Kate's First Christmas- Part 2

On Christmas morning, we woke up at home in our own beds.  Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, so we held off on opening any of our presents and headed to church to celebrate the reason that we celebrate Christmas at all.  Kevin did the message on Sunday and we read the Christmas story.  We sang a few Christmas songs and took part in the Lord's Supper.  It was a great service and I was honestly surprised at how full that the auditorium was.  It was so much fun and so meaningful to spend Christmas Sunday worshiping with a group of believers.  I'm so thankful for the TRUE meaning of Christmas.  So thankful for God's unfailing love and mercy, that He would choose to send us His Son, as a perfect sacrifice for our sins so that we may be forgiven.

"And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:21

After church on Sunday, we decided to drive straight to my parent's house.  We debated going home to open our presents to each other, but with a baby you have to plan around bottle times. :) Kate had just had a bottle so we had just enough time to make the trip.  She actually slept the whole way down there.

We got to my parent's house just in time for a BIG lunch.... and I do mean big. Turkey and dressing, macaroni cheese pie, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, crescent rolls, chocolate eclair, etc. YUMMY.  I ate way too much, but it was so good.  Kate was STILL asleep at this point.  All of these Christmas's were wearing her out.  She slept from about 11:30ish until almost 2:30, which is a really long nap for her. She woke up just in time to open presents.  

After all of the present-opening, it was time to relax and be lazy.  A couple of our friends dropped by to say hey, and we watched a movie that night (Columbiana- It wasn't very good. I wouldn't suggest it.)  Kevin and I TRIED to go look at Christmas lights, but either nobody was home, or nobody remembered to turn their lights on, or nobody really decorated their houses this year.  Maybe we just didn't know where to go look but regardless of the reason, we were out of luck.

My birthday is really today (Tuesday) but we celebrated it with my parents and sister on Monday.  The past few years Kevin and I have had to come back home on Christmas day, so we end up splitting Christmas with my birthday.  Usually the first 1/2 of the day is "Christmas" and the second 1/2 of the day is "Kelley's birthday".   This year we got to do it on two separate days. :)

And after all of this, Kevin went to the driving range to try out one of his new presents (a driver), my Dad went rabbit hunting, and the girls (Mom, Kristi, Kate and me) went to town to goof off.  We ended up at the mall and found some GREAT deals for Kate. ($1.99 pants and shirts, yes please!)  She is growing like a weed, so we went ahead and bought some bigger sized clothes for her to grow in to. 

We all got back to the house around lunchtime and pulled out the leftovers.  After a quick meal, we loaded up the car to head back home.  It seemed like a quick trip, but I loved being back in my home town and in the house I grew up in.  My house with Kevin definitely feels like home, but there's just something special about "going home" to Mom and Dad's. 

And it looks like it's going to take a 3rd post to wrap up all of our Christmas fun.  The last Christmas to blog about is OUR Christmas, which was also special since this was our first Christmas as a family of three.  I promise that will be the LAST Christmas post, because then I have more to blog about... probably next on the list will be my birthday. 

Until then,