Merry Christmas!

I hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas. We had such a nice relaxing day at our house today. I was a bit concerned that today might be a hard day for me because I haven't been to bed before 3am for the past 4 nights in a row and last night was 5 am. But honestly this day was one of the better Christmases I have had in a long time. Here are a few pictures of our season...

Molly didn't want to look at the camera much. She was pretty entranced by Santa. If you've read Bruce's blog though, you know that we finally did get a good picture.

The next few pictures are of the kids helping us decorate our home..

I know this picture of the boys is a bit blurry, but I had to post it. Bruce caught this as Mason had just slipped, telling Merritt what was in the package.

We had two Christmas trees this year. This is the one the boys were decorating in the pictures above. This is what it looked like this morning when Bruce and I finally went to bed. (We weren't up wrapping gifts. I was finishing Mason's stocking and Bruce was making Jesus' birthday cake, and then we cleaned).

We don't have a fireplace at our new house, so the stockings get hung on the TV console with care... (notice Mason's finished stocking. I'm pretty proud of the finished product. Molly will get a needlepoint one to match the rest next year - I'm already starting it!)

And here is Jesus' birthday cake, our nativity that gets a new piece every day for 7 days (the last gift box being opened on Christmas morning before we open any other gifts), and in the basket behind the cake, the Christmas cards we receive. I love this picture, because it holds our family Christmas traditions in it. Every Christmas we do this nativity; we eat Jesus' birthday cake for breakfast; and every year we keep the cards we receive in the basket for the whole year. We pull one out every night we sit down together for dinner and pray for the family it represents.

And finally, this picture of Molly was taken this morning as she was enjoying Christmas morning too. (Notice she is crawling. She started that last week.)

I hope you have had a blessed, Christ-centered Christmas season, and that if the season has gotten away from you without you even realizing it, that you can take some time this week - before the new year starts - to see God, to put your focus on the wonder of Him, the blessings that He has given you, and know how much He loves you.

"Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness." Psalm 29:2

I don't know about you, but that's how I intend to start off 2008.