Merry Christmas!

Celebrating Christmas seems to feel a bit different when a member of your family is a pastor! Last year was really busy and I didn't like it. This year was quite mellow and beautiful, but certainly not the traditional Christmas:) We spent Christmas Eve visiting with friends and preparing for the Children's Program and Candlelight Service. When we told the boys they could take their "walking sticks" to church if they were shepherds, they enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity. They were great. When it was time for the shepherds to enter, Logan ran right up onto the stage and promptly stood right in front of Mary. Owen got stage fright and didn't want to go, but when I pointed out that Logan was all alone, he dutifully joined Logan on stage, being the faithful twin brother that he is:)

After putting the boys to bed, we had the candlelight service and then Jacob and I stayed up visiting with people until 3am. I decided this morning that we would stretch out the Christmas festivities so that I could enjoy time with the family today rather than slaving in the kitchen all day. We had a leisurely wake-up, I threw the breakfast casseroles in the oven, and rejoined everyone upstairs. Later we went back downstairs to find a house thick with smoke. Woops...I'm not any Martha Stewart. Apparently all of my substitutions didn't go well with that recipe!:) The boys and I hung out in the church while Jacob aired out the house. Somehow, the casseroles were fine (one just ran over in the oven...really badly!) so we enjoyed breakfast, opening gifts, drinking wassail, and playing/visiting all day followed by the Adult Christmas Program tonight. I just shared sushi and brownies with friends for a late night Christmas dinner. It was great. We'll do the big dinner tomorrow. One's not so enslaved to the calendar when you live in the Arctic. Merry Christmas!