We were awakened by our darling children on a snowy Christmas morning – at 4 am. (Note the time on the clock on the mantle in the picture).
I tried to tell them to go back to bed to which they responded rather disheartened that they would just go downstairs and watch TV until we got up. So Dad and Mom dragged ourselves out of bed and made coffee and we commenced to begin celebrating at 4 am.
The kids opened their stockings while Mom and Dad tried to wake up and get breakfast together. Then Pat read the Christmas story from Noah’s Bible and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate birthday cake – chocolate lava cakes provided by Grandma and Grandpa Keener before they flew to Colorado a couple of days earlier.
A couple of hours later and all the presents were opened (while snow continued to come down outside adding to our already more than 14 inches of snow). Mom and Dad were failing at this point and managed to get about half of the kids’ presents freed from their anti-theft packaging before stumbling back to bed for a nap at 6:15. A few hours later, we roused to finish the process of freeing the remaining toys.
We were originally going to Grandma and Grandpa Knock’s today to celebrate with them and Aunt Kathy but decided against it with the roads in such rutted and yucky conditions. We will have a second Christmas with them on New Year’s day.
We had pizza for lunch, some crackers and cheese, and then Chinese food (in honor of “A Christmas Story”) for dinner.
The kids are all tucked in bed. The snow appears to have finally stopped and we are grateful for the gifts we have been blessed with throughout this year – health, employment, family, good friends, and the love of the God of Heaven who came down to be with us always. May you know His great and everlasting love today and always.
The ‘Arctic Blast’ came in last weekend and has been hanging around all week with another round slated for this weekend.