Christmas Cheer

Let me first say that this Christmas was WAY better than last!  Last Christmas, our first as husband and wife, was also my mom's last Christmas and we spent it in the palliative care unit at the hospital with her.  I remember my Dad saying to Parker something about, "I'm sure this isn't how you expected your first Christmas to go" and Parker replying, "I never expected any Christmas to go this way."  We were completely covered in prayer by so many friends and family and I can truly say that this Christmas was extremely joyful with only a very few moments of grief.  

We decorated our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving and it is still up because I hate to take it down because I love it so much.  Aside from putting the lights on (which I hate), I really enjoy taking out each ornament to put on the tree.  Whether it be Carolina or ECU or student-made gifts or little wooden hand-painted ornaments, each one has a story behind it and I love remembering their history.  We have a bunch of hand-painted wooden ornaments like the Frosty one below that my parents made on their first Christmas because they didn't have many ornaments.  They are strung by gold thread and have lots of character and it makes me happy to think about my parents making them together.  We also have our first Christmas ornament that Parker's parents gave us - the stockings hung on the chimney below.  Our names and the date are written on the back.  Mrs. Lydia also gave us ornaments in memory of my mom and our grandparents that have passed and each are hung on special places on the tree.  Of course there are about a hundred other ornaments, but I won't bore you any longer with the details :)

Other than the tree and our stockings, we didn't do a lot of decorating this year.  We hung our Christmas cards on a ribbon and put garland around the door like last year and added a cute little tree in the urn on the front porch.

As always, we went to our church's annual Christmas Eve service - it is one of my favorite traditions and I was so looking forward to sharing it with both our families this year.  It is such a good reminder that Jesus came and will come again and THAT is what Christmas is about!  I stole the pictures below from a church friend's Facebook :) but I wanted you to see how lovely it is - we wrap the service up by lighting candles while singing Silent Night.

On Christmas morning, Parker & I woke up and exchanged gifts.  He did REALLY good! :)  He gave me a massage certificate for a local spa in town, several pieces of costume jewelry, the original Pride & Prejudice movie (love!), and stocking stuffers!  He got a financial planning book (he loves those things) and a new Ruger LC9 (which is a hand gun for anyone who is like me and has no clue).

We went to the Morgans' for Christmas breakfast and it was fun to see the kids' excitement!

Then we went to my Dad's to exchange gifts and ride to Aunt Kay's for Christmas lunch.  It was great as always :)  That afternoon we took a nap and headed to my Grandma's for Christmas dinner.  With 5 kids that are 5 years old or younger, Christmas is very entertaining!

I'm sorry that the pictures aren't great quality - I used my phone when I remembered to take pictures.  We hope that you and your family had a Merry Christmas!  Our Christmas card to you...