Our own little family had our gift time last night. It was wild outside, but warm and fairly quiet inside. We had a supper of various hors d'ouvres and then when we were all stuffed, we read the devotional that coordinates with the lighting of the fourth advent candle. The angels and joy! If you think about it, the Christmas story is full of angels. I'm sure initially most of those visited were terrified when an angel appeared before them, but think of the joy they must have felt when the message the angel was bringing them sunk in. What joy and excitement!
The excitement level was pretty high here tonight, but not because of a visit from an angel. Once our devotions was over, we opened gifts. Even before we had children, we decided we would not open our gifts on Christmas Day. It was/is reserved for church and time with family -- although inevitably, some small gifts still make their appearance on that day.
The kids got their usual assortment of good/educational books and computer games. We managed to surprise them with a Wii. Oh the excitement!! This gift goes against my better judgement in some ways, but after much looking, we did find that there are wholesome mind building games. (Stay tuned! We may soon have a pre-owned Wii for sale :o))!
While the children were enjoying their gifts, the Engineer hooked the Wii up. Then we all created our Miis and everyone had a turn before it was time for the kids to go off to bed. It will certainly be an interesting few days. I will be stressing order here for sure.
What a great idea, to separate the gifts from Christmas Day :0)
ReplyDeleteAnd love the pics and story of your (larger) family Christmas too.
What a neat tradition! Thanks for sharing all the pictures. What wonderful memories you are creating.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting tradition. My church does not have Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services (a Baptist church).
ReplyDeleteWishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!!!