We were hit with our second blizzard of the season the morning of Christmas Eve. By 10am the snow was falling down by heaps and bounds out of the sky, and at times the snowflakes were so big you could almost see their design from inside the house. It was truly beautiful. By the afternoon the wind picked up to around 35mph and it was hard to tell if it was still snowing, or if the deafening wind was hurtling around what already lay on the ground. Churches all over the city were canceling their Christmas Eve services, because the later in the day it got, the worse the weather became. However, our church, Brookside, was moving forward as planned, and despite the blizzard outside, our family would be there as planned.
Sydaleigh insisted upon wearing her most beautiful Christmas dress, even though I told her she could wear pants it was so cold. But, my daughter would not have it. It was Christmas Eve, and she was going to wear her dress. At times I think she would have been well suited to have been born in the 17 or 1800's, where dresses were all that woman wore...she would have liked that very much.
We made it to church unscathed and enjoyed a wonderful hour worshiping our King. The girls were scwormy, but loved sitting in the "big church" with mommy and daddy. The weather was even worse after church ended, which I didn't think was possible. And as we drove home listening to Christmas carols, I was silently brought to tears thinking of all the men, women, and children in my city who had to sleep in this tonight. I offered up a prayer that they would be found and given shelter from the storm. I hope they were.
After returning home safely, we settled down at the table for supper and let the girls open their Christmas Eve present, which is a new movie every year. This year they got the Veggie Tales Jonah Movie, one of the only ones we didn't have yet. Then we all sat around the Christmas tree and sang songs, and once the girls were in bed me and Isaak settled down in the living room for our Christmas Eve tradition of wrapping gifts and watching a Christmas movie, this year it was Love Actually.
The day before Christmas Eve The Nativity Story was on one of the cable channels so I watched that up in bed, having never seen it before. I'm always hesitant to watch low budget movies with no known actors in them, and I'm especially hesitant to watch movies of Christ's birth because they always consist of some American accented blond haired, blue eye guy and gal portraying every character in the story. So unrealistic. However, The Nativity Story was special. There wasn't a single blond haired blue eyed guy or gal in the whole flick. I loved it. And not just for that reason. :) It was beautifully made, and next year that is what I will be watching on Christmas Eve.
The following morning we actually got to sleep in till darn near 7:30am and were surprised to see snow drifts in our backyard nearly touching our windows. The weather didn't let up at all overnight. We all gathered downstairs and got to eat our own special cereal for Christmas morning. I bought the girls Kix, because lets face it, at $4 a pop for a 12oz. box of cereal, I'm only buying that once a year. :)
Four years old is definitely THE year for Christmas. It only took us 25 minutes to open up gifts because Sydaleigh, at four years old (one week away makes her 4), helped everyone. She tore that paper off in a fierce way! It was awesome, the excitement radiating from her just spilled over to Marvelly and me and Isaak just sat back and let the two of them go to town.
The gifts for Sydaleigh this year consisted only of Princess Polly Pockets. She has been wanting those for well over a year, but we made her wait until Christmas, and she'll get a few more on her birthday...but it was well worth the wait for her. And Marvelly was most overjoyed in receiving this cool homemade puppet from Aunt Abby. This thing brought her to ecstatic giggles every time I would pop it out of it's cone. Isaak got miscellaneous things ranging from a new sweater to a much needed wedding band. And I was graced with such goodies as a new study Bible to the movie Strictly Ballroom, which I've been wanting for forever. :)
Me and Isaak both pitched in to make Christmas dinner, with Isaak making the ham and me doing everything else. I love that I have a husband who knows his way around a kitchen, so that I don't have to cook big honkin' slabs of meat. :) And then after dinner we all decorated Jesus' birthday cake, in the shape of a star, as Isaak retold the story of Jesus' birth and the star in the sky that led so many to Him.
Pure delightfullness.
It was a fantastic Christmas, and I pray that our King, whom we celebrate at Christmas was glorified in our home. After all, He is the only reason for the season.
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