Gifts of Christmas

From the squalor of a borrowed stable,
By the Spirit and a virgin's faith;
To the anguish and the shame of scandal
Came the Savior of the human race.
But the skies were filled with the praise of heaven,
Shepherds listen as the angels tell
Of the Gift of God come down to man
At the dawning of Immanuel. 

--Stuart Townend, Immanuel
(rest of the song's lyrics here)

Our Christmas Card says:

"Celebrating 'good news of great joy for all people,' --The Martins" 

Our good news (quoted above from Luke 2 in the Bible) was this: God Himself was coming to dwell among his people, to teach them about himself, and to bridge the gap between people and the God who created and loves them, with his life, sacrifice, and triumph over evil.  

This was God's great gift. Jesus, Immanuel (which literally means, "God with us.") All other gifts this season are but a shadow and a symbol of that first Christmas when everything changed. We give gifts in honor of all God has given us. Peter and Anna (and their parents!) have been growing in their understanding of what Christmas is. 

And yet, there's no dampening of their excitement for that long-awaited Christmas morning and...
...PRESENTS!!!

For us, our little family celebration took place on the 24th instead. As you see:

Most of the main event was on video, but here are a few shots detailing the present aftermath:

 (Note, the shed clothes in lieu of her new night gown and purple pants; the magformers, green toy car, keyboard excellently played as "Slowpoke" the new purple turtle looks on. 

Daddy's favorite kids' gift

Blue Piggy Bank

Recharging with Christmas cookies and decaf. Christmas breakfast of champions. 

Stockings: 

Here being discovered are die-cast Cars characters: Holley Shiftwell for Anna and...looks like Sarge for Peter (he got several, thanks to eBay)

Daddy's card

Practice, practice, practice!

A different kind of Christmas tree. 

Our Thanksgiving tree was repurposed--and yet still serving the same purpose, laden with reminders of that for which we are very grateful. 

 

Sunday, December 25: with our church on Christmas Morning

Christmas evening was spent in Orange with Nana and Daideo and the Trabandt family


Favorite stickers ever

With a chocolate chip pannetone we'd been given, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was pretty sweet, except that Peter picked his nose the whole time. 

Eager candle-blower

Finishing the job

Monday we all went to Yoder's Country Store for some animal friends and sandwiches. (Llamas, little goats, and bristly pig not pictured.)

Not a lot of Anna here--I think she was walking around with someone else--but here's her favorite, the peacock. Peter thought it was pretty cool, too. 

Sweet spunky Emery on the playground there

"I'm fyiiiing!"

New compassion poster for poor little children growing up in tree houses on the side of a mountain.

And stealing fruit

Aaaand here was lunch

This is later on--each of the 3 older grandkids got a turn helping Nana make the family favorite, chicken and dumplins. 

Here with our guest of honor and enthusiastic dumpling eater, our dear Pop-pop

Tuesday morning was a little wet, but still a fine morning for a boy to...finally master the tricycle!!!

With face set like flint toward...

ferociously pedaling away from Daddy

Excuse all the seemingly repetitive photojournalism here--this was a proud moment.
And this was his game face.

knocking around in the hay field

Looking for the troll under the bridge

All clear. 

Back home, wrapping up at the time at Nana's and learning Chutes & Ladders. Hi-five to the victor.


Here's a little 2-year throwback, ganked from Anne's Facebook.

I parted ways with my three beloved ones on Tuesday evening for a couple days. Tom had planned some adventures for the kids while I had our house to myself and devoted the time to purging all our storage and organizing what was left. The kind of project that needs some uninterrupted time to throw the house into chaos and bring it back again. That time was Tom's Christmas gift to me.

But it wasn't all bad for the other three either.