Our Family Christmas

December 25th, 2008 was a special day in the Kintner home.

The day prior the Kintner's arrived to help us with Caleb and Carissa during the Christmas Eve Services at Covenant. The second service was a highlight as I led the congregation in worship and song with our band and a 13 piece string ensemble from Prelude to Postlude. It was a touching and beautiful service - good medicine for my soul.

The Kintner's brought the kids home after the service. After milk and cookies the little ones didn't lay their heads down until 9pm. No sleeping in - they kept in time with their regular wake-up at 6:45a.m.

Jeff and I and the Kintner's stayed up late Christmas Eve making last minute preparations and playing 'Santa'. It was a good thing Jeff had previously assembled the train table otherwise we would have been up all night before laying down the track and accessories. After getting it all set up in the family room we wrapped the entire table - definitely the largest wrapping job I've ever done.

Christmas morning was good. Papa and Grandma fed the kids a quick breakfast while I prepared a yummy brunch. While it was baking we opened presents and experienced the precious joy and wonder of our 2 year old's. They quickly understood the day had finally arrived to celebrate Jesus' birth by opening up the presents they had been eyeing for weeks!

Both kids loved opening up the presents. Unfortunately Carissa was a bit under the weather so she didn't enjoy the festivities as much as Caleb did. But all in all they both got in to it and enjoyed playing with their new toys. They even had to 'help' us adults open up our own presents!

Look at these cute animal ornaments made from recycled materials we received from our friends from Church.

If there was an award for the 'cleanest Christmas kids' our tots would definitely win 1st place. As they tore off each piece of wrapping paper they handed it to Papa, 'the paper handler'. They were seriously the cutest and cleanest Christmas kids you have ever seen!

We had a fun break from opening up presents after the kids opened up their ankle bells and maracas. Daddy took video of me playing 'jingle bells' on the piano while the kids danced around singing and shaking their maracas. Papa Grandma even joined the band playing the kids' new rain stick and wood block.

Our brunch was delicious. Baked eggs, Cranberry Upside Down Cake, Fresh Grapefruit, Coffee and orange juice served on our fun Reindeer Dishes that only get used several weeks out of the year (thanks to our friends 'The Petersons' for starting our collection).

Prior to the tots nap time we finished opening the presents (except for the train table). Since they had played hard all morning and had been up late the night prior they were very tired -mommy and daddy were looking forward to their nap time!

That was until Caleb was too amped-up to calm down and shut his little peepers.

I held him, rocked him, sang to him, changed his diaper, held him, rocked, sang...tried to get him to settle down but all he wanted to do was to color, run his trains and play with Papa (a celebrity in the Kintner Clan). So after a couple of hours we gave in and he got up and played...and played some more. After dinner he looked comatose.

The opening of the train table was a highlight of the day (a gift from both grandparents). We had been looking forward to them opening it. They thought it was fun to open - they were excited and wanted to play with everything immediately, repeatedly saying 'choo choo'.






















After opening it they played with it continuously until they went to bed. They only paused for Christmas Dinner.

The menu for dinner included Prime Rib with roasted veggies, Mac and Cheese, Green Beans (my grandma's way, cooked slowly in onions and bacon till soggy), wheat rolls, homemade applesauce, Red Wine and Apple Pie a la mode for dessert. Yum.

The Kintner's headed North after we put the kids to bed. Jeff lit up a cozy fire in our new wood stove insert an we crashed on the couch. We were so tired but it was a great, blessed day.

Thank you Jesus for coming so that we can celebrate you.