sweet christmas eve

It was.

Church was as beautiful as ever. Even though there was a bit of a squirrel-fest in our row at times, it was lovely.

The pastor talked about unintended consequences, and how a census requirement in the Roman Empire led to a chain of miraculous events.

And he talked about how we don't have to search for God or appease God, or wonder or worry about anything--God came to us.

We may be too dense to realize at times, but that's okay. It doesn't change anything about God.

Familiar celebration hymns were sung. The day faded from light to dark during the time we were there, communion was perfect, and it was all just right.

Here they are, the ones who still live at home, all cleaned up and dressed to go.

These are cousins goofing around in my parents living room.

Video games in the storage room in the basement--pretty amazing.

Dinner, served as a Christmas buffet. These girls chose their own spot to sit.

And this child was there too.

Okay, here we have my good-natured brother in law with a quite big punch spill that involved a camera. His daughter is laughing heartily in the background.

There were enough punch incidents tonight to have a whole separate party just FOR punch incidents.

Early in the evening, Julia was beside me with her tights all wet in the feet--punch. The long-winded story goes like this:

She was standing on the treadmill. (Why is that?  Nevermind.) 

Then t.c. got on and started running.  (My dad has the key--they could not turn it actually on, but the track will spin in place with a good runner.)

She had to run to keep up with t.c. because he was going really, really fast, and then she flew off the track and her punch went everywhere.

Oh, good show, people

Dan was now cleaning it up, and what should she do about the tights?

I told her to take them off, and put them by my purse. She put them IN my purse. I found them later.

Here the kids are with the guitars they wanted for Christmas. 

He was into it also.

Her? She's just cute.

Awww.

Okay, these are the JUSTIN BIEBER PAJAMAS!

Gor-JUS.

This guy was funny late in the evening, telling jokes while he watched a Dora and Diego program and let me snuggle him a tiny bit.

The show had llhamas and get this, of all things, chinchillas.  Alicia rolled her eyes, "That's random."

Yah, and weird! Chinchillas haven't even crossed my mind in years, possibly EVER.

He's got his new pajamas on too.

And this is the last picture I took tonight, and the sweetness of this moment kind of took my breath away.

It's my father helping m.c. tune her guitar.

For a minute, I watched them plucking strings and listening, then slipped away.

Now it's late and based on the appearance of the living room, it's clear Santa has arrived. The cookies were all bit, and so were the carrots.

Time for bed. Merry Christmas. love, Val