time has changed.
The girls had talked with each other this year and they were thinking that Christmas just isn't the same
...and it isn't.
When the girls were growing up we always celebrated Christmas at our house with just us - and it was all about them. They were blessed with grandparents who lived close to our house, and they were the only grandchildren. They were the only nieces, of my only brother. The gathering was always very special and the decorating before was also. I would get out all the stuff and we would decorate the tree. The ornaments that each one collected, and the ones they had made at school and sunday school, were carefully hung... each girl putting their ornaments on the tree. Each year a different girl would have daddy lift them up to reach the top of the tree, and they would place the angel on top of the tree. As I have already blogged in "The great decorated hallway", and the "Blue eyed Santa"...
the girls loved Christmas as much as we did.
Now, things are changing as those little girls all grew up, and now have families of their own.
We have to share with other families, and we come up with new ways to celebrate. Our party changes as our family changes. When the girls were all young the atmosphere was light and fun and full of wiggles. As they grew older the sharing became more intense, and this year it seemed it became profound. The same cycle repeats itself it seems.
This year was very special as each girl got to spend the actual Christmas with their spouses families.
We then all got together the week-end after Christmas ((Dec 29th) and got to relive it all again. They all got to stay overnight which made it a two day celebration!
Emily came up with the idea of the "GOLDEN NUGGET". She explained about the golden candies (being gramma Dorius's favorite). Jaci would hand a candy to each of us, one at a time...
when she gave us our GOLDEN NUGGET we were to share a story of our favorite memory.
The first one was to be of our favorite time when we were all together.
The second was a time when we weren't together but wished that we were.
It went over wonderful and we all shared tears of joy...
Next year our plan is to start the tradition of an annual celebration, a birthday party for Jesus. A once a year time to pause and review God's grace in our life and to recommit our selfs to knowing and loving him better.
Yes, this Christmas was different but we were blessed beyond our imaginations...
as God came down
and poured His Spirit over our family on this new and changing Christmas Eve.
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