These Are A Few Of My Favorite Times.....

Today is Christmas Day.  I actually slept a little late (I got up at 6).  Kat and Brian surprised me with a spend the night visit.  I was so excited I could hardly wait til they got here.  We talked, listened to music with the Yule Log channel, then watched Friends.  I went to be somewhere around midnight.  Kat and Brian followed around 1.  Before anyone began moving I made the Watergate salad for my dinner.  Linda brought ham, Amanda made dressing, and I cooked green beans, made REAL creamed potatoes.  Brian helped me with the potatoes.  It was fun peeling potatoes with him in the kitchen while Kat napped on the couch thanks to a Benadryl I gave her.  She is so like her mom....one pill and she is out like a light.  I had put the green beans on in the crockpot on low last night when we got home from our Communion Services.  Brian and I watched/listened to more of the Yule Log channel and talked about music, life, stuff.  I really enjoyed having time with just Brian.  When Kat, Brian and I used to travel, Kat would always go to sleep in the car and Brian and I would have intense conversations.  I have a wonderful son-in-law.  Amanda breezed in from David and Suzanna's around 11.  She and Kat sat down and poured over Amanda's Family Tree program.  I was so impressed with her information that I ordered one for myself.  Linda and Victor showed up around 12.  We got everything ready and ate around 1ish.  I had invited Eric and Jeni and their families since this would be the last chance for us to celebrate Christmas with Kat and Brian.... but they were busy with their real family plans and could not join us....their loss.  After we finished eating we opened gifts and fellowshipped around the Christmas tree.  I love my family.  Linda's son, Lee and his girlfriend came in just as we were getting ready to open the presents.  The nine of us fit real cozy into my den.  Victor, Linda's husband (and Linda too), gave me a painted feather from Mexico. It is a Mayan/Aztec temple and really amazing.  It is framed and I love it!  Bath and Body hand soap was also in the bag along with a gorgeous cross necklace.  Amanda gave me my Mane Event gift card.  I look forward to this gift.  Mane Event is a spa in Lafayette.  I love the way the place smells, I love the fact that they give you something to drink when you get there, I love their cheese straws, I love feeling special there.  Amanda loves the place too....and so Linda and I love opening that little brown box with the green card in it.  I also got a Spain guitar magnet from Amanda's Med Cruise.  It is proudly displayed on my fridge.  Kat and Brian gave me a picture of a convent in Moldova.  I got a little statue of this when they got home last summer.  I can't wait to redo one of my walls with all this really cool items from the world.  The family all left around 4.  After they were gone the house was too quiet and the sadness began to move in.  Sometime after today we will lose baby Kash.  This is the little baby I have been requesting prayer for.  I cried for a bit....because I felt selfish.  I was a little blue today because this is the last Christmas I will have with my daughter for a while.  She and Brian will be moving to Moldova as full-time missionaries in June.  As I watched my family together I realized how selfish I was being....my daughter is leaving the country,....Magen is losing hers.  I went outside while the kids and Amanda worked on Family Tree and prayed for Magen and Keaton and asked God to forgive me for being such a ninny.  Big lesson for today....when you think you have it bad....someone else has it worse.  Lesson learned God!  I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas.  God Bless you every single one.  Hug someone you love today and thank you for letting me ramble!  :-)