Christmas 2017

It snowed last night...not enough to use the Red Flyer that Grandpa fixed up for us and painted red, but there was snow. And this morning we watched a couple of renditions of the Nativity. One had the inn keepers rejecting Joseph being real jerks, the other one showed a regretful inn keeper who kindly pointed the way to his barn. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle. Then it was time to open presents. My favorites were the ones that surprised me in their thoughtfulness. Isaac gave Dan some of his football cards, one of which was a Dan Marino, Dan's childhood favorite. Hannah found a stuffed dog for Zeke when she helped Grandma clean out the church nursery and he loved it.  Zeke had the best responses to his gifts - it was grateful elation, bright blue eyes, unprompted thank yous and lots of jumping around. Three has lots of funness to it - you just gotta patiently remember that when the three-year old is yelling at their aunt for taking one of their Cheetos later in the day. After presents were opened it was time for some serious Lego building. The girls did it on their own. Gracie was intense and observant and ridiculously more capable then her mother would have been. Hannah was excited, scattered, but persistent and came out with a rad yellow dragon. The little boys hovered over their Dad at the table while he put in a solid hour and a half of construction.  And Briant efficiently turned out his product completely composed and with exactness. In the mean-time Ike got his football cards all arranged in the depths of his large closet sanctuary after which he settled in to catch up on Sunday night football. And that took up much of our day, this 25th of December that always goes by too fast. The day where you can't get out of your pajamas before the time that the kids usually get home from school. In the evening some aunts and uncles and cousins came by and we played Shanghai with some of us. Cards, family, and Christmas is good enough for Dan and I. There were chips and salsa, peanut butter M&Ms, and Cheetos to keep things greased and going. Grandma came in at the end of our card game. She sat at the head of the table crumbling tin foil and wrapping wool yard around it to make felt balls to use in the dryer in place of dryer sheets. It was cozy and nice and merry.

And my gratitude to Christ goes through it all - my gratitude that he made it possible for me to be forgiven for my imperfection when I lose it with my loud, Cheetos-defending child, my gratitude that he created a beautiful wintry, white world for me to live in, my gratitude that he made it possible for me to be with my noisy, lovely, chaotic family for eternity, and my gratitude for the peace that comes in knowing him.