Christmas Eve

Peeking inside the box

What could it be?
Hanging out with cousins on Christmas Eve

A happy mommy with two tired boys

For Christmas Eve, the boys and I drove out to my brother's house to spend the evening with his family. With my mom and sister both at work, my dad, younger brother and his girlfriend, and my grandparents joined together with my sister-in-law's family for a wonderful start of the holiday. Not going with any sort of traditional meal, we opted for a nacho bar, enjoying all the yummy and not-so-healthy toppings for our tortilla chips together with a Christmas Eve margarita. After a few rounds of chips n' cheese, and a heated bowling game on the Wii (which I might add I played a fabulous game and beat my brother big time!), we settled in front of the tree for round one of present opening. Hayden and Noah opened just one present from their cousins ... and then had a blast helping clean up all the wrapping paper and you guessed it, throwing it away in the garbage. If you're looking for a clean-up crew for your next gathering, I have two little boys who do a fine job of picking up .... if only that energy could transfer over to cleaning up at home.

So as to not wear them out before our Christmas celebration tomorrow, we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to get ready for bed and to get cookies ready for Santa's visit. Tonight I really missed having Chris around to help and felt his absence, as I wished he could have been with us to not only join the family, but also to join with me in preparing for the morning with the boys. So after a very frazzled bath time and a near mommy meltdown, with lots of help from Grandma and Aunt Katie, the boys settled in to bed and I frantically wrapped a few presents and prepared stockings before heading off to church for a Christmas Eve service with my mom and sister.

It has been a long time since I've been to church on Christmas and I am so glad I went, even though it was near midnight. The service opened with the choir singing Christmas carols, and the joyous sound of the music really touched me and brought out the spirit of the holiday. Soon after is what really made this service worth staying up for .... my sister's church sponsors a group of orphaned children from Uganda, and they travel the country singing in different churches. The group, "Children of the World," is made up of a dozen or so children ranging in age from maybe six to twelve, who have all been brought to the Lord through different church ministries. One of the little boys came up to the stage, introduced himself as well as the rest of his group, and they all began to sing together. It was amazing to see these children, whom are orphaned and have no "traditional" family to speak of outside to the church families they stay with during their visits, singing in front of a crowded sanctuary of people with the purest joy in their voices. I sat their listening to them sing, tears streaming down my face as I sat their reflecting and thinking about my two little boys sleeping back at my mom's and my husband back in Arizona, and just grabbed on to my mom and sister's hands and felt so grateful to God for all the blessings I've been given in my life. If there was ever a moment to bring the Christmas spirit into my heart, this evening was it and is one that I will forever cherish and remember.