Christmas Eve 2009

Our little family had such a relaxing Christmas Eve.  Scott and I are so used to driving all over town and spreading ourselves so thin during the holidays, but this year was a little more laid back.  Scott was off on Christmas Eve and the weather was rather nice for December, so he spent the day outside smoking a ham while I enjoyed the warm indoors cleaning house and playing with Mackenzie.  For as long as I can remember, Scott and I have always attended the Christmas Eve candle light service at our church.  This year, they cut out the service that we traditionally attended so we made a few changes and went at 7 p.m.  Our church was kind and offered a nursery for the little ones, but I really wanted Mackenzie to be with us.  We sat up front and on the outside just in case we needed to make a quick dash out.  Thankfully, we have an amazing pastoral staff and they enjoy having children in "big" church.  Mackenzie did fabulous and enjoyed the singing and the HOT candles.  She made it a point to shout out during the candle lighting that they were hot and we all got a good chuckle out of that.  Because of where we were sitting, Mackenzie had a front row view of everything and started blowing kisses to our associate pastor!  We have a character on our hands!  I wasn't sure how I was going to handle church this year, with this being the first Christmas without my Gramma and she was the one that used to take me to church and in return that's where Scott and I met, but it was soothing to know Gramma was enjoying the ultimate Christmas with Jesus.  After church, we went to the Riding's home for their annual Christmas Eve Open House.  Mackenzie was so excited to see her boys, Walker and Jackson.  She played hard to keep up with them and was absolutely exhausted when we got in the truck to head home.  After a quick clean up for Santa to come, we were off to bed too excited to sleep!

 

Dec. 24, 2009