Our Blessed Christmas

Well, Christmas is over and it was a great one. I don't remember ever having a really bad Christmas though. We spent Christmas Day with Eric's huge family in Eatonville. We knew Christmas Day was going to be crazy so we decided to make Christmas Eve very low key and just the three of us. We didn't have to rush and get ready in the morning which was nice. We spent the day just getting ready for Christmas and tidying up the house. Eric had the great idea to go out to eat since there would be lots of cooking the next day. So we had an early dinner at Red Lobster before heading to the Christmas Eve service at church. When we got there we found that there wasn't any nursery. Well, it was open if parents needed to take their kids in but there wasn't anyone working in it. It was Gabe's first time in the adult service. He was actually confused and kind of disappointed because he is so used to going to the nursery. He was really good during the singing but when everyone sat down, he wanted to walk around. We were sitting in the section for parents with small kids and he knew some of the kids there from our small group. So, he thought it was play time. Eric tried playing with him in the nursery for a while but he wanted to come back in. Then he started getting squirrly again so I asked if he wanted to go to the nursery and he got all excited and said, "Yes!" So, I missed the last half. It was o.k. though. I thought it was good for him to go in and at least see what church is. He really liked the guys playing instruments and singing.
When I lived with Ruth and W.T. they had a tradition of always reading the Christmas story from Luke before opening presents Christmas Eve. Since Eric and I have been married we have also done that. We read it from one of Gabe's story books though because obviously that kept his attention better than reading from the Bible. Then we opened up Grandma's Christmas Eve presents which are always pajamas. Then, it was bedtime. It was a perfect day. I am so blessed to have my family. My whole life, this is what I have wanted and God has blessed me even more than I dreamed.