Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time is here... Merry Christmas to all in blogger world. Indeed, Christmas is here. I can't explain why I'm up this late - the kids were good enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour, after many rounds of singing, caroling, Guitar hero, a visit to the Grandparents for gift exchange. We also attended a unique church service tonight - while our pastor was telling the Christmas story and talking about how a "rather unremarkable story has turned into a remarkable story," one of the members of the church interrupted the pastor (staged, of course) and said, "Do you want to talk about Baby Jesus, or do you want to see Baby Jesus?!" And the pastor asked how we would get there, and Steve answered, "Follow the shepherds." And shepherds appeared all around the room and led us outside, into the field where a stable held the living nativity - complete with Llama, donkey, sheep (yes all live) and the baby, Mary and Joseph. It was pretty awesome. We sang silent night and O Come all ye faithful, then picked up our Christmas boxes full of small goodies (water, juice, chips, gum, tic tacs, not sure what else) and went out into the community to find someone working on Christmas eve to give the box to and say, "Thanks for working on this night - we are thinking of you." Ours went to the guy at the seafood counter where we were buying our special Christmas eve dinner. He was really touched. Anyway, despite the kids going to bed early, I'm up late. Thinking about things. Remembering Christmases past, both recent and old. Remembering my family, near and far, my cousins out in the blogging world who are preparing for Santa (or not?!), the cookie swaps, the photos, the good times, the family members we're missing. The changes in tradition. Somehow Christmas morning will come, and then it will be gone again for another year.

I hope each person finds some special moment in the day.