Christmas: Merry merry Christmas

Today was a busy but good day. We ended up spending time and opening presents with both sides of the family...something that has never happened before.

The day started out by packing up the car and hearing some runners with jingle bells go by. It was a nice way to start.

then we opened presents with Ben's family. I don't have any great pictures, but here is one cute on from afterwards.




Then this evening was spent with my side of the family. I got to give Nathan and Liz their quilt!



Here are the pictures I took at home last week. the first one is the front and the second one is the back.







I also got a donut maker today! I'm super excited to try it out. And Ben got me a 2-4 player card game that we played tonight. at first while he was explaining the rules I was a little bit leery, but it quickly started to make sense and was a lot of fun.

And throughout the times I remember the reason that we celebrate Christmas. This year I've thought a little bit more about the wisemen. They are often mentioned in the Christmas story, but never seem to get a lot of attention. Maybe because they didn't show up for three more years. But they were men of learning (I.e., smart) and they still chose to come and worship Jesus. So while I can identify with the shepards in some aspects, I can also identify with the wisemen and are glad for both sides of the spectrum.