Christmas at Our House 2008

"And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city."

Luke 2:1 & 3

After we returned from Grandpa and Grandma's house we cleaned up the house, put the new presents away and re-organized a few things. Then we had a relaxing Tuesday with a wonderful rest that night. Wednesday morning we had our personal family Christmas!

All the years I remember doing Christmas with my family, we always did it Christmas Eve - at night. I always liked opening gifts at night because we had all the Christmas lights illuminating the room and we were all cozy in our jammies - there was just something captivating about it. (Maybe it was just staring at those beautiful lights and wondering what presents were in the "wiseman bags" ;)

But we wanted to try something different so we did it in the morning this time.
I'll tell you about our day as I go along with the pictures!

Josiah helping with breakfast.

Alexis making the Drop Biscuits.

Daddy cooking his family-famous eggs!

Beautiful Lydia!

Relaxing before opening the gifts. (We ate breakfast and did devotions first) Those burlap sacks are what we call the wiseman bags.

Hannah - in her jammies - with some goodies in front of her.

Getting ready to open a wiseman bag. Lydia is sleeping and Mamma is temporary photographer! :)

Daddy got some peppermint patties! :)

Mommy and Josiah

Alexis

Josiah with some of the "goo" he got for Christmas. His "goo" changes from purple to pink. Eden got some "goo" too - hers glows in the dark.

Seth

Caleb

The presents Hannah and I received on the piano bench!

Alexis building a 3-D rhinocerous.

While we were opening gifts, one of our neighbors dropped by a kit for building a gingerbread house and as we were opening Christmas cards another neighbor brought by some cookies and pound cake!

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This is an idea of what everyone got for Christmas:

Books - lots of books - probably close to 10 books.

The Mr. Pipes series, Jungle Doctor series and books on eventful attacks/wars around the World War I & II era, plus a story of missionary heroism. Mommy and Daddy are always looking for books (we love to read) to increase our knowledge and help us become knowledgeable on different events in History. We probably get books every year - and finish them all by the next Christmas (maybe with having read them over a few times) just in time for more books!

Vitamin C Chewable Tablets (500 grams).

We love the flavored Vitamin C's and they're very good for you so why not get them for Christmas? :)

Fingernail Polish

Three different shades

Peppermint Patties

I don't know anyone in our family that doesn't like peppermint patties! Candy makes a great present!

Oatmeal Creme Pies

Yum!

Really Nice Winter Gloves

Daddy and Mommy used the gift certificate from Bass Pro (the one we got if we went to bluegreen resorts) to buy those for us! The only problem is that it has to get cold enough to use them - snow would help too! :)

Musical Instruments

Beat sticks (I don't know what you call them!), djembe-12" (Daddy's favorite - He used to play the percussion at our old church), mini Congo, shakers, and last but not least a temporary violin for Alexis! Alexis has had an interest in violins/flutes for a while so Daddy and Mommy borrowed one from Mrs. Robinson, Alexis' best-friend-forever, Jamie's, Mom. She has it for a year or two to figure out if she would like to pursue playing the violin.

Music Books

Twister

Twister is such a fun game, the only problem being that 8+ people can't play at once!

Candy Cane

Tripod for a Camera weighing no more than 1 1/2 lbs.

-- One of my (Kimber) favorite gifts!--

Hair Accessories

We constantly lose them, so we always need new ones!

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I don't remember what else we got, so that's good for now! Lydia did get a really cute pair of clothes! We relaxed a little bit more (Hannah, Caleb and I read our new books - Missionary Stories, The Story of D-Day and Jungle Doctor) and then prepared our Christmas dinner. Na-naw and Paw-paw (our grandparents) came over to celebrate with us. The table was set with a tablecloth and Mamma's fine china and glasses. We had sparkling grape juice for our drink to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice. I'll see if I can post the pictures soon. After dinner we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. All of us went in the service as a family, which we really liked!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber