Christmas Gifts

We spent Christmas at the Albaecks in North Carolina along with Janne and Adam. This was a special Christmas for me- Jacob was back from Iraq for his R&R and we ALL could be together for Christmas- a first! It was a fun, memory-making time.

I thought about gifts... ones under the tree, ones from Christmases past, ones that aren't "things" and especially about the one God gave us that first Christmas so many years ago... Jesus and His gift of salvation.

Grandchildren are a marvelous gift! 

Richard and I spent some time playing with the grandkids outside on Christmas Eve. While we enjoyed gifts of good health and being able to play with our four sweethearts who are as individual as can be, they enjoyed gifts of playtime with grandparents and toys from past Christmases. 

There is nothing like Christmas morning with little kids!

Amazingly, the Albaeck children, unlike their mother when she was a child, sleep in on Christmas morning so our day didn't begin until 8-ish. Gifts are opened one at a time amid much story-telling and laughter. Every gift is special... from the homemade ones from the kids or underwear in a stocking to that one thing you "really, really wanted!"

Lexie got two tutus (for ballet class)... and being the good little sister that she is, shared with Ben!

The gift of laughter is perhaps my favorite one. As you can imagine, with four kids under the age of eight, there was a lot of laughter... listening to them sing "Feliz Navidad" ("...Espano ano demicidad...") ... or watching the "ballarinas" in tutus and Christmas pajama tops... 

Another gift... we had a "White Boxing Day!"

We woke up on Boxing Day (December 26th for those who aren't familiar with Boxing Day) to a pristine, white blanket of snow covering absolutely everything! The kids were excited! The grown ups were excited! And after lunch we went outside to play in it. We had snowball fights... ate real root beer snow cones... had fun playing together ... and just marveled at the fluffy stuff coming down out of the sky.

We had a wonderful Christmas and were blessed with many gifts!