Merry Christmas!

As I've told you before, this is the first Christmas Brent and I will not be trekking home. While we're excited to be making our own family Christmas traditions (we're still not sure what those are yet...maybe doing nothing at all...or how about laundry or cleaning?) and hang out with friends while we eat ourselves into a coma (maybe that'll be our new tradition...oh wait, that's not new...), we're also sad about missing out on time with our family. It's been an understanding for years now that Brent and I don't get each other Christmas gifts. Anything we really need we usually buy during the year, so instead of another shirt or ornament, we just enjoy giving to others and being around them and each other. So, this year, we don't have any presents to buy. We were actually planning on getting something together for our families and mailing them, but we couldn't get all our ducks in a row in time (shocker, I know). So to make our tree look better, I wrapped a box in decorative paper and put it under the tree. Clearly, one present looks better than none under there, right?? Looking at it afterward I knew we needed help. That's where Mary & Joseph come in (thanks Mom!) And although it looked okay, a few visitors mentioned how much shopping we must still need to do and one of our good friends (who apparently feels very comfortable around us) laughed at our one little present under the tree (of course it was a loving laugh, not a deep evil laugh). So we were all set to have our one fake present under the tree on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Well, low and behold, my Aunt Sandra mailed us a package that came in today...in it was two wonderfully wrapped Christmas presents!! Thank you, Aunt Sandra!!! And just remember, no matter how many presents you have under the tree, the important reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Thank you Jesus, for becoming one of us and dying so that we may have life.