Cheers!

We survived Christmas Eve!

 In my last post I talked about my fears and insecurities of sharing at our church's Christmas Eve service, but that has since come and gone and I feel fairly confident in saying that I held it together rather well.  The Sunday before Christmas, a man in Alex's and my Sunday School class reminded us that Satan would be on high alert that week, trying to find any and all ways to bring doubt and conflict into our lives.  Keeping that in mind, I felt very much at peace leading up to the service.  Minutes before we were about to walk on stage, however, I looked at Alex and very seriously told him I thought I was going to throw up.  I was already planning my exit plan should I actually need it.  As soon as I took the first steps up the stage, though, an overwhelming peace flooded all over me and I didn't have one ounce of nervousness.  God was definitely with us that night.  I cried, much to my prediction, but never hard enough to prevent me from speaking clearly.  Success!  Since then, many people have come up to us and thanked us for sharing our story.  One man in particular shared how his mother had been at church that night, and I'm assuming she's not a regular attendee, and said our story really touched her and that seeing his mom that way made his Christmas.  That has been Alex's and my hope all along...that our story might somehow impact a person's relationship with Christ.  I hope to hear more stories like this as time passes on.

Once the services were over, Alex and I could officially start celebrating Christmas!  We spent Christmas Eve at family's house whom we had never met.  Alex's parents are in a small group with them and so we tagged along for appetizers and desserts.

Christmas morning was exactly how we wanted it.  The kids woke up leisurely, and we spent about thirty minutes unwrapping gifts that took hours and hours to purchase.  I suppose I should start getting used to that.  The kids were spoiled beyond imagination and within a few hours after opening gifts, they were back to playing with their "old" and "boring" toys.  Again, I will be preparing myself for this next year.

We had Christmas dinner at Alex's parents house and it was the first time in who knows how many years that they had all three of their boys under one roof for Christmas.  (Alex has two half-brothers, one who recently moved here from Seattle)  Grandma and Papa spoiled the kids, too, so we had a load of new gifts to haul back home.  Riley's favorite gift?  A music set - complete with maracas, triangle, AND tambourine!  The joy emanating from me right now is huge! (insert sarcasm)  It was a perfect, quiet Christmas.

The next day we packed up our things and drove to Billings to spend a few days with my folks.  The kids were, again, incredibly spoiled.  I'm amazed we had enough room in our car on the way home to bring back all the gifts.  We went sledding one of the days after picking up my niece from daycare, and we had a BLAST!  I think the adults had more fun than the kids, being that Riley covered her eyes EVERY time we went down the hill.  She claims she wasn't scared and that she had fun, but I'm not buying it. :)  Cale, on the other hand, wasn't satisfied unless he was going faster and farther than everybody else.  We ate a lot of incredible food, had a lot of laughs, and returned home to spend the remainder of the week as just the four of us.  Alex's office is closed the entire week between Christmas and New Year's, which I am entirely grateful for, and so we had an amazing week as a family.  Alex and I watched five or six movies within the week which is definitely a record for us.  It was definitely a somber morning today when I woke up to the daily grind of another Monday.  Blah!

I've been asked my several people if I have any New Year's resolutions.  I've never been the kind of person to make resolutions and so I generally avoid this whole tradition without too much thought.  This year is much of the same.  I do, however, feel that this coming year will change our lives forever.  Here's to hoping I won't be disappointed!

Cheers!