Christmas Expectations

Expectations. Come Christmas time, expectations abound. Kids expecting gifts off their wish list. Family members expecting other family members to visit. Children hoping for snow.

With every Advent season, David and I hope that our family can focus on the expectation of Jesus' birth. I still love that old quote, "Jesus came to pay a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay."

Christmas is always an amazing, sweet time for our family ... filled with all the fun traditions (decorating, parties, presents) but more importantly, filled with the joy that "God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son..."

One of my highlights is pulling our Christmas boxes out of storage and watching the girls go crazy pulling out all the Christmas items they haven't seen in a year! I can hardly wait for the last bite of turkey to be consumed on Thanksgiving before I grab these boxes! ;)

Another highlight is watching our girls perform in their school Christmas musical. Their rehearsal alone brought tears to my eyes ... all these young, young voices singing about the real reason for the season. Here are our three girls right before the musical.

Annalise reveled in her role as the Star of Bethlehem.

One of our greatest blessings this year was our move into this new house. And David & I knew we wanted to use it as often as we can to host parties & gatherings. This month, we hosted four Christmas parties ... two for expats and two for nationals. Here are glimpses of the expat parties:

The first was for women only.

We had another one with our co-workers.

One of my favorite traditions is opening our "joy stockings" on Christmas Eve. We write notes to each family member about how they brought joy to us in the past year.

Annalise reads her notes. This was the first year she wrote her own notes (instead of dictating them to me!) Priceless! I do record these notes on the computer so they can always remember what they wrote each other every Christmas.

Hooray ... finally Christmas morning! Too bad our kids woke up to find this chair. ;) It read "Merry Christmas, girls! Wait for Mommy & Daddy first." So close yet so far! (And don't you love that morning hair?)
Watching our girls open their gifts is such a joyful thing for me ... and I know God enjoys it even more. I don't think I'll ever be able to grasp just how much He enjoys blessing us. This is a glimpse of the "afterglow" ... all the presents are opened and the girls are trying to decide which gift to play with first!
And Christmas Day is not complete without Jesus' birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Jesus!