Soaking In Christmas Eve

"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." Isaiah 9:6

Here we are. The day we have waited all week for! The first day of the two-day Christmas extravaganza! It is Christmas Eve, and around here that means two things: first, it is my baby brother's 24th birthday (Happy Birthday, Matt!!), and second, it is the day we all gather at my mom and dad's house for a big family dinner with ham and turkey and dressing and all the fixins and read the Christmas story and just enjoy being together.

This house is busting at the seams right now, and it's awesome! There are amazing smells coming from the kitchen, babies are walking and crawling all around the base of the Christmas tree, the family is in and out of the living room as we watch Christmas Vacation on DVD, and this morning there were the biggest white snowflakes falling! Does it get any better than this?? I mean, seriously?!

It also doesn't get any better than getting to open a present early;-)

Can you see my necklace? I'll try to get a better picture of it later, but for now this is the best I have. It is so beautiful!! I have been looking at the Helzberg Diamond commercials and website for a couple months now, LOVING the Hope Collection of jewelry - the hearts with the breast cancer ribbons. I have been leaving the website open in hopes that my hubby would notice it, and we even looked at them at the mall the other day, but I had no clue that he had taken the hint;-)

He let me open it today and I was so SHOCKED! I still can't believe that he got this for me. It is beautiful, with a heart with diamonds and a pink gold ribbon with diamonds. Ahhhh, I love it so much!! I am such a lucky girl to have such a wonderful man.

Well I'm going to go watch Christmas Vacation and enjoy some more family time.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with yet another Christmas. May You alone be the reason for the season.

xoxo