The most wonderful time of the year!!!

I hope you all had a terrific Christmas! I know I did. Just spending the time with my family was enough for me. I am a very family oriented person to start with but I especially love the holidays when everyone gets together. You know all the family you don't get to see during the year.

We had a traditional candlelit service for Christmas eve. It has been awhile since our church has done one of those. Wow, that was such a blessing! Everyone has been blessed with such amazing talents, each voice and instrumentalist. . .I could just imagine the smile on God's face as we praised Him for sending His son to us. The service ended with the congregation singing Silent Night (my all-time favorite song) acapella in the candlelit! I almost cried. Just slowing down and taking the time to think about the words, gave me goosebumps. Okay so rabbit trail. . . have you ever heard the song 'Mary did you know?' There is a line in there that says, when you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God. talk about goosebumps! Can you even imagine? What an amazing thought! I should slow down more often there are so many amazing truths just waiting to be discovered in the simplest places, like song lyrics! Who'd have thought!?!

Afterwards we did our annual pollyanna gift exchange with the family! And just hung out chatting and snacking (and for me snapping tons of pictures like I do every year amidst the groans of "oh no not again!") Sometimes it gets a little frustrating having to fight everyone all the time just to snap a photo! but you know what they always come back to be for copies of the pictures that they couldn't be bothered to take! Interesting twist. another thing that is hard for me is that in order for me to be in any ictures I have to 1st find someone to take the picture and then I have to tell them exactly what I want them to snap. No one will jsut randomly snap any pictures for me. Grrrrrr!!!!! Bless my sisters heart every once in awhile she'll get in a camera mood and just snap away! Those are usually some of my favorite pictures. If recording my families history and memories wasn't so important to me I wonder if it would even be worth the fight!?! You know?

Christmas day was really nice too. I started the day by reading the Christmas story. Something that I don't usually do but really wish that it was a part of every Christmas morning. It really puts things into perspective. Interestingly enough I really needed that reminder so that I could pass it on. My parents didn't have a lot of money to spend this year so there wasn't a lot under the tree. I felt bad because it was hard for my mom, she loves to give and wanted to make sure that Christmas was special for us. I just kept reminding her that that isn't the meaning of Christmas anyway. But she still wishes she could do more. Bless her heart! At least we aren't little kids anymore who expect all those things from Santa! The Lord has blessed our family far beyond what we deserve anyway. (Although I do have to admit I was hoping for a new camera tripod for Christmas. . .)

We spent the afternoon/evening at my grandmothers. Despite the chaotic nature of having the whole family in one place it was relatively nice. My cousins and I did a bunch of group photos, much to my delight!! They were actually kinda into it!! That made my night, although my dad, who had my camera, wasn't real sure of all the camera settings. About 95% of the shots he took were blurry! Oh well he tried! All that really matters is that we were together. Those are the real memories!!

My night was spent with my godsisters! They are 7 and almost 5. I got them some new Barbies so we spent most of the night playing with them. What a blast!! Brings back memories of getting new Barbies for Christmas myself! Ahh to be a child again. Growing up takes some of the magic out of the holiday. They were just glowing, enjoying just being young and carefree. You caould tell the things that were "important" just by playing Barbies. Barbie went shopping at the mall, made hot cocoa, roasted marshmallows on the grill, enjoyed a concert put on by their 2 year old brother, and took a hot airballoon ride around the living room. Good times! After about half an hour or so I realized that we were being videotaped!! Ha! That'll be a trip to watch! What a great way to end the day.