What Christmas prep and day looks like

So it's Christmas Eve, more like almost Christmas morning, and the tree is up the presents have been wrangled and wrapped and stacked by Shullenbarger. Three gifts for every one: a gold gift to make them feel like a king or queen, a Frankincense gift to help them worship Jesus, a myrrh gift to care for their body. Yes, there's no stack for Galilee; but she did get a stocking...

and stockings. The stockings cover everything else.

This is what Christmas morning looks like. One of the adults wakes up first. This year it was Jessica at 7 a.m. The tree and some Christmas tunes get turned on, the Bible retrieved, a milk for Haddie prepped and then get back in bed and wonder why the kids aren't up. Rebekah woke up first and reported to our room and was given the mission to get everyone else up.

Then we all snuggle in our bed, and Chris reads the Christmas story from Luke and the account of the wisemen from Matthew.

We go downstairs,

open presents, put the turkey in, eat Snausages,

and then tackle the stockings.

What a beautiful bird care of Hemp's Meats! We are thankful for Reynolds oven bags.

This year we hosted Christmas dinner for the Shullenbarger's Shullenbarger side.

The sign says "Pick on me."

Our December sermon series was on the Incarnation with the pre-Christmas sermon being on John 3:16. There's a little note in the ESV that says, "For this is how God so loved" such a tender action revealing HOW God loves. 

In the amplified we have "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."