Wonderful Christmas!

Every Christmas is special and wonderful, but this Christmas was even more so as we had Carter here to celebrate the birth of our Savior with us! He is such a delight and had so much fun as we celebrated Christmas with so many of our family and friends this season.

After celebrating Christmas with the Locketts' (my mom's side of the family) on the 23rd, we had a relatively low key Christmas Eve. Nick, Carter and I went to the Christmas Eve service at Canterbury, which was our church home when we lived in Birmingham (and in many ways still feels like our church home). We were able to see many friends and share that special night and special service with Carter, who behaved like a pure angel throughout the service--and only slept through about half of it.

A little side note...as I was listening to Dr. Morgan's sermon, I was reminded of his sermon last year on Christmas Eve. Last year's sermon was called something like "The Christ Child Born Again for the First Time." Dr. Morgan talked about how each Christmas is truly a "first" which means we experience Christmas anew each year. It was a pretty special sermon, one that evidently stuck with me through what has been a truly overwhelming year. It seems especially true as I think about experiencing Christmas as a mom for the first time. I imagine that most parents will tell you that having a child of your own and loving someone so much makes it that much more awe-inspiring to think of God sending his own Son to die that we might have eternal life with Him. Truly amazing!

Okay, so back from my digression...we got back to my parents' house after the service and were able to celebrate Christmas with my immediate family! It was a fun night with a delicious dinner, fun presents and lots of laughs. Unfortunately, Carter slept through virtually all of it, but he was really excited when he saw all of his special gifts that he received.

We headed up to Decatur on Christmas morning and had a great big breakfast cooked by Popsy and Gigi and then played a nice, competitive game of Christmas Bingo...(we play Bingo for prizes instead of buying gifts!). Again, Carter slept through most of the morning, but was awake long enough to show off his rolling over skills and get loved on by his cousins! Christmas night we went over to Nick's sister's house for dinner and a little fun with the Wii they got from Santa. Sad to say that Banks, my 5 year old nephew beat me at Wii bowling.

The day after Christmas, we had one more special celebration at Debbie's house. We headed over there for some yummy breakfast and then exchanged Christmas presents one more time! It was so much fun that we headed back over there for dinner--Uncle Chris cooked us steaks and sweet potato ravioli! Yum Yum!

This has truly been such an amazing Christmas for us! We are thankful for the time that we have been able to spend with our family this Holiday Season! We thank all of our friends and family for the love and the gifts that you have showered us with! We have no doubt that we are blessed beyond what we deserve!

Pictures to come when we get home and I have the time--and the equipment--to post them!