Christmas

Christmas is filled with so many emotions. Panic (not enough time), anxiety (not enough money), frustration (too many people in too small of a space), joy (family and friends), contentedness (a full belly), fatigue (playing settlers until 3:00AM), reverence (remembering the birth of our Lord), ecstasy (a child on Christmas morning), sadness (not everyone can be here), gratitude (for a wonderful family and a comfortable life). We were all thrilled come the weekend before Christmas because Alycia, Ben and Sharley came home from college. It was so sad though to look at the stockings hanging over the fire and three of them are empty. We are fortunate so far to be able to time it so our married kids visit the in-laws all on the same year. Last year was so much fun because they were all here. This is the year we are paying for it. Half of our family wasn't here on Christmas morning. Kira and Justin are in Calgary and Brandon and Serene are in Texas. Thankfully Ben and Sharley are in San Diego even if they did spend Christmas at the Cotters. We have seen them often and Ben has played all night Settlers with Alex and me several nights since he arrived. We have several traditions in our house come Christmas time. You can see the stockings in the first picture, Lisa made those for the kids over the years as they came along. The plan was to give the kids their stockings as they left home but when Kira finally left we couldn't part with the stocking. Instead Lisa made Kira and Justin their own stocking and bought enough fabric to make matching ones for their kids as they came. That way we got to keep Kira's stocking so that in a small way a part of here is still here even though she isn't. She did the same for Brandon and Serene and now this year we have three empty stockings. Another tradition is that on Christmas eve we always have a program. When the kids were younger they acted out the Christmas story but over the years as they have gotten older the tradition has evolved into a talent show. Usually Kira would play her oboe, Brandon would play his violin, Ben would show off a trophy or put 50 Ritz crackers in his mouth or something like that. Alycia would play the piano, Alex would play the piano and Sarah would play the piano. Lisa would show a video of the Christmas story (to fill in for the play that no longer happened) and I video tape it all. Lately they seem to be bored with the old routine so Alycia showed off her grades for the semester, Alex played a music video he made for one of his digital media class (very good if I do say so myself). You can see it here. For those who may not know Alex, he's the lead singer. Sarah displayed a self portrait she made in her art class. We also had Nate and Melinda Turnwall here for Christmas Eve and Melinda threw California snow balls at all of us. Nate demonstrated his skill at Guitar Hero. Amy was also here and she demonstrated her CIF trophy for swimming. Lisa had made many wonderful hordourves and everyone was stuffed. I had all of the oysters to myself. We end with me reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2 and then Lisa shows a video. She turns the sound down on the video and plays a song she likes with it. She has it timed perfectly. Before the kids go to bend they each get to open a gift on Christmas eve. The gift is always pajamas or something related. This year was no different. Lisa told Alex to go put a shirt on for the picture but he just responded that he doesn't sleep with a shirt on. We wake up on Christmas morning always surprised to find that Santa leaves all of the unmarried kids a gift under the tree. All of the gifts we give to each other are wrapped but Santa's gift is never wrapped. You can see in the picture that it looks like Santa brought two digital camera's and a purse. Alycia seemed quite excited about the purse. I guess a "Coach" purse is something significant.









Alex set right to work figuring out all of the cool options on his camera.














Sarah put her camera right to work.














Mom got a new nativity set. It is a very cool crystal one with lights that go under it. We'll see if she ever shows off her collection.








Lisa came across a book called "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. None of us had heard of the guy but Alex had a class where they discussed him. I'm excited to read the book. Lisa gave a book to each of the kids and to me. She wrote a very touching note inside the cover of each book. You can tell she put a lot of thought into it.



Sheba got right into the gift opening. If you click on this picture and take a close look you can see that the dumb cat is actually licking one of the gifts.



One of the more special gifts was from Sydney. Each member of the family got a letter from Sydney. She went to a lot of work to scribble on a piece of paper for each of us.



Again, Sheba kept an eye on all of the action.






And then everyone dove right into their gifts while Lisa and I got dinner ready. It was a good day.