Christmas Recap

Our family celebration was important to me this year because I truly have this strong feeling that 2022 will be different with Uncle Danny starting to exhibit signs of his lung cancer. He has lasted far longer than any of us thought he would and for that we are thankful. I keep praying he will find Christ as his Savior soon. Enough of that...this will be a happy post, but

with all of that in mind I was determined to try and make our family gathering a memorable one. 

Before I go on, I feel I must remind y'all no one has a perfect life or home or any of that. If you need a reminder since I do love Christmas and eating on pretty dishes and so many other little things...just go read this post called The Perfect Christmas. I think it is worth reading and reminding that there is no such thing as perfect but Jesus Himself.

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Ok, back to this year's story. I was determined that the entire family have the dinner together in the same room. I didn't want us all scattered this year, especially this year. Jeff and I moved the dining room table over and moved the patio table in the dining room. Remember how I didn't want that patio furniture? I have been corrected so many times on how good a purchase that was. 

I pulled out an extra tablecloth and threw on a cloth napkin for a pop of color in the center, grabbed a bowl of ornaments from the foyer table, and added some candles. 

The pictures were all taken before I lit all the candles, but man I was so happy with the set up.

We did enjoy our family dinner so much. Everyone was fat and happy. I made a pie and Mother made a cake. It is something she can still do so that is good. Tucker calls her cakes "Grandma Cake." You know she loves that.

Here a few snippets of everyone.

Tucker helped everyone open their presents. Christmas with a kid that age is truly fun.

Now, I finally get to share two gifts I got for Lindsay. I am not the best gift giver but these were my ideas and I am quite proud of myself.

First up is a watercolor I got a girl on Etsy do for me of Tucker and his prayer that he said the night Palmer was born. You may remember reading about it here. I wanted to find a way to make this into a keepsake. I had a picture of Tucker praying at church. You can read about that here. I sent Nikki at JoyfulFlourish the picture and the prayer and asked her to turn it into an 11 X 14 watercolor.

I loved it and think they did too.

Then we had her a necklace made with the boys' birthstones in it. We had a diamond left from one of Nana's (Jeff's mom) rings. We took that and chose a birthstone for each of the boys. We traded in some gold from other rings where we had repurposed the diamonds like a necklace I have and Katie's ring and got this to a reasonable price and another keepsake for Lindsay. 

She sent us a picture of it the next morning.

Since, I knew I would be taking all the pictures, I had Jeff take one of me on that day as well.

All of the above happened on December 23rd. It is not the first time we have had our family gathering like that. When your kids get married you have to share them. Tyler's family came down for Christmas this year, so we celebrated early and pretended it was a travel year. Flexibility is the key and honestly as the years go on this will happen more and more. 

Christmas Eve was quiet but ticked off pretty quick with Paul Allen and Katie dropping by and then  getting Mother out for a bit. The church service was honestly one of the best ever. I mean ever. It was geared towards families and only preschooler environments were opened. Everyone else went to the services. They were heavily attended and I think all enjoyed it. A skit was done around the idea of a character with a PCI (Perfect Christmas Itinerary) notebook. It was filled with all the things we do around Christmas until Christmas is rushed and often missed. I have been there before especially when I taught school. The music was great. 

Christmas Day involved a morning on the beach, a spaghetti lunch with Mother, Paul Allen and Katie and then a boat ride. Truly the weather was amazing.

Beach....

I sadly missed on the dress. I was so hot it was almost unbearable and that was 10 in the morning. 

The boat ride...

Lindsay sent these of the boys' major presents....

Tucker got a scooter. BTW, he totally got Christmas and was adorable this morning.

Palmer got a new swing for the boat. He loved it according to Lindsay. 

You may remember the Advent calendar I stitched for them a year or so ago. It just so happened this year the church passed out the papers with pictures on it and they coincided with a children's Bible and story book. Tucker looked forward to this each night. He couldn't wait to pull the card out. I got to do it with him twice over the holidays when Lindsay and Tyler had to go to work parties. His other grandmother got to do it with him two days on their visit. 

The weather has been absolutely amazing the past few days. For those that like a cold Christmas it would not make one happy, but for me...LOVE.

I will be back next week after Lindsay and I go to the doctor with an update. Then Jeff and I are going to Auburn for a few days.

See ya next week,

Sandy