There were some noteworthy things about our holiday celebrations this year, so I'm going to go ahead and talk about them now, even though they already seem so long ago.
On Christmas eve, we had the pleasure of having Beeg Seester and Bro, her youngest daughter, and Me Darlin' Mither join the Prince, the girlies, and I for a candlelight dinner before the late service at church.
I don't know why we don't eat by candlelight more often during the winter; it's so comforting, somehow.
Not to mention the comfort of being surrounded by people we love.
-------
On Christmas day, all of the shoots and grandshoots were here for a gift exchange and Mexican pot-luck.
Baby Girl had her picture taken with her Bitty Baby...
...and with her headless grandmother.
The Little Man spent the entire day wearing his new soccer gear (I can't seem to locate the picture), removing his gloves only to eat "canny".
And this:
...became this:
But here is the rest of the story:
Our family's tradition is to draw names at Thanksgiving, set a fairly low spending budget, and buy a gift for only one other person (of course, parents and grandparents do not have to follow rules).
This year, when everyone arrived, our first daughter-in-love said:
"Before we open gifts...God laid something on my heart yesterday. I think we should pray for each person as they recieve their gift."
So with every gift, we gathered around the receiver and listened to his/her specific prayer request for the upcoming year, laid our hands on the beloved one, bowed our heads, and joined our hearts as the person bestowing the gift prayed for the giftee.
There were were petitions, and there were thanksgivings.
And their were many tears of gratitude from our overflowing hearts, as each of us stopped to dwell on what every other member of this blessed family means to us.
It was the best gift of all.