Wow. Christmas was an absolute whirlwind this year! We spent Christmas Eve and morning with David's family, Christmas afternoon with my dad, and Christmas night with my mom. While it was a bit exhausting trying to figure it all out and prepare for everything, we were happy to be able to spend some time with everyone.
It snowed in Dallas on Christmas Eve for the first time since anyone could remember. Even so, Watermark services were packed! We could barely find a place to sit and even then it was in an overflow room. Todd's message about the redemptive power of Christ came through loud and clear though. Afterward we got to watch Jordan, Sam and Brooke open up "just one gift"...which quickly turned into ALL of them. Then we watched them play in the snow with their dad and Uncle David; even Grace got to participate (for a minute or so). It was all just too cute!
The next day we headed to Huntsville and hung out with Grandpa, Granzie, Kyle & Kody for a while. We had just learned a couple days before of my Grandma Coleman (my dad's mom) passing away. Obviously everyone was pretty sad about that, but it just made our time together all the more meaningful. One of the gifts from my dad and Terri - that they'd actually prepared before her death - was a framed picture, letter and prayer that my Grandma had sent Kimmie and me in 1992, after one of our summer visits. It was incredibly special.
By the time we got to Christmas #3, we were pretty drained. However, my mom had prepared an awesome dinner and everyone perked up when Gram (my mom's mom) announced that she had booked us all on a cruise for her Christmas gift. It's not until next January, so we have a whole year to look forward to it. That lady loves to cruise! We opened the rest of our gifts the next morning. GramB and Papa John had requested that we not buy them anything, but instead use any money we would have spent to do something nice for someone else. Sharing about those less fortunate made the gifts we'd just opened seem a bit frivolous; it was a sharp reminder of what's truly important. I really hope to do a better job of being a humble servant all year long, like my Grandma Coleman was, and not just at Christmas...
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