Christmas 2008

Well I can't believe that Christmas is already over. It comes and goes faster every year! We had a great, but exhausting holiday, enjoying lots of family, food, presents and most importantly celebrating Jesus' birthday! As I mentioned in a previous post, this time of year was very busy for Joe, so unfortunately he wasn't able to join us until much later on Christmas Eve. But the girls and I dressed up for the Christmas Eve church service at 4:00. We met my parents, and Joe's brother and mom there. It was packed, but the service was incredible!!! It truly made you reflect on the real meaning of Christmas, plain and simple, Jesus' birth, not all the other things that get in the way. Joe's hard work, as well as so many others, paid off big time!

After church, the girls and I headed over to my Aunt Judy and Bob's house, where almost all of my extended family, including my grandparents, parents, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins and all of their kids, gathered for a delicious meal and time together. With the busyness of the year it is one of the few times we can all get together and although I couldn't stay long, I would not want to miss it! In the past we have had a gift exchange, but decided this year to just spend time together, which was nice. My Aunt Judy read The Legend of the Candy Cane and had a candy cane and little gift for each of the kids. It was such a nice time!

Our night wasn't over, around 8:00 we headed back to our house, where Joe's siblings, dad and his fiance, were waiting. I let the girls open their first present, matching PJ's and then we waited for Daddy to get home. We opened gifts as soon, as Joe was done with the last Christmas Eve service around 9:00. They stayed up way past their bed time, but Noelle went to sleep around 9:45 and Joleigh not until around 11:00, yikes!

The night didn't go smoothly both the girls woke up almost every hour and I was exhausted, to put it nicely. Joe took both girls in our room and I slept on the couch. Around 8:15 they still weren't up, so I went to check on all of them and found the two girls asleep at the top of the bed and Joe sideways sleeping at the foot of the bed. I felt so bad! We put the rough night behind us and had a really great Christmas morning, though. We finally had to wake Joleigh up at 9:00 to open their presents. We couldn't wait to see how they reacted to their gifts. First, I read a book to them about why we open presents on Christmas and about the greatest gift we will ever receive in Jesus Christ. They sat and enjoyed the story then opened their gifts, they loved them. Joleigh's big gift was a camera that takes real pictures and Noelle got a keyboard with a microphone.

After presents I made breakfast for our family and Joe's mom and brothers came over. We spent the morning and early afternoon lounging and napping. Then after Noelle woke up from her nap around 4:00 we went over to my parents for dinner and more presents.

By the end of the day we were all exhausted (have a mentioned that), especially Joleigh who was up all night and refused to nap, but it was a wonderful holiday! We are so blessed by all that God has given to us and how he continually takes care and provides for us. We thank him for a family and for sending His Son. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!!!