We had our first Christmas today! Our amazing friends from across the street came over bearing cookies and gifts for our kids. They very quickly became our friends when we moved here, and have turned into honorary grandparents for our children. They love them so clearly and fully, and ask to have them over often. We love them back, for being such warm, trustworthy, supportive friends. At first, when we chose our lot for our house build, we weren’t thrilled with the location. But God knew what and who we needed! Thank you, Lord, for Tom and Rae!
They hit it out of the park with presents, and spent a couple of hours at our house this morning, playing with the kids’ new toys and games. We ate cookies and homemade chocolates and visited while the kids new stuff played and sang in the background. The kids were SO happy, and I think I can safely say the rest of us were, too. It just felt like Christmas should feel. Noisy and fun and relaxed time together with people you care about.
We ate a few too many cookies and chocolates before our friends headed back home for the day. It was SUCH a lovely way to spend the morning. The FIRST morning of the break!
After a while, the kids ate lunch and 3/5 went down for naps. Wavy woke up pretty much right as everyone went down (isn’t that always how it goes?) and Dekker stayed up and built his new firetruck Lego set. Brady and I hung out with Wavy and ate lunch, and eventually Brady took on the task of moving all the presents out of our room and under the tree. I wrapped them a while ago already but they’ve just been living up here. I’m kiiind of sick of my room being a dumping ground, so Brady did the laps with the gifts and I worked on the rest of the bedroom. Its not clean clean, but its tidier, so I’ll take it! The en suite is still a huge mess, and I have tubs of yarn up here still from my craft retreat in November. Don’t judge me. My desk is clear for use, gifts are where they belong, wrapping paper and ribbons have been put back, and I can walk from my bed to the bathroom without stepping on anything of value. I’m so relieved to have things at least close to the way they were.
The rest of today will be spent bathing kids and playing with new toys. Maybe even a Christmas movie, depending on how long baths take. Or we’ll just do it anyway. I happen to know that more gifts are making their way over tonight, which is exciting! We are SO fortunate to have so many loving people in our lives! Its just the first day of the holiday and we’re already swimming in good company and gifts.
Many more good days to come! I want to post what we got the kids, but figured I’d wait until after Christmas, juuust in case somehow word got to them. Not sure how that would happen, but better to be safe than sorry! Wait for that on the 26th or 27th, because for the first time in years, we’re actually doing our Christmas on the 25th!! And WOW, thats soon! The countdown was feeling a bit ominous very recently, but everything is ready now 🙂 So bring it on!