Merry Christmas

We went caroling as a family last night to a few homes. We sang "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Jingle Bells". The kids did great and even sang along. Then we went to my parent's home and opened gifts with them. The kids kept following Jotty around and if he disappeared from view they would walk in a line calling for him. There was some bad weather last night and we got home just before the worst got here.

Our Christmas started at 2 am when Ben woke me up because he couldn't sleep due to serious pain he was having. We gave him some pain meds and realized a trip to the ER was unavoidable because he needed antibiotics. Ben's very funny on pain meds so I drove him while his Mom slept on our couch. I kept myself entertained by reading friends blogs. This post gave us a great laugh. We got home right when the kids woke up at 6:45.

They were so excited!! They loved their stockings and instantly dumped them and started on the chocolate. We read from Luke 2 and talked about what we're really celebrating today. We followed up with Charlie Brown's Christmas and then opened presents. Our favorite moments: Carlise calling her Barbie - Darbie, Wesley dumping his stocking & getting 3 pieces of chocolate in his mouth with lightning speed, Josie's instant love of her Raggedy Ann doll.

Now, to just get some sleep.

My sister

Stacy took this picture of my sister Anna during our Family Reunion this summer. She said it was her favorite even though you can't see half of the kids faces and I agree with her. I love the by chance symbolism of her sitting in the center and you can see in this picture that she is the center of her home. So sweet!