Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to take a moment tonight to wish you all a very merry Christmas!! Isn't Christmas the best holiday of the year? I think so. I love it! I love what it represents! Most of my family was at my parents' this year - all of us except my very prego sister and her husband, so we will definitely excuse them for that. We ate tamales and posole last night, looked at lights, visited some quasi-relatives, and spent time around the tree singing carols and listening to my dad read Twas the Night Before Christmas and those famous Luke 2 verses to us. I got to share my little message, too, only this year it wasn't so little. I think I need to cut down next year.
This morning, we woke up and went to see what Santa had left for us - wheat grinders and wheat!! "Hoorah!" as Scrooge's nephew, Fred, would say. Okay, not very exciting, but definitely useful, and I'm very glad to have it. Now I'll just have to become an expert and grinding grain and knowing what to do with it after that. I received 4 books this year, which is exciting. One of them is a C.S. Lewis book I have never read before. The other three are by Alcott, and I have read them. I also got the live-action Peter Pan, which I love! The books and movie were all on my wish-list, so it was exciting to take them off the list. My grandparents sent their life stories, which I'm also excited to have. Besides an abundance of gifts, I have been over-indulging in the abundance of food around. My little brother says it's okay to put on weight during the holidays and not to worry about it, but I have a feeling that is because he's thin and it shouldn't be hard for him to take anything off that he might put on. I, on the other hand, am not the same and am dreading the consequences of my gluttony.
Mostly I'm glad for Christmas, thought, because of Christ. Without him I wouldn't have a family that could continue forever. Without him I wouldn't have anything worth having. He is the reason this day is merry.