Christmas...

Have I mentioned that Christmas is my favorite time of year?  The lights, the decorations, the music...I LOVE Christmas!  Christmas is such a mile marker for families.  I measure the years based on how old my children were this Christmas or which relatives visited that Christmas.  All Christmases are important- past, present and future.

I have been thinking about the things I loved most about the Christmas' I have experienced in the past.  I love the movies- both old and new.  I love the candlelight service we have at church, I love the traveling to MawMaw and PawPaw's house...and there is no way to describe my love for ham, cranberry salad and homemade yeast rolls.  These are some of my best memories of Christmases past.

Christmas present will look a little different this year.  This year, we will have  decorations, music and lights.  We will have a candlelight service at church and then we will be traveling to Mawmaw and PawPaw's house.  I will likely watch my favorite movies (Elf, Rudolph,  and It's a Wonderful Life) too, and there should be no shortage of my favorite foods.  After the usual things occur,  then a lot of things will change.  Instead of leaving for Anderson after Christmas, we will travel to another destination on December 26th...we will go to Birmingham for Ryan and Courtney's wedding!! The normal short visit with our family will then blossom into a much larger event with everyone we love there.   So excited about this- so ready for their new lives to begin!

Christmas  future is just absolutely exciting!!!  Only 14 months from now, December 2013- Ryan and Courtney will be married almost a year already.  They should have another puppy by then (they tell me they want another one for Macks to play with) and who knows what else!   Hannah will be down to only 3 semesters of high school left.  She will be driving, choosing a college, and wearing her own class ring.   K'Lynn will be in her 3rd year at Waco High School.  She will most likely be living in a different house, and will be even more invested in hew community and church.  There is no way to guess the real details of any of their lives in a year, but I know one thing- God is in charge of all of it!! Years to follow there will be weddings and spouses for the girls, grandchildren, new homes to visit, new situations to be proud of.  So many details...all in God's time.

I suspect that my favorite time of year will only become more precious to me as years go by.  Celebrating the birth of Christ is so very important, and I love that aspect  of it.  Also important, though, is the evolution of our family.  From our house only holding Kyle and I only  so many years ago, to three young kiddos all enjoying their gifts and Santa, to an almost empty nest right now with only one young woman left at home, and then eventually someday to a house full of grandbabies...God has had such a rich design for my life.  I look forward to each step.  I love Christmas and all of the  things that come with it.

Be Blessed!!