Christmas in a Nutshell

As the Christmas season comes to a close for another year, I look back at all the people and events we were able to see and do. It was a busy season, to say the least, but God has blessed us with so many people that we love (many whom we did not get to see at all), that we cannot complain about all the running and planning it takes to see everyone. With each event, we thank God for His goodness and provision for us.

As a family, we started out the Christmas events a week and a half before Christmas day with a wonderful party we were invited to by one of the partners at Jeff's law firm. It was the first year we all went, and we had such a great time. I was nervous about taking the kids (even though they were invited and encouraged to come), but they did great. Our wonderful host and hostess even included entertainment for the children and at the end of the night, all of the kids sang Christmas carols for the adults. We just missed the ice that night and awoke the next morning with a beautiful display of ice on everything outside. It shut a lot of people down, but fortunately, we only lost electricity for a few hours. (Andrew and Rachel were able to finish their trip from Arizona that day, inspite of the ice.)


On Monday, I was able to have Julie and the kids, Aunt Dee, Mom, Rachel and Andrew over for a little pre-Christmas fun. The kids received their first gifts of the season from Aunt Dee.


Later in the week, we celebrated with my Grandmother and Jeff's mom was able to come for Joost's program. And then on Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with my parents, Andrew and Rachel. The kids received a slew of gifts, and we ate Mexican. (One is only able to make and eat so many full turkey feasts, and so Mexican seemed to be a good option.)

On Sunday, we traveled to Doylestown to start our celebrations with Jeff's family. Carolyn and JD (Jeff's sister) were kind enough to put us up for the two nights we were in town. We had such a great time with them, and the kids really enjoyed their stay with their cousins (especially Joost--he really enjoyed his extended sleepover with Joshua.) Carolyn hosted the entire family (all that could come) for brunch on Christmas eve morning.In the evening, we all dressed up and went to the Christmas eve service as a family and enjoyed wine and cheese after, compli- ments of Sean and Jonelle.


Christmas morning was a lot of fun for the kids. Amazingly, we didn't hear any noise from the kids before 6:45 and even then it was only excited chatter coming from Joshua and Joost's bedroom. Jeff's mom was able to be with us Christmas morning, as well--which added to the fun.

Jeff's other sister, Beth, hosted everyone for dinner at her home on Christmas day. She did a wonderful job with the meal and the kids had a great time opening *more* gifts. It was a busy house with all seven of Grace and Joost's cousins in attendance.
We had a nice time with Jeff's family and returned to Harrisburg late Christmas night.

We were delighted to be able to see an old friend of Jeff's (who was a groomsman in our wedding) that lives in Sacramento. Allan came to our home on Thursday for dinner and I am still kicking myself for not taking a picture of him and Jeff together since we only get to see him once every five years. We had a great time catching up with him.

Of course, no Christmas is complete without visiting the Christmas tree in the capitol building, which we did on Saturday.

Christmas, in a nutshell, would not be complete without giving thanks for our Savior's birth. I am awed to think that God Himself would take on human form and humble Himself to save even me. I pray that I will hold fast to this thought as I go into a new year.

Merry Christmas to you all!