I love Christmas; it's definitely my favorite holiday. First and foremost for the gift of Immanuel, "God with us", and also for the time spent with family, for laughing and joking together, for eating way too much ham dinner and blueberry dessert, for giving and receiving gifts. Although I still like receiving gifts, I enjoy the giving so much more. I imagine that's how God felt on that first Christmas, giving His Son to the world.
Half the fun of Christmas is the anticipation of the fun. Really, that's half the fun of anything. Don't ever give me a surprise trip anywhere -- I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much if I didn't have months of anticipation leading up to it. (Although, I guess I would take a surprise trip over no trip at all. ;-))
Christmas Eve was a busy day at Grandma and Grandpa K's with nine adults and seven grandchildren running around. (Well, the grandchildren were running, we adults were a little more relaxed.) We were all missing Laura who was celebrating Christmas with a family in Finland, learning Finnish traditions of food and present-giving and sharing some American Christmas cookies with them. To help Clare enjoy her time opening gifts at Grandma and Grandpa's, we let her practice with two gifts at home ahead of time. By the time she got there, she knew what to do.
Christmas Day Clare just had time to open her stocking before heading off to church and then to Uncle Matt's and Auntie Di's for brunch. After the brunch and another nap -- more present opening. She definitely got the hang of opening gifts this year. When we had our extended K family Christmas party on Monday, Clare thought she should get to open all the white elephant gifts. It was nothing but tears when she found out they weren't for her.
Yes, she's still at the age where an empty box is just another part of the present! And this box looks like a fun one.
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