christmas joys

Sunday night after a whirlwind week of preparations and celebrations.  Last minute knitting (finished the final gift on Christmas eve around 4 pm).  Baking and cooking.  And finally, finally, Christmas begins.  For us, it begins with church on Christmas eve, and what a glorious service it was.  Loved seeing my kids dance and sing the carols, and the dear daughter wrote a sweet story while the pastor gave his sermon. The story began,

            "I was dakrating the tree and a liut (light) chowd (showed) up. It wus Jesus! ..."

I will treasure that little booklet more than any of my gifts this year.  Love her sweet heart.  Being at church with my church family was a great joy.  After, we gave the kids their gifts from us (every year, jammies and a book about Christmas) and said goodnight. 

Christmas morning we enjoy the chaos shared by every family with young children...wrapping paper flying, squeals of joy and happiness.  Oh, what fun! And then....

SNOW.

Not a lot, mind you, just a dusting. But enough to just add to the magic and the joy. Our parents and James's sister and brother-in-law joined us for brunch, with our traditional egg casserole, and a new favorite cranberry apple cobbler-type casserole...mmm, yum.  More gifts, and a little down time, and then off to my Aunt and Uncles for more family holiday joy and craziness...more food than we could possibly eat, more gifts, and mostly, more family--my parents, two Aunts, an Uncle, and my cousin and her husband and kids.

And tonight, I found out a dear friend's baby boy was born on Christmas morning. Pure joy!

So when it comes right down to it, this is what Christmas was all about for me: celebrating Christ's coming, with my family. It was joy, it was magical, it was all that Christmas should be.