It was just the 10 of us this year__ Me and the Cowboy, our tribe of treasures, and Gramps & Nana__
On Christmas Eve Gramps and Nana made a delicious dinner and all of us went to the candle light service at our little country church.
On Christmas morning our Hal played us some Christmas tunes on the piano. The Cowboy made a fabulous Birthday breakfast and we read the final reading in our Advent book. {This year a friend gave us a book we've never read before called Jotham's Journey. It was seriously our absolute favorite year of preparing our hearts for the celebration of Christ's birth. If you have kids ages 7-99, they would LOVE this book. It is full of adventure and kept all of us wanting more every single night. AND it does the most incredible job of bringing the Christmas story to life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!}
{Aunt Kristen and Uncle Beau gave all the kids these awesome glasses}
My Siah carved these for me. This year all the kids made each other gifts. They wrote each other encouraging letters. I will admit that when they were all making each other things I was feeling a little bunchy inside over the mass amounts of paper and glue and paint and wood shavings and MESS that was happening ALL OVER the farmhouse. But the Lord is working on me and I'm so glad because they each made something that would be meaningful and special for each of their siblings and they all hugged each other and thanked each other and ALL of it was initiated by them. I love watching them grow. And truth be told, their Mama is growing right alongside them. I so desperately need to learn to let go of the things that don't matter (like mess), and choose to soak up the tenderness that my kids have towards one another.I just keep telling my forgetful goal__ A close family is so much better than a clean house! Lame I know, that I have to remind myself of something so obvious, but I do. :)
{Walking through the snow with my boy...}
There's something special about having a newborn around Christmas time. This morning we read the final reading in the Advent book we read this year. And as I read the last line, tears started streaming down my face. It's the most amazing thought to think about Mary holding her precious baby boy, looking into his eyes and knowing that that innocent little life laying long in her arms is the Savior of the world. I held our sweet Shiloh this morning and couldn't get over the fact that the God of the universe would be willing to come down to this broken world, in the form of a completely helpless little baby. It's mind-boggling really.
Every Christmas has held it's own sweet memories. I'm thinking this year might have been marked by the joy and the gift of holding my own little miracle in my arms while reading the story of another Mama, thousands of years ago, holding her own PERFECT miracle, a son who would one day save the world from sin and death. I can't seem to get over the joy of it all.
Christmas on the farm this year was (relatively) quiet and gloriously simple.
Merry Christmas from all the folks Under the Farmhouse Roof.
