Christmas Day Filled With Joy

 This will be a quick post, mostly pictures, as it is getting late already and I am ready to head for bed soon. It's been a LONG, but very lovely day!  

I know many of you were aware that one of our blogging friends and her hubby were going to have Christmas dinner with our family today...our dear friend Linda and her hubby Dave, from Just Simply Linda.  Well, in spite of a rainy day, they did make the one hour drive to our home as planned, and brought a big pan full of delicious lasagna as also planned (at their request), and added it to our pan of lasagna and salad and garlic toast and desserts...and we had a marvelous feast and a wonderful time together with our family and dear friends.  So here are the pictures from our day, and I will let them speak for themselves:

I'm glad our son Scott has figured out the time delay photo app on my cell phone so we can get a picture of all of us together at the table!

Linda, Dave, our son Scott, yours truly, hubby John, friend Pamela,our DIL Rose and our son Benton.

Here we are again after dinner and dessert, Pamela, Dave, Linda, Me with Lily Grace, John, Rose, Benton and Scott.  One of the highlights of the day was when we all gathered in the living room together, and Linda's hubby Dave shared a special Christmas story from the Bible...the miracles surrounding the birth of John the Baptist as well as the Angel Gabriel coming to talk to Zechariah and also to Joseph and especially Mary, regarding the birth of Jesus, The Son of God. It was a very beautiful time together as we pondered the amazing story of  how all things are possible with God!

And this is just our family.  Yes, Lily Grace wanted to be in all the pictures today. She had on a new dress, sent to her from her "Auntie Debbi" from South Carolina, along with some fun little toys, so of course she needed to be in the pictures.  As a matter of fact, here she is again:

My friend Pamela had fun putting Lily's new dress on her as I was busy with dessert and other hostess activities:

Sometimes big girls just wanna be a little girl again...

I am working backwards in time now...this was the scene in our living room earlier this morning, before the family arrived and all the activities began for the day:

The table was set and ready, and all the gifts were in place, awaiting our kids to come and begin the "grand opening"...

That smaller brown sign says

"Christmas at the Cabin,

Where Memories are Made".

I know our house isn't really a "cabin", but at Christmas time it kind of feels like it, and we certainly do make a lot of happy memories here.

There's the "little cabin" where many memories were made years ago, and all these pictures on these shelves are silent witnesses to our celebrations...some of these dear ones have gone on to glory and are celebrating Christmas in heaven with Jesus right there with them!

Here's our son Scott, having his morning cup of coffee while we await the festivities to begin:

Oh, Rose and Benton have arrived, and they are also ready to begin...

Here's hubby John, smiling and bright eyed and bushy tailed...LOL.

And there I am, ready to get things going...

Toys for the boys, and lots of fun gifts for the family...We have a lot of fun on Christmas morning with our family.  It looks like a mountain of gifts, but in reality  a lot of things are just little things...candy, nuts, cookies, socks, underwear, shirts, not a lot of "big stuff", mostly little things that look  like a lot, and that makes it more fun. (but a lot of work wrapping little gifts).  

However, this was one gift son Scott loved...a tee shirt with a picture of his current car on it...(not his exact car, but the same model, year, etc.  He does love his old Camaro!)

Now lets back up another day to Christmas Eve day...the kids came over with our grandpups Sugar and Spice. We decided to give them their gifts then because they weren't going to bring the pups back over on Christmas day as there would be just too much confusion with so many people, etc.  So we got them new beds and a couple of toys to keep at our house...

Sugar looks happy in her bed with the toys...

And now Spice looks happy in the same bed with the toys...they finally figured it out, but they were funny.

Also, the boys went out and cut some low hanging tree limbs in our front yard. That was a big job and much appreciated.

When we came home from the Christmas Eve service Scott had baked a wonderful batch of my mother's Orange Cookies...

It's a family tradition, and they smelled and tasted so good! I'm so thankful that he loves to bake them as his gift to the family each year! (or when he has time...)

Speaking of Christmas Eve, when we got home from our church's Candlelight Service,  I wanted to have our picture taken, but hubby went and took off his "Sunday go to meeting clothes" as soon as we walked in the door, so we still managed a picture in his comfy clothes and I am wearing a dress that I've had for probably close to 30 years. I "lost" it in the back of my closet for a while, and rediscovered it, and was thankful that it still fits and is still in good condition! Of course, I would only wear it once a year...so that's probably why! LOL.

Here's the dress...

Well, it's time to call it a night. It's been a lovely lovely Christmas Eve and Day...we are truly thankful and blessed.  And most of all, let us remember why we have been celebrating...Jesus is the heart of the holiday...Jesus, our "Emmanuel", God in the flesh, is with us, now and always...and that is certainly something to celebrate!

So good night my friends in blogland!

I pray that your Christmas was also blessed and filled with the grace and love of Christ!

Amen.

(And good night and thank you to Linda and her hubby Dave for coming to visit with us today and for making our Christmas even more special! May God bless you both with His peace and Joy and love in the New Year!)