Christmas Chaos

(Please note, for some reason I was unable to create proper paragraphs for this post. SIGH! Just keep learning, right?! To all my English teacher readers I want to say, thanks for your patience.) Does this picture speak to you more of Chritmas? Or of Chaos?

If you answered Christmas, I would bet that you too are part of a large family. These are the nine practically perfect grandchildren I talk about all the time. Oldest to youngest they are: Spencer, Abby, Noah, Madi, Zachariah, Ava, Parker, Grayson and Andrew. You'll notice the last three are boys and trust me, they are ALL boy! This next picture is a bit calmer. They're all sporting their Christmas PJs. When there were only three grands old enough to join us for making gingerbread houses, we made unwrapping Christmas pajamas part of the excitement. That little tradition rocked along nicely for several years. Now, it's become a major thing trying to find NINE pairs of matching PJs that don't requre the sale of a kidney to purchase.

I literally broke out in a sweat standing in the aisle of SAMS this year trying to select proper sizes for all six boys. (One of which requires a men's size Small now! :-( They do tend to grow, don't they?) One lady kept trying to elbow her way into the small space alotted for the single remaining box of flannel pajamas. I was undaunted. My boys needed pajamas and there was a limited number of the sizes they had to have. I behaved in a decidely unsouthern, unladylike manner. But on Christmas morning, my grandsons all had proper sizes that matched! Unfortuantely, SAMS did not offer feminine pajamas. Consequently, I had to make friends with a lady in India via internet in order to secure the coupon code I had been promised when I first went to the Carter's website. She probably couldn't have cared less about my need for tutu pajamas; still, she helped walk me through the proces of ordering three pairs of red and white girly pjs. The coupon code made them more econically feasible and caused me to do the happy dance! Perhaps I went a little overboard with the tutu theme this year. These are the dresses we bought for all three girls. (The boys were given matching jogging suits. Much better choice for them.) The girls wore their dresses Sunday morning. I had snagged camoflage backpacks for the big boys. They looked like little soldiers marching into class wearing their backpacks. My grin was massive.

This final picture was taken just before everyone arrived at our house on Christmas morning. If you've read Embrace the Grace very long you already know Christmas, for us, can be almost anyday other than December 25th. We have sons with family in the next county, North Carolina and even New York. In order to acommodate their traditions and travel, we've celebrated as early as December 15th and as late as January 9th. This year, we were together on December 26th. A new record, I think. Tomorrow, this guy and I will celebrate 41 years of marriage. I can hardly believe it's been that long. The happy news is this, we still like each other. Isn't that just the Best?!

Whether your Christmas was more of the quiet or chaotic variety, I hope it was filled with a few lovely memories. And more than anything, I hope you sensed the Presence of the Christ-child we were celebrating. He came for the purpose of bringing salvation to the whole world. Glory to God in the Highest! Thank you for honoring me with your time by stopping by to look at a picture or read a story. I have another post for the 31st. See you then.... How about you? Does your family wear matching pajamas or special Christmas clothing? When do you celebrate together?