The stockings were hung...

Santa visited our house last night. Did he make it to yours?

It's nice to spend Christmas morning with just us and the bunnies. I'm always sad that Andy has to leave me and go to work on Christmas day, but I cherish the time we have together. This morning we got up and unpacked our stockings, had some Christmas morning cinnamon rolls and talked to Andy's family who is about to depart to France this afternoon. It was a simple, no fuss, no muss, morning, and it was lovely.

Andy's parents, Jack and Kathryn
We celebrated with them this past Saturday.

Several posts ago I mentioned that Andy and I have decided to take a different approach to Christmas gifts this year. We do have something to give to everyone on our list, in the form of baked goods. But we did not go "whole hog" this year buying gifts. We felt that Christmas should be something more than just presents under the tree. So in the spirit of giving we decided to give to someone else, someone who needed it more. We donated the bulk of our Christmas budget to a family that could use it in a different capacity than to just buy unneeded gifts. We did get each other small things, but limited ourselves to only things that would fit in a stocking and were fairly cheap.

We haven't missed all the glittery packages at all. By not getting wrapped up (literally) in all the shopping chaos I've been able to examine all the ways I am blessed at Christmas time and all the time. I have a loving family, a warm place to live, food on my table, a (usually) working vehicle, a job (a rare find these days), friends that I wouldn't trade for the world, and most importantly a savior, who is after all, the reason for today's celebration going on around the world.

There are so many people who don't have many of the things I just listed. I pray that by this time next year many, if not all, of them have found some sort of happiness. It's a sad thing to be left wanting, especially at Christmas time.

So, no matter what you celebrate this Holiday season, even if you just celebrate that it's over for another year, take the time and celebrate the true gifts in your life. Those gifts will leave you feeling infinitely more fulfilled than anything under your tree.

Clearly, we had just woken up
Do you like my hat? Santa brought it!

Milton checks out what Santa left in his stocking

Brunswik had a bite of everythingMmmmm, Christmas cinnamon rolls

Happy Holidays! I'm off to celebrate more of my blessings.