blessed christmas...

Christmas has come and gone for 2009...it seems so amazing how quickly it comes and then how quickly it passes. Reflecting today on the blessings of a season today and it leaves me so thankful.

Christmas Eve was spent with my family enjoying a traditional Southern meal...my Mom hails from Texas and cooking is one of her biggest talents in my opinion. So we enjoyed a very satisfying meal and company...it's seems so surreal to me that my nephews are in their twenties and my niece will be 16 this coming year. Talk about making a person feel old. I can vividly remember when they were Camryn's age and enjoying Christmas with them and now watching them enjoy it with my kids just brings a smile to my face. After hanging out for awhile we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service. This quite possibly could be one of my fondest Christmas memories from my childhood...going to church, sitting with my extended family, singing about Christmas, getting a box of candy at the end. Christmas Eve holds some of my most cherished childhood memories and it never fails that sometime on Christmas Eve I find myself right back there and I smile. We got to church and sat up in the balcony away from as many people as possible...funny how the front row of the balcony was the entire Mikels family. I love watching Camryn and Wyatt enjoy their extended family, some great memories in the making.

After church we headed back to my parent's house for more food and presents. Camryn and Wyatt were so excited and helped Makenna pass out all the gifts. They also very much were into their presents and enjoyed the fun of opening...they were incredibly blessed! All the while Wyatt gave us a play by play of each gift, just kept cracking us up with this dialogue. Later we headed home and the little ones crashed after leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Jason and I had a few little things to do to prepare for Christmas morning and then off to bed we went too. Oh the fun of Christmas Eve and the coming of Christmas morning.

Christmas morning Jason make monkey bread for us, which is going to become our tradition. I feel like this year Jason and I did the best job we have done in creating traditions and memories for our family of four and I have enjoyed it. We opened stockings and presents while the monkey bread baked, then we ate and just enjoyed a lazy morning together. It was wonderful! I absolutely loved not having to race through our morning to get to our next destination. After we got ready and the kids played with some of their new toys we headed to Jason's parents for our Mikels Christmas.

Boy what a day...there are seven kids under seven so it is a full house with lots of Christmas spirit. We hung out, opened presents, ate a good dinner and hung out some more. Wyatt was in a bit of a funk, he was exhausted and just fighting a bit of a cold I think. But, he perked up for presents! Camryn had a blast playing with her cousins, she absolutely adores all of them and truly they are her best friends. Camryn and James played secret spies together and I promise I had flash backs to my days playing with my cousins and it was priceless.

We are beyond blessed this year...

Even though this year in no way went the way we expected it to, it took turns that we would have rather it not. But, we are blessed. Our families which have been a gift to us this year, walking with us through a very tough year for us. Our children who have proven to amaze us constantly with their spirit, fight and love. But as we sat in church I was reminded of Jesus' birth...

His coming into this world...into my messy life to redeem, to give me hope, to give me a future. To turn my pain, my struggles, my questions, all of it into something beautiful with him. Because only in His coming do we have the hope of being with Him and that has been my Christmas gift this year.

This year has been hard, I won't lie...there have been moments of utter desperation and despair and yet moments of great hope and promise. And to know that 2,000 years ago a baby was born to pay for my sins even before they were committed...to love me even when I am unlovable...to save me...to give me more than I will deserve...

To give me life...

I guess you could say that is our biggest blessing this Christmas...Life and life abundantly.

***And yes there are lots of pictures that I'll post soon***