Christmas 2014: In Pictures

This year was one of the best Christmases I've had in years. Last year on Christmas Day, my parents were in Saskatchewan, we were in Ontario, and Rachel had just gotten over a week of being sick. I was homesick and really sad. Two years ago I had the flu over Christmas and three years ago my grandma had just died. Needless to say there has been a pall over the joy of the Christmas season for the past few years. But this year was different. It was so amazing and fun and joyful.

(Now I know this wasn't the case for everyone and those of you dealing with your first Christmas without loved ones or with sick kids were in my thoughts. And I know there were a lot of you in this situation. My friend Bekah wrote a great blog post on the paradoxes of Christmas and I think she expressed it better than I can. I realize this is awkwardly expressed but I just wanted you to know that I am aware that Christmas is not always full of joy and happiness for all.)

To tell you about our Christmas, I'm going to use pictures, and after this introduction, very few words. (Edited to add after I finished the post: I lied about the "very few words" part. Ooops.)

Above is Sam at our Christmas Eve service. I loved how he followed along with me in the hymnal and sang his heart out.

Our traditional Christmas morning picture.

(Also pictured, my new Christmas pjs!)

Our festive children in front of the tree.

Dave was not all that surprised by his gifts. My parents give him a daily Mensa puzzle calendar each year. Dave and I don't exchange gifts so on Christmas Eve we went shopping at Target and bought some things we each needed/wanted as our gifts to each other.

Rachel loved her Franklin and the cars Just. For. Her. Now she doesn't have to depend on Sam to share his cars with her to be able to play cars. Kudos to my mom for thinking of this gift.

My dad made me a cutting board and a wooden spoon. And my mom gave Rachel the purse that was given to her mom by my great-great-grandparents the Christmas my grandma was three years old. She used it to carry her offering to church in. That was in 1910 so this purse is 104 years old.

We spent a lot of time enjoying Christmas gifts. Rachel got nailpolish art and Sam got a Perplexus and a magnetic world map, among other things.

Dave and I went for a 5K run. My first one ever. Left: Pre-run. Right: Post-run.

(As if you couldn't tell! Ha ha ha!)

The table set for turkey dinner.

An attempt at a family photo with all of us dressed for dinner. Trust me, this was one of the better ones.

Mom and Dad cooked an amazing turkey dinner. And we lit the Christ candle on our Advent wreath.

We finished off the day with some game playing.

Not pictured: I also got some time to relax, paint my toes with my new nail polish (Essie's "on a silver platter" which I love), and catch up on some blog reading. It was a pretty perfect Christmas Day. I hope you and your families had good Christmases too. I can't wait to read about them.