Christmas at our House

I wasn't my usual self this Christmas, so a lot of the things I normally do at Christmas time didn't get done. However, as a family we did manage to mix things up a bit by doing some things we don't usually do at Christmas time. I have to confess that these activities have always been things I've wanted to do, but always ended up ditching because I was too "busy" to squeeze them into the Christmas schedule.

This year, for the first time in fifteen years, I made cut out sugar cookies. Grace and I rolled and baked the cookies and then we let the other kids "have at it" with the frosting and the sprinkles (in Joel's case a whole bottle of sprinkles on one cookie). We all had a grand time.
We also had a "Christmas Picnic" night. Matt, Grace and I put together some snacks and we all ate in the family room. The kids asked "What are we having for dinner?" I said, "This is it!" Paul said, "Cooool!"
We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" as we munched our yummies and kept tabs on the little Snack Snatcher Jude.

The kids also put together a little Nativity play which they performed for various audiences several times over Christmas. I know I'm the Mommy and I'm probably prejudiced, but I thought the kids were adorable. Joel and Jude were shepherds and in order to keep them in the pasture "watching their flocks by night," Grace gave them saltines to munch--a stand-in for pita bread I guess.
We still kept our Advent wreath, Jesse Tree and Happy Birthday Jesus cake traditions even though we had to simplify and stream line them to some degree. We still had our traditional celebrations and meals with family and friends, so some things were very much the same as our past Christmases.

All in all, our Christmas was much less hectic than in years past. Funny how I had prayed that it would be back in November. God doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we expect, but He is faithful to answer.