Christmas

 Before Roger and I turned in on Christmas Eve I did a little Christmas morning prep.  One of those was to prepare coffee cake for breakfast... but the other, as seen in the picture above and below, was to prevent little feet from wandering into the living room.  The boys room had wrapping paper over the doorway (which meant when Joseph had to pee at 4am, Roger had to go let him out) and the end of the hall had a little ribbon X reminding children to stay out of the living room! :)  I didn't want to tape over the girls bedroom door because Adaiah still crawls into bed with us most nights. 

 I love the first reactions to what they see under the tree.

 We started opening with the youngest going first.  (Keturah didn't have anything to open, just stocking stuffers)

 I don't know how other families do it, but we take turns, opening one gift at a time so we can all see what everyone is opening.  The kids had so much fun (and so did Roger and I) watching everyone open their gifts.  Our Christmas was rather practical this year, with gifts like socks and underwear  and long-sleeved shirts.  The only toys they received were the toys they bought for each other.  I can't even put words to how truly blessed we feel to have celebrated Christmas with gifts at all.  With Roger not working for a few months this summer and the birth of Keturah (and the midwife to pay), the ability to pay for any gifts, practical or not, is a true blessing...  One that brought tears to my eyes every time I went out to do some Christmas shopping, or clicked "submit order" on an online store. The kids even said that this was the best Christmas ever.  I agree.  It was a blessed day indeed.

After the gifts we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, blew out some candles, and ate some coffee cake.  In retrospect, we should have sang Happy Birthday FIRST.  I would have preferred it that way... but oh well.  What can you do?  The kids also recited their memory verse, which is

Luke 2:8-14
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

They spent all of December working on that memory verse!  

Today Hannah said to me "God really loves us a lot.  He gave us all this stuff AND he gave us the best gift he could give!  He gave us his son."  Yes precious girl, he does love us a lot.