This year Christmas fell on a Sunday. It was the first year for my family (myself, my husband and my two little boys) to actually wake up in our home on Christmas morning. You see, every year we are usually waking up in my parent’s home, or my in-laws home or my sister’s home. This year we enjoyed for the first time ever since my husband and I were married to wake up in our home. It was great to start new traditions and see the magic of Christmas come to life right before my eyes with my little boys who are six and four. Realizing Christmas fell on a Sunday … I had said to my husband, we should attend a Christmas service. Knowing that we usually go over to the in laws house first thing in the morning to open gifts, posed a little dilemma. Do we go to the Christmas service or not? As a Christian, I felt it was important to honor Jesus on his birthday and spend the morning worshiping him and praising him! I mean, it’s his birthday!!! The birth of our Lord, who we wouldn’t even have this holiday at all if we did not have him as our Savior. So we decided we would enjoy our morning doing gifts and then attend the second service at church. The magical morning started by waiting for the kids to wake up. My 4 year old was the first one awake and we heard the pitter patter of his feet. He saw that their elf “Elsa” had helped Santa set up gifts for them and that he filled their stockings! Little brother ran to wake up big brother so they could start opening gifts … also he wanted to show his big brother that Santa had eaten most of the cookies we left him and drank all the milk! (Next year we will leave carrots for the reindeer) Big brother gets up and the excitement begins!! The boys were good (for the most part) and got what they wanted from Santa!! Big brother got his big rainbow ball so he could play wall ball and little brother, a Mickey Mouse Lego set. Their stockings were also filled with lots of goodies that they love. Elf Elsa did a good job letting Santa know what the boys are into!!! After our magical morning, we got dressed in our “Christmas Best”, and went to church to celebrate the reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ. We have everything to be thankful for, our health, our jobs, each other and just peace and joy in our hearts and our lives. This is all due to Jesus and we wanted to say “thank you” and Happy Birthday. After service, we did another first for our family … we had brunch at Black Bear Diner! I have never gone out to eat on Christmas day! It wasn’t as busy as I thought … and after a short wait, we enjoyed a lovely brunch with just the four of us. Then after brunch … another Christmas first … wait for it. I took a nap!!!!! Yes, I said nap! This Christmas was unlike others in so many ways and it really was because we spread out our celebrations to Christmas Eve and even New Years with my side of the family. Our families live in different cities and my family is a 12 hour drive away. Christmas Eve we celebrated with my in laws and did presents with that side of the family and it was magical as well!! So Christmas day … we had time to breath and relax before heading to the big family party back at my in laws house with the extended family. So all in all, Christmas was filled with happiness, joy, laughter and lots of lots of love!! There was definitely a little stress for me with the typical hustle and bustle of the holidays but I really soaked in every moment from picking out our tree, to making ornaments with my two little boys to baking our holiday cookies three days after Christmas. It was a Christmas I will never forget. Today, is the 3rd of January and we just got back into town from celebrating New Years Eve with my side of the family. So … a third Christmas for the boys basically. They got presents on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and also over New Years Eve weekend. We still have more family to visit and so they will get a fourth Christmas very soon!!!! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday and that you experienced some Christmas magic yourself. Now that it’s a new year I wish you many blessings to come and I already can’t wait for Christmas 2017!!
