Christmas Highlights

Hard to believe Christmas 2013 has come and gone! We all said it came quick this year and it did. I have many reflections so I'll hit the highlights. I always feel like I can enjoy the holidays as soon as the shopping is done and I was pretty much done by the first full weekend in Dec. It was fun to take Claire shopping for her brother and to get a gift for Toys for Tots. Good for her to learn to give to others...she like us all, has no trouble receiving. Our family time started the Sat before Christmas with exchanging gifts with the Hendersons via Skype. (They now live in the Raleigh, NC area and he had to work on Christmas! Bummer!) We found a way to make it work! Sunday lunch time my cousin Kay and her family stopped through en route from NC to MS. What fun people and great to catch up! That afternoon YaYa and Jim came over to exchange gifts and brought dinner. Fun to play and enjoy gifts and games and food together. (Side note - We had Joel in the MD office Sun morning confirming Hand Foot and Mouth Virus which is why you will see some bumps on his face in the photos!) Monday we welcomed in my dad from his visit to the Hendersons and The Carver side would arrive including Uncle Bob from Charlotte. Christmas Eve was spent cooking while the rest of the crew played with the kids. I whipped up 3-4 side dishes, a red velvet cake, and strawberry layered salad while Honey Baked Ham did the meats. We got kids down Christmas Eve and Jeff, Bobby and Grandad spent 2 hours assembling one of the kids gifts (a play set- you'll see before/after pics) in the basement. I spent some time trying to locate my missing cell phone (more later). Christmas day was great! Enjoyed the day of eating, giving and receiving and reflecting on the birth of Christ. I pondered the responses of those in the Bible to His arrival - wonder, treasuring in her heart, GO and see what has happened, GO and find out so I may kill him...much like many of us respond in today's world...we either welcome Him with worship or kill him by our denial of His existence and purpose. The kids enjoyed all their gifts. Hard not to go overboard wanting to give kids what you know they will love and watch their joy without it being too much and wanting them to appreciate and be thankful. Everyone was gone by the day after Christmas and we began putting things away and regrouping. The mystery of my missing phone was still there until Friday morning my neighbor called and asked if I'd lost my phone. The Leaf pick up people saw it and took it to her door and she asked another neighbor about it who saw us out looking for it. It was out there because we'd gone out for a walk and I was tossing leaves on Claire and crunching them with her...Believe it or not it still works! It was a wonderful first Christmas for Joel a bit dampened by his virus and now double ear infection and upper respiratory virus. On meds now and moving in the right direction. Thanks to all for a wonderful Christmas 2013 and looking forward to what the Lord brings in 2014 (doesn't it feel like we were just hyped up about Y2K!)

2013 Christmas Visits - slideshows