29.12.20

Christmas 2020

Christmas 2020.  It was such a good, sweet one.

I woke up early to make homemade cinnamon rolls.  The sleepyheads finally rolled out of bed.  We began the morning by lighting our candles.  All of them.  We gathered at the table and read Luke's account of the birth of Christ and had our final Advent devotion.  We ate cinnamon rolls and leftovers from our Christmas Eve brunch.

And then it was time to open gifts.  The kids wanted to start with their stockings first.  Stockings are always my favorite.

We open all of our gifts on Christmas morning, even the Georgia ones, so there's lots to open.  We pass out all the gifts and then take turns opening each one.

There were lots of smiles Christmas morning.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the morning.  The kids were opening this "together gift" from Pop and Mimi.  I'd asked them for a picture before opening it and told Mason to get down on the floor with the girls since he's so tall.  He then proceeded to declare that he's "getting too old for this."  So I told him that I will definitely remember that for next year.  He told Hannah Kate she needed to move the gift closer to him so he could help open it.  And I told him that wasn't necessary since he's "too old" for gifts now.

I knew there was a basketball in the box.  I did not know there were basketballs in the box.   And they are color coded!

I might have rolled my eyes when Mason opened his and mumbled a comment about an "LSU basketball."  But Mason was quick to inform me that it wasn't an LSU basketball but a Lebron James.  Really?  Then why is it purple and gold?  Mason rolls his eyes.  The Lakers, Mom.  Oh . . .

And . . . every year . . . I look around at the empty boxes, torn wrapping paper, disheveled bows and trash littering the floor . . . and I am reminded that we are blessed.  So very blessed.

You know, Christmas with teenagers is so . . . different . . . than Christmas with children.  It's not necessarily a bad different.  It's just different.  There are no toys to assemble or play with.  There's just . . . this.  (Or maybe this is just my teenager?).

When I was growing up, glitter wasn't allowed . . . you know, the beautiful, shiny, glittery wrapping paper.  Mama always said it made too much of a mess and was impossible to clean up.  But it's so pretty!  I may have been deprived of the glittery wrapping paper growing up, but she more than made up for it this year!

So much so that I had to take my gifts to the back porch to open them!  (Because ain't nobody got time to clean all that up!).  (And, in her defense, she ordered the wrapping paper online and didn't realize how "glittery" it was going to be . . . and, of course, she HAD to use it since she had it.).

After the gifts were opened and the mess cleaned up, we went to Seth's parents' house for the Bayham family Christmas.  I took only one picture the rest of the day.

It was a very merry Christmas, indeed!