Celebrating Jesus' Birth and Christmas at Our House

Merry CHRISTmas everyone! We went to church last night and then came home to celebrate the birth of our Savior. We read scripture and hung "Jesus" ornaments on our tree. I plan to take pictures of these ornaments for another blog and explain what we did. We really tried to focus on our Lord.
I had a good day on Christmas. We woke everyone up at about 5 a.m. to open a few presents. First, Marci made me French Toast...soooo early for her to be working in the kitchen for me, but she was a real blessing to me!
I had to leave for work at 6:15 a.m. and got off at 3 p.m. so it was an easier day than usual. It was fun watching the special needs adults enjoying their Christmas day!
Last year I was able to get Roger's picture of his Grandparents for him for Christmas. THIS year, I had his old cuckoo clock reconditioned and the wood stripped and refinished. The clock was originally his grandparents' but sometime after he received it, the clock almost didn't survive a fire in his house. He has had it in a box for years and years and I dug it out and snuck it to a clocksmith to have it worked on. Roger loved it and has been trying to adjust it to make it "cuckoo" for us! We have the instructions, it is just going to take....time. Hehehe...get it?? It's a clock, gonna take time??
Never mind...

Can you believe that there are this many gifts under our tree? They're not really "under the tree", they're all over the floor! This was the result of everyone (18 people) coming in and adding to the gifts that were already there! Good Grief! And I thought we cut back! (Next year we are REALLY going to cut back. My kids say that I say that every year! ) They got things they really needed, though, for the most part. They got clothes since all of them needed them. Oh, and a "Wii". That was NOT my idea. I would have rather bought lots of BOOKS! But Roger wanted to do that this year. He has NEVER bought a game system before so this time he did it really big!

Our dining room table. The big vase in the middle is full of cuttings from our Christmas tree. All of these things were just gathered from around the house or bought at 1/2 price sales from previous years. Notice the sewing desk, sewing machine and unmade projects at the left of the picture? I now have a whole year, Lord willing, to get them done for NEXT year! Whew! No more pressure to get them done for THIS year!

Another picture of our family room! Ok, so the "Tiffany" style lamp on the table was "harvested" from a nearby house's Monday morning trash. It is solid glass and appears to be pretty old. The sofa table was a 1/2 price Goodwill find we bought about 3 years ago. We had been going from store to store to get things for our upcoming wedding celebration and found the table! The "goose" with the Christmas ribbon on her neck is one of my Christmas presents from my Dear Hubby this year! I have wanted one for years and he found it on Ebay! I think it is my favorite present because it was given out of love to me. We are trying to reduce the clutter in our home and my husband HATES to bring "nick nacks" into our home. However, he knew how long I've wanted this pretty goose so he bought it anyway! I also got an antique creamer and sugar bowl to match our old dishes, a necklace, and a back massager. He thought that my favorite gift would be the new FOOD PROCESSOR! I do love it...and will love it even more this next canning and freezing season. (But my favorite present from him is STILL my goose!)

Just in case it sounds like we spent a FORTUNE this year, we did spend some money. However, we really buy when we can find deep discounts...(I think that my husband went out VERY early on Black Friday to get my massager and food processor.) I bought many many things at the Goodwill stores this year, especially when I can find new things with tags still on them! I bought Becca almost new books from Half Price books and items from garage sales! I got her a photo cropper from Creative Memories from a garage sale and it was still in the box.

I write these things because I feel guilty having "plenty" when so many people are in need. I feel very selfish and have to explain how we were blessed to be able to get these gifts. I feel like God puts me at the right place at the right time to find these bargains. I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT GOD CARES EVEN ABOUT THESE LITTLE THINGS IN THE LIVES OF HIS CHILDREN!

And here is a close up of my Christmas Goose! I plan to change her ribbon with the season. Yeah, that's us in the picture. I didn't mean for it to be there. Roger put the ribbon on her to surprise me and placed her there for me to see when I arrived home from work!

Tomorrow is another long work day and we are having out of town company here when I get out of work. I have to work 11a.m. to 11 p.m. tomorrow, much different than my usual schedule. But I might get to sleep in a little and "snuggle" a little!

Merry CHRISTmas to you all!

Love,

Beth