Scenes from Christmas

Tonight I relax, knowing that all the special (but time-consuming and energy-draining) events of this week are behind me.  Tonight I savor the memories of a very wonderful Christmas.  Tonight my words will be few, but my photos will be many.  :)

The first picture I took on Christmas Day was Moriah sleeping peacefully in her crib.  I'm so glad that soft green afghan from Great-Aunt Rosa Lee was doing such a good job of keeping Moriah's right leg warm.  ;-)

 Moriah's wild hair...  :)

 Jeff finished the Advent readings from Jotham's Journey...

 ...and also read Luke 2 before we opened gifts.

 I'm kicking myself a little because of this next picture.  I knew the lighting wasn't good, but took it anyway, thinking that I would later take a better one when I could position myself differently.  And then I forgot.  Oh well, at least it shows that my dad held Moriah for a while.  :)  (It also shows that he wore red socks, just like he does every Christmas...but that's beside the point.)  ;-)

 My mom and Aunt Helen (my dad's younger sister) occupied the couch...Shav is actually on the couch between them with his head on my mom's lap...

 When the gift-opening began, the boys dove in head-first.  It was obvious that they had been scoping out their gifts ahead of time...

 ...because it took them approximately 1.37 seconds to cross the living room and grab one with their name on it.  ;-)  One thing that really stood out to me this year was how Tobin could very easily read his name on the packages; he didn't wait around for anyone to pass out the gifts but instead he opened them pretty much as quickly as he could find the ones with his name.  ;-)

The one thing Tobin had been asking for was an electric blanket, so opening this gift sure made him happy.  :)

 The adults mostly sat back and watched the children's jubilation and activity.  :)

 Contrary to appearances, this is not a black snake in Jeff's hands, but a belt that I gave him.  ;-)

 All the boys crowding around a really neat set of harmonicas that Jeff got them; there are seven total, one in each key.  I have a degree in music, but I didn't even realize that harmonicas come in different keys.  I must have dozed off in my Harmonica 101 class in college.  ;-)

 As is customary, it didn't take long for the living room floor to become strewn with discarded wrapping paper, empty gift bags, pieces of tissue paper, colorful bows...and among all that, the opened gifts, half-buried in the avalanche.

 David helped Moriah open a gift...

 ...a little Winnie the Pooh figurine from the dollar store (which is much too small for her to play with right now, but is currently hanging out with his pals Tigger and Eeyore and Piglet on the top of the armoire in Moriah's room).  :)

 More gifts being opened...

 Moriah said, "Humph!  Since they won't let me chew on Winnie the Pooh, I'll just have to settle for the strings on this old gift bag!"  ;-)

 Bad lighting again...  :(

 After all the gifts were opened, Jeff jumped right in and helped clean up the living room, then sat down with Tobin to put together a new puzzle.

 Shav played with these new foam shapes with magnets on the sides to keep them together.

 We were glad this year to have Aunt Helen with us, all the way from her home in Chicago.

 She and Moriah got to have some bonding time.  :)

 A little later, I tried, with varying degrees of success, to take a picture of Moriah in her "baby's first Christmas" shirt (that was a hand-me-down from a kind friend).

 This next picture cracks me up.  Someone (Tobin, I think) reached out to touch her, and she gave him quite a look.  ;-)

 Sweet thing.  :)

 That evening Jeff had the great idea to set up our old, small tent in Tobin and Shav's room so they could use their Christmas Eve gifts, camo sleeping bags.

 They loved their little camp-out.  :)

 Later that night, I passed the door of Josiah and David's room and had to pause to admire the Christmas lights strung around their window.

 And this is the last picture I took on that day.

From beginning to end, first picture to last, the day was filled with peace and joy.  (Just like the angels promised!)  ;-)

Thank You, God, for this gift!

Full

My stomach is full, filled by the delicious Christmas meal we had with Jeff's co-workers tonight.

My schedule is full, filled by various out-of-the-ordinary events this week.

My heart is full, filled with gratitude for this life I've been given and the precious people whom God has put in my family.

My blog is not full.  It's been suffering from a little neglect recently, but oh well.

There's always next week.  :)

It Was...

...baby's first Christmas.

And it was beautiful.  :)

A Light that Draws a Circle

In January of this year, I tried to read as many books by Bess Streeter Aldrich as I could get my hands on.  One of those that I was able to find in our local library was Journey into Christmas and Other Stories; and although I was one month past Christmas with 11 more months to go until the next one arrived, I merrily read the book anyway.  In the story "Suzanne's Own Night," I read these words:  Christmas Eve was a white light that drew a magic circle around the members of your own family to hem them all in and fasten them together.

"Yes," I thought.  "That's it.  That's why I love Christmas Eve so much.  Our words and actions, our traditions and celebration, our peace and joy--they do hem us in and fasten us together.  Just our little family.  Together."

Traditions - like our habit of letting the boys open one gift on Christmas Eve.  This year, we gave them each a sleeping bag, their very own camouflage mummy bag.  The other three sleeping bags we have are literally as old as I am--seriously, they are the ones we had when I was a kid.  I'm sure I slept in one of them when I was three years old and got the chicken pox and, being a generous soul even at such a young age, gave it to all of my siblings, and we camped out together in the living room to recuperate together while my mother rocked in the rocking chair and read books to us to keep our minds off our suffering.  But I digress...

The boys were all very excited (almost all the pictures I took were blurry because they were jumping up and down with joy!) about their sleeping bags and, conveniently, got to put them to use right away.  Since this is the night they get to sleep on the floor by the Christmas tree (another of those traditions that unites us as a family), they unrolled them and tried them out immediately--first, for a little reading time, and then, for sleeping.

Ever since we were newlyweds living in San Diego, we have opened our doors on Christmas to others who would join with us on that special day.  Christmas is for welcoming friends and extended family into our home and enjoying the eclectic assembly that results from the mix of personalities and backgrounds.

Ah, but Christmas Eve!  That belongs to us.

Tonight my heart is bursting with gladness because my little family is here together.  The circle--with Christ at the center--is still unbroken.

That's the best gift of all.