Christmas Catch-Up

I've been meaning to post a little about Christmas for awhile now and now that the boys are finally back in school I have finally found a spare minute to bring anyone who is interested up to date. On Christmas Eve we participated in a Progressive dinner with some friends. There were four families and with a stop at each house we didn't get home until quite late. The first stop was for appetizers, then salad and rolls at our place followed by a delicious turkey dinner main course and then a smorgasbord of tantalizing desserts at the last home. We also had a great time re-enacting the Nativity at the last house and singing Silent Night to accoustic guitar. Seth was a shepherd, Joel was Joseph, Nate was a sheep, Mom was a wise man and Dad and Daniel were part of the audience. Here's Nate with a plateful of goodies.

Here are Mom and Daniel standing by the open door to cool off. Look at our flushed cheeks. Christmas was a warm one this year! I think it was near 70 or so. How many of you can say that you had to open the door on Christmas to get a breeze blowing through because it was too warm? I guess that's just one of the perks of living in the South. 

  Christmas morning the boys woke us up around 7:30 to go see what Santa Claus had brought. Daniel was not too happy to be woken up that early and cried for a lot of the time the boys were checking out their presents. We finally put him back in bed and told the boys to just play with their new things for a while until we could have breakfast and so that we could let Daniel sleep a little longer. He went right back to sleep. I made homemade cinnamon rolls and we also had breakfast casserole with fresh fruit on the side. Daniel was a lot happier after his nap and with some food in his tummy so after breakfast we opened the presents from all the aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and each other. After that I was going to start to read my new book but I ended up falling asleep on the couch for about 4 hours. When I woke up it was time to start on Christmas dinner. That evening we played one of the boys' new games together before bed. It was a really nice Christmas. I love just being at home with my family and not having anything to worry about.  Of course there was lots of Christmas music, eggnog, twinkling lights, and less fighting among my boys than usual so I don't think I could have asked for a more peaceful Christmas with my family. It was truly a blessing to be able to ponder the Savior's birth, life and ministry with my loved ones close around me. It really is the most wonderful time of the year.