happen a little quicker than it would have happened on her own, but that is ok.

The kids really enjoyed opening up their gifts. Cameron got many new things that he really enjoyed. Anna did as well. We talked about what happened over 2000 years ago this Christmas morning. The kids shared their gifts with us and we had a good time together. I have some pictures (that I had to use Cameron's camera to take) but they are pretty blurry. I was hoping to use my camera, but I haven't figured it out completely yet, so I was not able to use it. I was able to get the lens on it, but I was not able to figure out all of the functions, so I was not able to use it. Heather is going to come over one day soon and help me figure it all out. The sad news is, the pictures weren't all that great, so I'm not going to post them. I'll post some Christmas vacation pictures later, once I get my camera working (or rather I find out how to work my camera).

After the kids took some time playing with their toys it was time to go and pick up Hamilton. He had time opening gifts with his mom this morning, and then we have him until New Year's Eve afternoon. Once we got him here, he opened his gifts and then the kids headed off to play. We played scrabble and now they are upstairs playing Madden football. Cameron won in scrabble, Tim came in second and Hamilton and I tied.

Last night we had a wonderful Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve service at church was wonderful. We sang a TON of Christmas carols and for the first time ever, they invited everyone in church who had a cell phone with them, to call friends and family who could not be with them at church that evening, and we sang Silent Night - first with the orchestra, and then finally with just our voices. It was beautiful. I'm not sure how many people received a phone call, but if one did, they heard some beautiful voices.

After the service we went to a Christmas celebration at Heather and Neil's house. Heather's mom and dad were there, and we had a great time together. I think Heather's mom has adopted me as her second daughter. She, Heather and I sat and laughed all night. Mostly we were laughing at Neil. I guess second we were laughing at me. Not WITH me mind you, but AT me!!! It's fine. If I can dish it, I need to be able to take it. Someday I will tell the stories that Neil blesses us with every visit. He has a story for at least one thing, every time we are there. It usually involves a food item. Someday I will tell the stories, but he made me promise I not broadcast it to the entire internet.... So, I won't. But someday, we will hear the Mimi3 (I'll explain that sometime later) story about 1 - beans, 2 - the truffle sniffing pig 3 - the goat Larie' that provided milk for mimi3 and was turned into a purse...... A RED purse.

Speaking of the red purse - it is absolutely wonderful. I love my new red purse. I'm going to get the perfect little wallet to fit into my purse and get rid of all of the extra junk that I don't need in my current purse. Heather is such a sweetie for finding me the red purse :)

Heather also got me a tacky pair of socks. Heather and her mother like to wear strange socks. I'm a solid, boring sock person. They make fun of me, and I make fun of them. Heater's mom has this pair of Birkenstocks that are hideous. I know that sounds terrible, but her mom knows that I think they are crazy ugly. We laugh about it. Anyway, they thought it funny to get me a pair of ugly socks, that I really do not feel obligated to wear. I returned the favor though. I had the kids help me look at every store for the two ugliest / tackiest pair of Christmas socks and purchased one pair for Heather and one pair for her mother. The sad thing is - they WORE them. Heather's mom will probably wear them with her ugly shoes!

Heather and her family have a Christmas Eve tradition which was our last night gathering... it is fondly called Tea Cart. It has grown beyond a tea cart and sometimes it is themed. We are blessed as a family to have been included in tea cart this year. I'm hoping that we will be able to participate in years to come.

To Heather and her family (mom and dad), we are happy to be part of your lives and you are wonderful, wonderful friends. We are looking forward to ringing in the new year with our family again! (Heather, your mom and dad are MORE than welcome to come and ring in the new year with us - please invite them for us).

Merry Christmas to all of my family and friends. Merry Christmas to Sara Joy who is not with us yet. We love you Sara Joy and can't wait to find out who you are and when you will come home!!!

In Christ,
Charity