We ended up having a wonderful family Christmas. It really was a beautiful day. Robert and I were both so happy. Our children, although excited about the thought of opening presents, were just as or more excited about the fact that it was Jesus' birthday and reading the story and singing Christmas songs. We eventually got around to presents, and of course, that was a blessing too. We each get three gifts, one for our mind, body and spirit. I wish there were a way to not have a mountain of gifts from the grandparents and it would make it even more special. Maybe we'll do gifts other than our family on Christmas Eve and save Christmas for our celebration. Hmmm. Anyway, it was wonderful. Joshua about had a heart attack when he saw that Robert got me The Sound of Music for my stocking. He LOVES that movie, it was too cute. So, of course, we spent the afternoon watching it.

Robert had off until yesterday and we all just had the best time, being a family. God has blessed us greatly with wonderful little clan here. Friday, we braved the stores to do some shopping and order Christmas cards....again. My Christmas card venture this year has been plagued with retailer snafu's...they will probably end up being February cards at this rate, oh well. Saturday, we got to go back down to Amish country. It was beautiful again, but in a different way than October. In October, you couldn't take your eyes off of the foliage to see the beauty in the simplicity of life down there. My favorite moment was on hte way home when we came up on a teen Amish boy in his cart, different than a family buggy, and he had a deer he had killed on the back of it. I soo wanted to stop him and ask what he hunted with and all the details, but we just waved and passed by. I got some shots with my new camera lens I got for Christmas too. I will try and get those and several other segments of our life, including my first art day with the kids up soon, but it will have to wait until next week because tonight we load up the van and at 3 am we head to Georgia for a wedding. So Happy New Year to all, may 2009 be a blessed year of our Lord.