For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness  from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. – Isaiah 9:6-7.   What a beautiful promise that was and is and yet to come.

Christmastime this year was filled with blessings as always. Brian had just returned home from being gone for 2 weeks for his new job with Sidewinder Drilling. Our home was warm and filled with gifts for each other and sweet Brady.  With grateful hearts we opened our presents on Dec. 23 before heading down to Katy for a few days with family.  Brian and I have been pretty stringent from the get-go about not filling our home with an unnecessary amount of “things” – mostly including toys. Well, we contradicted ourselves this year. We had fun picking out toys for our sweet son’s 2nd Christmas. Thankfully, most of the toys were 3 years+ in age, and seeing that he’s barely 14 months, he’s got some growing room. Next year he’s getting 1-2 big toys and that’s it.  Now I understand the joy a parent finds in blessing their child with things that bring them excitement and happiness. Looks like we’ll be donating some of Brady’s old toys to make room for the new.

We lit a fire and put on a Johnny Mathis Christmas record (the only Christmas record we could find) and exchanged gifts with one another. Brady was so excited to pull the sports balls out of his stocking – you can see it on his face. It was so hilarious!  He kept exclaiming “Deewww!! dewwww!!!” with such excitement and pointing each time he’d open a new toy or throw a new ball!  We got him a lot of manly toys for sure – which consisted of a toy chain saw, a tool belt set, a John Deere tractor, a few sports balls, a couple books, an Elmo that talks “Elmo’s so sleepy…”, etc….  But let’s be honest, he’s mostly happy with the most simple of toys or stuff that’s not considered a toy (wooden spoon, metal bowl, a cardboard box, etc…)

What a privilege  it is to share Christmas with each other, but mostly to celebrate our Lord and Savior and His promises and gift to us.

I’ve been playing around with video lately (for the first time in years) and here’s a little compilation from the 23rd when we had our little family Christmas: