Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.

~Peg Bracken

I’m still coming down from the buzz of Christmas, holy smokes! This Christmas will go down as one of the best.  We ate and laughed and played with so many of the people we love.

We decorated Christmas Trees and gingerbread houses, sat on Santa’s lap, spent time with great friends at a lovely Christmas party, and searched high and low for Jingle Bell our Elf On The Shelf every single morning since Thanksgiving.

We spent many nights this Christmas season reading about the birth of Jesus. We put our nativity scene together and talked about Mary and Joseph, the three kings, angels and shepherds. And on Christmas Eve, I woke RJ up at 10:00 pm and asked him if he wanted to attend a Christmas Eve Church service with the adults.  He popped out of bed quicker than I could blink.  He had never heard of Jesus before coming to live with us, so he had about a million questions, but was fully attentive well into the wee hours of the night.

We celebrated Christmas three times this year- once in Augusta with my side, once in North Carolina with Ians, and once at home- just the four of us.  Each celebration brought with it its own set of memories that we will cherish forever.

We hope your holidays were just as merry and bright!