Jim and I had only dreamed about having a home full of family this Christmas season. Because we live so far from all family, we never thought that we'd have the opportunity to open our home to many family members at one time. We were so very excited to learn that both sets of our parents would be able to come out for Christmas - my parents arrived the week before and left Christmas day, and Jim's parents came in Christmas Eve and will leave New Years Day.
We absolutely love the feeling of a full, warm and busy home. There is constant noise, an abundance of food and eating, wonderful times of fellowship, and never-ending excitement, activity, celebration and joy (well... except for those occasional melt downs from the little ones). Yes, having our family here means more to us than any gift from them ever could!
This was the first time our children had both sets of grandparents in the same place as the same time and they were ecstatic! We were able to have a big dinner with everyone on Christmas Eve, and we then got to share our Christmas Eve traditions with them - reading the Christmas story (each child picked out their own book that they read with Daddy to the group), opening our stockings which are filled with letters from each family member describing why we love one another, and then having a birthday party for Jesus. The elation of the children was contagious and it was so fun to have family to share in these special moments.
This morning as we ate a cinnamon roll breakfast, we got to see 5 beautiful deer grazing in the back yard forest. We all enjoyed them, and then were able to spend the morning enjoying each other and celebrating this very special day when we remember Christ coming to the world to seek and save the lost.
After a very tearful good-bye to my parents, we were able to go to our neighborhood park and walk on some of the trails. It was such a wonderful, refreshing time! We loved watching Grammy and Poppy (Jim's parents) take in the wonder and beauty of their first ever white Christmas!
4 comments:
Thanks for the wonderful memories, Terra! We love each precious person in your family!
Papa and Nana
Mery Christmas Roots! I'm so glad you were able to have both sets of parents come visit--what fun! Thanks for sharing with us some of your Christmas traditions--I LOVED the idea of the letters in the stockings. :-) So often I get so used to my family's traditions that I lose the ability to think of something else. I think that sounds like an awesome idea, though!
And by "Mery", of course I mean "Merry".
Thanks, Kris! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas together also! We missed being there, though we did have fun here! The letters were actually Ky's idea last year. Each of us writes to every other family member describing why they are "A gift to me". I hope it is something that we will continue as long as we have life together!! Some make us cry precious tears and others make us laugh hysterically!!
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