Christmas 2008 Revisited...Toward Christmas Eve

It may seem like I fell off the face of the blogging Earth after DS 1 got home one week ago. And, in many ways, I guess I did. So much has happened that I want to recount, however. Soooo...I figure there's no time like the present to start. This first post will revisit our week up to Christmas Eve.

We've had a great time visiting with DS 1 and our friends and family over the past week. Of course, there was shopping to do. And baking. And wrapping. And all the other "stuff" that goes along with preparing for the "big day".

Just a short 24 hours after DS 1 was home, he broke his front tooth skateboarding with DS 4. I have to tell you it was so cool how it all worked out. DS 2 came home about the same time with his friend C, who's stepdad and stepGrandfather have a dentist practice. DS 1 knew to put the tooth in milk. C's Stepdad told us to meet him down there on a Saturday. Both men met us down there along with the hygenist. They were able to rebond the tooth (thanks to the milk). AND...they didn't charge a cent for the visit! He told DS 1 that he is so thankful for the job that service men and women do that it was the least he could do. What a blessing it was!

On Sunday, we had a fabulous service at church where we created gift bags for employees at the mall. We created 450 bags of prewrapped snacks and treats. We left and went in teams to the mall to distribute the bags to employees throughout the mall as our way of saying thanks for giving through the holidays. It was SO COOL! Employees were simply blown away that we thought of them.

DSs 3 and 4 and I went to Busch Gardens for a day on Tuesday. DS 3's GF went with us. DS 1 and his friends also went---although we only saw them one time all day. We are thankful for Gram giving us tickets to go to the park. Christmas Eve was SO neat this year for us. As you might remember, our church meets in one of the local schools. Since we only get one day a week, we made the decision to host Christmas Eve "service" at our house. We spent time visiting and eating (of course). Then, about half way through, we got out the guitars and several people got out percussion instruments so we could share some carols.

Now, here's the neatest part. DS 3's GF and her family came. Her family is not involved in church. Her Dad is a Jehovah's Witness. And she has a step Grandmother who is Christian Scientist and a Grandfather who converted to Mormon.

And DS 4's friends were here as well. They are Jewish and in the middle of Hannukah right now. Yet, they took part in the percussion section for the evening.

And, there we were singing, "Oh, HOLY Night" and "O Come Let Us Adore Him"! All I could think was, "Wow, this must be similar to the stable on that first Christmas so long ago." I mean can you imagine people from all different backgrounds at all stages of the journey gathering to worship the Newborn King? And NO ONE was judged...it was simply a time of pure joy!

For me, THIS was a PERFECT night!