Looking Back On The Celebration

Hello fellow bloggers. I hope you all had a splendid Christmas. Our's was as merry as they come. What a grand way to celebrate Christ's birth!

It started out with my having FIVE days off work. (including the weekend) Oh how nice that was to just get out and not think about it for a while.

One of my doctor friends gave me a very generous gift card for the mall, so I headed up there on Friday. Isn't it just like me to re-gift something? Well, I re-gifted only half of the gift card amount. I splurged on something special for Keith! I bought myself a new outfit. I bought some stocking stuffers. But as I was wondering around Boscovs, my eye caught an espresso machine... and it was ON SALE!!!! And since I had this gift card, oh how proud I was to take it home!!! It was a sure surprise for Keith, especially since he bought himself a rather expensive grinder a few weeks back and proclaimed that it was his gift. If it wasn't for this gift card, he would have been getting something cheesy... like the universal remote, the alarm clock, and the flannel pants I had already got for him. What can I say? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my good pal, Dr. S, who always remembers me at Christmas time. He gets more and more generous every year. Keith was WAY surprised and quite impressed with his new toy.

We attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. The message was quite meaningful. We sang an abundance of Christmas hymns and what was called "The Festival of Carols" ending with Silent Night by candlelight. (My candle had an unusually long wick and was like holding a torch. YIKES.) This was my very first "candlelight" service. It was very pretty.

Keith volunteered to work on Christmas day, so we had a quaint little Christmas Eve celebration after the church service. We exchanged our gifts and enjoyed each other's company a bit before turning in for the night. Keith got me a custom made pearl necklace with a daisy-like pendant. He is so thoughtful! I regret to report that I broke the pretty necklace on Christmas day. Ooops. His friend at work made it. She creates custom jewelrey as art. She will fix it.

On Christmas Day I hung out alone while he was working. I cleaned a little and moved some furniture around for our game night with the family. Mom, Dad, Amanda, John, Aunt Jane, Paul, Amy, Joyce, Paul III, Daniel, & David all came to our house for the festivities. Everyone brought their favorite snack and I cooked up some warms ones. We had SO MUCH to eat!!! We had warm artichoke dip, warm reuben dip, mini reubens, cheese & pepperoni & crackers, pepperoni roll, fresh fruit and veggies, mini cream puffs, homemade cookies, olives, shrimp cocktail, candy, mini hotdogs, and more! It was all so yummy and irresistable! YUM - O!!!!

We gave each of the kiddos a game for Christmas. We thought that would be appropriate being that we were having "game night." Mom and Dad also had very thoughtful gifts for the kiddos, but the Zombecks out-did us all with the General Lee remote control cars!!!! Oh the drama!!!! There was no room to run them in our house with so many guests and it was dark outside. It wasn't long before they asked "Can we go home now?!" Oh they were SO excited about this gift.

I was surprised to get my very favorite scented candle from Mom. Thank you very much! It's "Pure Cotton"... I love it!! And there was a very special gift from Joyce. It was this hand-painted bud vase. What was even more precious was the comment that followed, "I tried to get you one with daisies, but they didn't have that." Awwww.... how significant that she knows how much I love daisies. Thanks Joycie. I love it!

Christmas was great. We got packages from Keith's family. We need to send a very special thank you to Grandma Lehmkuhl and the Watkins for the Home Depot spending money. We need it! And to Mom and Jim for the delicious Harry and David tower... which didn't last but a day or two. YUMMY!!! And to Dad and Rach for a lovely new stocking, bracelet, and Keith's flannel pants. You are all so very thoughtful!!!