Christmas 2008

Usually we do not have a large number of people on Christmas Day for dinner. From my original family, only my mother comes. My father and brother are deceased, and my sister and her family live out of state and never come for Christmas. My husband's father came last year and again this year. His mother and two of his sisters are deceased. We were thrilled to have his only sister and her husband and his only brother and his wife celebrate the day with us. Of course we had my daughter and her husband, my oldest son and his girlfriend, and my younger son.
I would usually have room to seat all of us at one table, but with the extra guests, I was able to put a small table in my kitchen. I will post a photo later from my sil because she took photos of the tables. I have included a photo of me working at my large kitchen island and then a group photo of all of us.

As we gathered in the kitchen/dining area, my son-in-law read the Christmas story, Luke 2:1-20. He has a great movie-star voice, and I was very happy he consented to do this. After that my younger son read a letter from my caretaker of my father-in-law. This woman helped care for my mother-in-law before her death, and for my fil since (almost 5 years). She and Mr. Mc have spent lots of time together discussing family and life and death. She expressed her love for Mr. Mc and his family and the letter had many in tears. We all pretty much believe this will be our last Christmas with Mr. Mc. He is 95 years old. I posted a photo from last Christmas just a few weeks ago, and you can see his decline from photo to photo. After this I lit a candle in memory of all those that I mentioned from our family that have gone on from this life. I then had everyone join hands as I gave the blessing. My husband is just not comfortable praying aloud, so I have been the one to always do it.

We had lots of great delicious food. The conversations were abundant. There was laughter and tears. We said good byes to my husband's family. My immediate family along with my mother then opened our gifts later in the afternoon. That evening we visited with neighbors down our farm to market road and swapped stories of our kids' escapades from the past twenty years. More laughter. Then my dd and sil, ds and gf, and other ds all played the game of Cranium. I was not very good at it. Again....more laughter. It was a great day the Lord blessed us with. My family is certainly not perfect... not even close... but they are the ones I have... and I guess I will keep them! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you remembered to keep Christ in the thick of it. I hope you told someone you loved them and you got to hear I love you from one of them. Now... it is time to get back serious with this healthy eating!!!!!