So This Is Christmas

Last night we attended the Christmas Eve service at our church. The church is rather large and crowded. I think when the present building was planned, the leadership had no idea how quickly the congregation would grow. Currently there are two Sunday morning services and each one is also broadcast into a separate venue at the church. Beginning in January, an identical evening service will be added in an attempt to ease the overcrowding. The pastor said that a debt is still owed on the current property and he doesn't think it is prudent to add further debt on a building project with the current economy. Being Christmas Eve, it was a little more crowded.

We left our house in plenty of time had it been a Sunday morning, but I didn't factor in Wednesday afternoon traffic. We arrived in the parking lot less than 5 minutes before the start of the service. Once we entered the sanctuary an usher asked me how many seats we needed. The best he could do were the back two rows. Three seats in the very back and two in the next row up. Aaron, Hannah and I sat in the back and P.K. and Rachel sat in front of us. My first thought was how inconvenient and unfair it was that on the rare occasion we are able to attend church as a family (since P.K. works on Sundays) we couldn't even sit together. There was no room. I began to wonder why the two people next to me didn't offer to switch with P.K. so we could all sit together. Then the Lord reminded me why I was there. Because over 2000 years ago a baby was born in a stable because there was no room in the inn. It was such a tender object lesson. He refocused my heart and my minor inconvenience no longer mattered.

On a lighter note, I want to post some pictures of Christmas around our house (in no particular order). This is our nativity set. We set it up in stages this year. We would read scripture at dinner and then place a piece. Next year we are going to just read the "Christmas story" through at one time and set it up all at once.

We started making St. Nicholas cookies as a family when Aaron was about a year and a half. We make them around the beginning of December.

First we make the dough, refrigerate it over night and


then use these molds to shape each cookie. I didn't take pictures of the finished product. Not sure how that happened. It could be that these don't last long.

These next three pictures are of our Christmas tree skirt. It is very simple and I love it.

These are the kids' handprints this year.

We started making it in 2002.

Hannah made her appearance in 2003 and was not a very cooperative 3 month old when she got her first turn to leave her handprint. It was more of a hand smudge.

We did some more baking this past weekend. In an attempt to save money, I have been using a lot of coupons and combining them with store sales to stock up on items. I have a shelf in the basement where I keep all of my overflow. After Halloween, I got out all of my favorite holiday recipes and made a grocery list and started picking things up as they were on sale and I had coupons. When we got ready to bake last week, I gave each of the kids a grocery list and sent them to shop in the basement. They thought this was a lot of fun. Without any prompting from me, they went to find a shopping basket.

Here they are with their lists in front of the shelf.


Hannah needed chocolate chips.

Aaron needed powdered sugar.

Rachel had a gymnastics show so she still has on her leotard.

Rachel's Christmas chorus performance at school.

I picked these up at Target this year. In the past we have just used regular plates, but the kids and I thought these were cute.

I don't remember for sure when Aaron painted this candle, but he lights it each year and puts it by Santa's plate so he will know where to look for his goodies.

After church last night we opened our gifts to each other and the kids opened their gifts from my mom.

Hannah made this angel from a flower pot at school for P.K. and me. Love it!!

Each of the kids has a stocking that my grandmother made for them.

Hannah's

Rachel's

Aaron's

The kids waiting at the top of the stairs to see if Santa came.

Much to my surprise, they didn't head straight for the tree. They wanted to see if Santa ate his treats and fed the reindeer their carrots. Santa left a note thanking them for the goodies and thanking Aaron for lighting the candle.

Then they wanted to see what was in their stockings before they even looked to see if there was anything under the tree.

P.K.'s dad arrived in town tonight and we had a huge Christmas dinner complete with the first ham I have ever prepared. It was so good. My mom and Jim were suppose to have arrived yesterday, but my mom has been under the weather so they had to cancel. Needless to say, a huge meal minus two adults means lots of leftovers for tomorrow and probably Saturday. The rest of P.K.'s family will arrive in a couple days. My dad and his wife will be here next week followed by a couple of our college friends and their son. We have had such a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to celebrating a little more. I hope your Christmas day was as blessed as ours.