Does the excitement of Christmas have to end?

Does the excitement of Christmas have to end? We have had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve day in Kearney with Dave's mom and her husband. They are always such a blessing to us and spoil us terribly! This year their focus was on games for the children. It was the first time that we all played games together. We had such a great time. My personal favorite was watching Darcey play Horseopoly. She was hilarious with her expressions and business like attitude! Ha Ha! We ended the evening by going to our church for the Christmas service.

Christmas Day was spent at home with the children. It is tradition for the children to wake up and to open their stockings. Our bedroom sits right by the living room and I love to lay in the bed and listen to them as they oooo and aaaah over their treasures. We then read the Christmas story from the book of Luke and open gifts. After hours of playing with all of our new toys, we had our Christmas dinner by candle light. It was a wonderful day to remember just how much the children are growing.

It is now three days after Christmas and I am just now really enjoying the season! How do we get sucked into the hustle and bustle of the season so quickly even when we are trying so hard not to lose focus on the real meaning of the holiday? We, like many of you, were rushing around with last minute shopping, Christmas programs and baking. Of course, I also had to paint the bathroom in the midst of the holiday!
Bad planning on my part!!

Now that the holiday has passed, I finally feel that I am able to relax and enjoy the children being off of school and getting caught up on the daily household chores. I have been thinking a lot about the many gifts that we recieved this year and wonder if I will truly remember each of them. But then my thoughts began to wonder if I would truly remember the greatest gift of all. How often I go through my day only thinking of what room needs attention, which child needs my help on school or what creative punishment I can come up with for a certain offense!! I rarely even think about the gift of my Saviour during the 364 days of the year. I am hoping to purposefully take time to remember that He came for me and to be thankful for
Him.

I hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year!