Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours felt especially precious as Tim left this morning for a patrol. He'll be gone about 7 weeks, then home for 3 and gone again for 9 more weeks. We were so blessed to have this time together just the four of us before he left.

We went to Christmas Eve service as a family. Tim had Mark and I had Luke. If you were to think I got the better deal, you'd be wrong! Mark was so good. He sat in the entire service and listened and sang the carols. He was quiet and (mostly) still. Luke, on the other hand, spent the entire service in the lobby. He was so disagreeable and loud. We then went to a neighbor's house for a time of meeting our new neighbors and visiting. There were quite a few kids and the boys enjoyed playing with all kinds of new toys. The boys then opened one present each, put out milk and cookies for Santa and went to bed.

The boys "on the go!"

Christmas morning started early, but Mark didn't remember it was Christmas so he happily played in his room until 7:15 when we all got up. The boys got their presents from Santa and we enjoyed a yummy breakfast. We had Texas grapefruit, (Thanks Mimi and Papaw!) Chile Cheese Bites, Crescent Roll Cinnamon Rolls and Eggnog Lattes.

Luke enjoying his cinnamon rolls!

Mark was nearly too excited to eat.

It took us 3 hours to open presents because the boys wanted to stop and play with all their new toys. But that's okay because we didn't have anything else to do Christmas morning. We watched our new Thomas DVDs and spent all morning in our pajamas. So fun!

Luke loves Thomas as much as Mark.

After a yummy Christmas Dinner, we all napped and had a leisurely afternoon. We played outside for a while, in the dirt of course. I think Santa should have brought a sandbox for the boys. All they want to do is dig in the sandy dirt!

Reading one of our new books

Our makeshift sandbox requires us to take off our clothes before we go inside.
Good thing our neighbors can't see!

After baths and dinner we ventured out of the house to look at Christmas lights. It was the perfect end to a wonderful Christmas. As blessed as we feel for having the gift of family time together, nothing compares to the gift we have in Christ. The Incarnation is the most miraculous and wonderful of all gifts. Nothing else can compare. It is our prayer that you know the gift of Christ this blessed Christmas season!

Merry Christmas!