A Quiet Christmas

Due to the weather we ended up having our house and huge amount of food to ourselves for Christmas Eve. We ate good, read about the birth of Jesus from our Bible, contemplated what it must have been like for all who were present to witness the angels and the new baby Jesus, had some dessert and then our two oldest children decided to put themselves to bed ... at 7:30 pm. Guess they were excited for Santa to arrive. Our youngest two stayed awake out on the couch and wanted Christmas stories read to them. About 15 minutes later, Santa came walking through our front door. He didn't seem too upset that we weren't all in bed and said he couldn't come down our chimney because we had a fire lit. Our 4 year old thought this was fantastic and went to wake the older two to come see Santa as he went around putting candy canes in their stockings. Santa wasn't used to our area having so much snow on Christmas Eve and figured he'd better stop in earlier than normal. I asked if I could take some pictures of the kids on his lap if he thought he had a minute or two and he obliged.

Santa left some gifts and then went on his way. Christmas morning came and we were actually up before the kids, well , little J was awake and talking but still relies on us to get him out of bed.

Later on my mom and dad came over to spend the day and share their leftovers along with ours from the night before. Again - plenty to eat. KN decided to mix her Scandinavian heritage with her Pacific Island heritage and roll chicken kelaguen up in her lefse to eat. My mom did the same and they said it would be a new 'mixed' recipe.

Chicken Kelaguen : A Guamanian dish made of chicken, peppers and coconut. ( in the glass bowl ) Lefse: A Norwegian 'tortilla' made of potatoes.

We had to put our gathering with other family members on hold until the snow cleared a bit then off we drove to our sister's house. We spent the day there yesterday eating some more wonderful food, opening a few more gifts and getting to spend some quality time with sister, brother in law, nephew, Dad and Mom P.

Our kids with Uncle and baby cousin! ( on his lap )The holiday time this year ended up really well, despite the snow - hey, aren't we always wishing for a white Christmas? We're so thankful for all of the prayers that were answered for our family this year and all of the gifts we were blessed with, a new son added to our family and a new nephew born a few days after our son. Coming through a rough year and a holiday season that wasn't quite as enjoyable last year makes this coming year all the more special and joyful and allows us to see what abundance we really have been given.