Christmas Day

After returning home from the mountains on Tuesday, we spent Wednesday preparing for Christmas. Wednesday evening, we attended a candle light service at church. Christopher caught on to the true meaning of Christmas during the candle-lighting part of the ceremony. We were all holding our unlit candles. As they lit a few up front and then walked down each aisle lighting the candles of each person on the end of each row, Christopher saw them coming. He held his out and said, "Want some!" When mine was lit, I turned to light Andy's and Christopher held his out too. After passing it on down the row, we all held our candles up and continued to sing Christmas hymns. Christopher kept wanting to share his light with everyone, leaning his candle over until his flame touched another person's wick/flame. Our hearts melted and our eyes welled up with tears as we watched our "Christ-bearer" spread the love of Jesus on Christmas Eve. What a blessing it is to have children!

Andy and I had a memorable time wrapping our gifts that evening - it was fun to stay up late and talk.

Christmas morning we went over to my parents house for the day. We gathered around to read the Christmas story, sing some songs and pray.

Christopher explaining something to Sho Sho.


















We also lit all the candles on the yule log, and at Christopher's lead, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Christopher then got to open the last pocket on the advent calendar and put baby Jesus in the manger.


















Then we gathered to open gifts. It was so much fun this year to watch Christopher...he actually "got in" to unwrapping presents. He received his wish and got lots of stickers, though no yogurt video. =)

Getting ready to open a present from Daddy and Mommy.

















Stickers! And...hmm...batteries...hmm...


















He had to put the batteries in his pocket before opening the rest of his gift.


















MOON! IT'S THE MOON! (Oh yeah, best parents in the world - we bought our son THE moon for Christmas! ;0 ) He was pretty excited. I found this cool night light on amazon that is contoured and designed to really look like the moon. It cycles through all 12 stages of the moon, and has a remote control that Christopher can use to change the cycle. He loves it.


















We went into the hallway and shut all the doors so we could see the moon in the dark. After exploring his new remote and seeing what happened each time he pushed the button, he said, "Want to see it fly." So Babu lifted it up in the air for him. That night when we got home, he was half awake as we carried him in from the car and he said. "You want moon on your wall." You want us to put the moon up on your wall in you big boy room? "I'd really like that." Needless to say, it went up right away!
























Aunt SaraBeth and Kaela Ruth.
























Christopher showing Babu his new moon.


















A big boy cup from Babu and Sho Sho with his name on it. He did great with it for the first few minutes before we ended up with a puddle of water on the floor.


















Snacking on marshmellows while we cooked lunch.


















For brunch, we ate waffles with blueberries, strawberries, walnuts, vanilla yoghurt, honey, cinnamon, bananas and raspberries on them. SO DELICIOUS!

Some grad students from Ghana joined us all for Christmas dinner, where we sat around the table enjoying a delicious dinner and wonderful fellowship.

A wonderful Christmas. Happy Birthday, Jesus!