Christmas is almost here!!

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by, and yet how slow it seemed at the time.  So much has happened.  We moved to FL, we moved twice, we got an offer on our house (my FAVORITE part!), we added 2 1/2 more babies to our family (one is still cooking) and we went to Disney, a few times :-) Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday.  Unfortunately this year, I have hardly any of my own decorations, since they are still in NC, but my parents were nice enough to lend us their tree/ornaments and I had some other items to put out.  I did have to go and by the kids some stockings from the Dollar Tree.  We don't do Santa, but we do the stockings.  The kids need to open something in the morning so I don't get woken up too early :-)  Although, to be honest, I don't think my kids have EVER gotten up before 7 AM Christmas morning.  Which boggles my mind.  I remember waking well before daylight, opening our stockings, and seeing the white snow on the TV (back before there was in the middle of the night shows on TV!)  My kids sleep too soundly to wake up that early, but I won't complain about that!  Last year was very weird because we opened presents at the last minute on the 23rd and went to Nathan's grandma's funeral in MO that day, which means we were driving on Christmas day.  It was nice to see his family, but not under those circumstances, and also I lost my voice (a nice quiet drive for Nate!)  This year, we are trying to be as "normal" as we can, with some modifications due to Nathan's weird work schedule.  Christmas Eve, our church has a candle light service at 5 PM.  Nathan will be late to that and meet us there, but after the service, we will come home to some delicious finger foods and have a birthday party for Jesus.  He is the ONLY reason we celebrate Christmas, and we always make it special with a cake and everything!!  Then we sing songs and give a gift to Jesus, something about ourselves that we want to change and make better.   More like Christ.  Christmas morning, the kids can open their stockings, and then we have to wait, and wait, and wait to open gifts until Nathan gets home from work around 10 AM.  At least it will get us time to eat, and get ready to go for the day :-)  After we do gifts, we are going up to Brooksville to my aunt's house.  I am really excited, since we haven't been there yet, and I haven't been up to that neck of the woods in 9 years!!  I'm interested in seeing how it has changed.  The guys are all excited because they get to bring their guns and go shooting.  Ok, I'm a little excited too!!  Not to mention the white elephant gift exchange!!  I think it will be a really fun Christmas that will give us fond memories.  I finally got a camera, so I will be able to post some pictures as well.  Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope you center the holiday around Christ, and His miraculous birth.  Without Him, we would have no hope for something better, and we would have noone to look up to and strive to be more like.  He is the true meaning of Christmas!