Countdown to Christmas.... 1

We're just a few hours away from Christmas morning, so our countdown is almost complete!  We did several activities to get ready for Santa's arrival!

First thing we did?  Hang the Santa key on our front door.  Tater "helped".

Olive didn't.

The kids got their letters to Santa ready and into their stockings and they set out the cookies for him.  The cookies then had to be moved, so that Tater didn't eat them all.  We'll set them out right before bedtime.

We got dressed for church too, because Christmas isn't all about Santa.  In fact, the REAL reason, the BEST reason is to celebrate Jesus' birth!  More about that in a minute.

As is the Drexler tradition, the kids got to open one present on Christmas Eve.

They always get books and were thrilled with the books they got this year.  Livie got a drawing book.  Noah got a "39 Clues" book by his favorite author Rick Riordan.  Madie got a book all about dogs.  Her favorite!

We still had a half hour before we needed to leave for the Christmas Eve Service at church, so we decided to sit down and read our daily chapter in the book "Jotham's Journey".  Our pastor gave it to the kids to read this Advent season and they have LOVED it! Highly recommend it.   Tomorrow morning we'll have our last entry.  Can't wait to finish it!

After that we headed over to church, so we could celebrate, with our wonderful church family, the real reason for celebration.  Presents are fun.  Family is great.  But, God loving us enough to send a part of Him to earth to save us?  That's priceless and breathtaking all at once.

John (our Pastor) did a beautiful and touching scripture reading to candlelight.  Each candle was lit as he read passages out of the Bible about Christ's birth.  Then he began putting the candles out as he talked about how the wise men left and went back to their lives.  The shepherds went back to tending their flock.  The angels in the sky were only there for a few moments and the star too went away.  Joseph eventually passed away, as did Mary, but Jesus - his candle still burning - was still alive.  Still that light in the darkness for us that will never extinguish.  Brought tears to my eyes, because you realize that all things will pass from this earth, but God will never go away.  He will be that light for us in dark places.  He will shine in our lives when we need him and even when we don't.  He is our constant.  Our Savior.  Our Hope.  We later lit our own candles along with everyone else in the sanctuary and sang "Silent Night".  THAT is why I love the Christmas Eve Service.  It's that time to quiet our hearts and our minds and focus on what's real. 

I love this famiy of mine and am thankful to be celebrating Christmas with them in the morning.  What a blessing!  Gotta go get the kiddos to bed now, because I'm sure they'll have us up bright and early in the morning!  Happy Eve to you all!