Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Sure, I’m a little behind the times but I couldn’t NOT have a holiday blog post, right? The end of 2009 was busy, busy, busy–not a spare moment for blogging. I’ve been taking pictures by the bucket-full thanks to my birthday/Christmas gift so there is no lack of material. Perhaps in the new year I’ll be a bit more consistent with the blog. We shall see. If I’m being honest, it’s not at the top of my resolutions list. Actually it’s not even on the list.
First of all, I just want to say our thoughts and prayers are with several friends of ours who have started 2010 off with some incredibly tough times. We love you and admire your faith and strength. Despite the trying start, we hope the new year holds much goodness for all of you.
It was a blessed holiday season for us. For the first time in about four years we got to spend Christmas with family! Chris’s Dad and Stepmom were in town for a couple weeks. It sure was great to have them. Thanks so much for coming Russ and Sherri! It means so much that you’d come all the way down here to see us!
Tell ya what, I’ll cover Christmas and New Year’s and then do separate posts about all our other goings on. Let’s begin with Christmas Eve, shall we?
I LOVE Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked forward to Christmas Eve just as much as Christmas Day, if not more. Christmas Eve always had this magical feeling of anticipation–this feeling of being on the brink of something hugely exciting. I loved the feeling in our home. My mom can deck the halls like nobody’s business and it always felt so homey and festive. I loved the family Christmas Eve program where we would all read a story or do a musical item. I loved teaching my poor little sister dance routines and having her perform them, complete with costumes and props. And let’s be honest, I even loved choosing my own special Christmas Eve meal that my parents would provide as I wasn’t a fan of the traditional Christmas Eve clam chowder that the rest of the family ate.
These days, I still love Christmas Eve. We still do the family Christmas Eve program. The highlight of that is having the kids act out the Nativity story. We practice in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the kids all choose their parts. Well, Aaron didn’t get to choose his part but we were too excited about having someone to play baby Jesus to have to have him do anything else. This year Myah wanted to be Mary, Kamryn the angel, and Hailey was a shepherd.
All the kids did a great job with their parts and we all thoroughly enjoyed the show! We sang some carols and read a couple of stories including “An Aussie Night Before Christmas” and “Aussie Jingle Bells.” After the stories the girls got to open their new pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Brown and sprinkle the lawn with the reindeer food. Then Myah wrote the note to Santa on behalf of all the siblings and put it with Santa’s gingerbread and egg nog.
Christmas morning dawned bright and early but not in the way you might expect. All the girls slept in! I couldn’t believe it! Chris and I still got up early. Maybe that was because we were just so excited for this little guy’s first Christmas!
Aaron
Finally, just before 8 am, Hailey strolled out and was all smiles. We let her have one present to tide her over while she waited for the big sisters to get up. They finally did about half an hour later and then the fun really began.
Once the gifts were opened we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of monkey bread. Then it was a pretty chill day. We just enjoyed it at home as a family. It was the last day of Russ and Sherri’s visit so I’m glad we could spend it together at home.
The kids all seemed to have a good Christmas and I’m thankful that we had such a happy day at home with family. Here’s to hoping you and yours all had a very Merry Christmas!
For New Year’s Eve we had the pleasure of going to a nearby island with some friends. Some other friends, who didn’t attend, let us use their holiday house. Thanks guys! We enjoyed some nice beach time in the afternoon. I didn’t take any pictures because sand was blowing everywhere and it was too dangerous for the camera. Later in the evening we went to a different beach for a stroll and some shell collecting.
Aaron, Chris, Michelle
*I started this post several weeks ago. After dealing with technical difficulties with the photos that go along with this post, I’m finally posting as is, with only the pics you see above. If I ever get the others to cooperate then you’ll see more of our Christmas. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Christmas Eve is also my favorite day of the year because I find the excitement so enchanting! I loved hearing about your holidays and how you celebrated. The pictures were lots of fun to look at, too!