Christmas Eve

Abby gave me a Hobbit bag and bookmark

These were the expressions of my mom when she opened her gift from us

A linen from Rothenburg 

An incense burner from Rothenburg

These are a few glimpses of our Christmas Eve this year.  We came back from our 7:00 service and gathered in our living room to open gifts.  With a few breaks for snacks in between, we spent the evening ripping off the wrapping paper and finally getting to see what has been hidden underneath all month.  At our house all the kids draw each other's names and do a secret Santa type gift.  I drew Abby's name and gave her a travel mug for tea and a Hobbit bookmark.  She drew my name and gave me a Hobbit bag and the very same bookmark I gave her.

While we were in Germany, Mom was constantly oohing and ahhing over the linens we saw.  So while we were in Rothenburg we bought her a white linen with purple flowers.  We also saw little incense burners while we were there and we bought one for dad because he loved them so much.  We managed to bring them all the way home without our parents finding them and we hid them in my room for seven months.  We've been so excited to give them these gifts, and it was so much fun to see their faces as they opened them up.

But the best gift the children received isn't pictured above.  That's because I was too excited at the time to take pictures.  Mom and Dad gave us a flatscreen TV for the basement (and you can watch Netflix on it!).  We were all jumping up and down with excitement and I didn't stop to get pictures.

That was our Christmas Eve.  At 11:00 we had another church service and we were able sing and rejoice at the birth of our Savior once more.  The next morning after another church service, we had Christmas dinner and stuffed ourselves with turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, crescent rolls, and cheesecake.  We played games and watched Sherlock and had a great time.  We had such a great time that I didn't take any pictures of it.  The next day we set out for Indiana to spend time with my mom's side of the family.  And thats where I am right now.

In other news, BBC has succeeded in breaking my heart again.  What, between this and this and this I have a theory that the BBC motto should be breaking hearts and destroying lives one episode at a time.  Yes.

Merry Christmas!