This was one of our best Christmas' ever! I think because we prepared for it better this year. By that, I don't mean that I went shopping on Black Friday, bought tons of presents, or even made a mountain of Christmas cookies ahead of time. We prepared for Christmas by focusing more on Advent during Advent and waiting to celebrate Christmas during Christmas.
We had a wonderful day with Nana and Aunt Olivia on Christmas Eve. We all relaxed at home and opened presents slowly. We had time to put the "some assembly required" toys together and even play with them. The favorite toy from Nana and Aunt Olivia was a wooden kitchen set for the girls.
Christmas morning we found that Santa had brought each of the kids a present and a stocking full of goodies. We read our Christmas story out of the book The Lord Jesus by Father Lovasik and sang "Silent Night" as the kids placed their baby Jesus in the manger. The toys from Santa were all a hit. Mass on Christmas went very well! We were asked to take up the offertory and the kids were so excited to assist in this way at Holy Mass. The music was beautiful, the homily was rather safe, and the kids behaved almost like angels (notice I said almost!). I felt like this was a little reward for not getting so stressed about Christmas this year and really preparing spiritually.
We really tried to use the Liturgical Calendar my dear hubby created and the books In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez. These really made a difference in helping me to focus on what was important. Making an effort to go to confession more frequently during Advent also helped. I hope that we can continue to go more frequently throughout the new year.
The last pictures are of the kids and their cousins at my brother and sister-in-laws home. We celebrated with my side of the family at their home the weekend after Christmas. Again, I was so pleasantly surprised by how well things went. There wasn't nearly as much drama as in past get-togethers. Even the homily at my brother's church was excellent, probably one of the best I have heard in a long time from a diocesan priest. As my son reminds me, today is the sixth day of Christmas, 6 more blessed days to go. Merry Christmas!
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