Merry Christmas! What a Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all, may you be filled with peace, love and joy!

I can say this has been a very different Christmas for us this year, it has had it's sadness and it's joy.

We will be starting new traditions this year as we have three empty seats at our table this year, the three seats were held by what you could say were the glue that held our family together. My Papa has been gone now for his third Christmas, this will also be the second Christmas without my Nana and my Sister joined them in heaven this year and she is the newly empty seat at the table. We aren't sure who will show up for Christmas this year as my Brother is working this Christmas and we are not sure if his other half and their three girls will be coming to join us or will be staying home with him.

My brother-in- law will be spending his first Christmas without his wife of 26 years and is trying to avoid Christmas all together as this was my Sisters favorite time of year and would always go hog wild over it. I haven't talk to my nephew except for in brief passing since my sister passed, his mom. I don't know if any of them will be coming. I know that we have been told by the nursing home my Dad is in that we can't pick him up until after 4:30pm as they need to administer his insulin and other medications before he can come with us.

We might be having a quiet Christmas this year with just the five of us, no need for the plywood on the table this year. Leading up to Christmas this year the memories of those we have lost have been alive in our hearts as we remember all the traditions of old, bringing back happy memories and tears of missing them dearly.

I can say thought this Christmas hasn't been all sad as this Christmas became a Christmas filled with Blessings as God showered us with his gifts for us. We went into this season with the real possibility of us loosing our home, and no possibility of paying for my children's medical needs, never mind Christmas presents, many prayed for my family and God started by giving me back my full-time job that in all rights was gone and not only that my medical being reinstated in full alleviating my inability to support my children's needs.

I remember after getting my job back having to sit down with my children and breaking the news to them that there would be no presents under the tree as there was no way we could afford them as our mortgage payments were needing paid again and we would be starting the loan payment for the money that was put aside for paying our mortgage. I was so blessed by my children's response. My children told me that it was ok because that wasn't the true reason for Christmas anyways and God had already given us so much. My daughter asked "Mom since we aren't doing presents can we go to my church on Christmas day for a 11 am as they will be having a service and that is the reason for Christmas anyways. God blessed me by that response as my children humbled me.

God gave us one more present, My mom was talking to lady at the bank about the exact figures of our first loan payment that was suppose to be Dec. 22, when the Lady at the bank told her not to worry about it and have a Merry Christmas and they would talk about our first loan payment in the new year. We had put aside the money for the payment and now it was opened up to purchase the family some presents and be able to allow the blessing to flow outwards.

We sometimes get wrapped up in the need to buy gifts for those we love, to find that just perfect gift, at least I know I do. We have all the lights and glitter and need them to look just right. We join the crowds of people shopping in the stores. My children reminded me that the real meaning of Christmas did not come with all this, it came in a stable with the birth of a baby boy, a Savior/a Lord who was laid in a manger as their was no room for them in the inn. I type this and I think is there still no room in the inn, is it filled to full with lights, glitter, and presents that there has been no room left for the birth of a Savior in our lives.

The Real reason for Christmas:
Luke 1:26-45
Luke 2:1-21


Once again, Merry Christmas to You!! May your Christmas be filled with Hope, Peace, Love and Joy!!