The 'Special Times'

This holiday season has been busy and wonderful. Through it all, my little blond princess would start singing "These are the Special Times". This VERY LONG post describes some special times we've experienced these last few days. Hope you enjoy.

Our Evening Christmas Concert was a HUGE success!! We did EVERYTHING. Fun songs like 'Sleigh ride', with snow falling, and 'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year' (which was loads of fun). David did an incredible piano solo of 'Silent Night', and we even had a time of comedy with Lakeside's own Sheriff and Deputy Duo, who got the audience involved and laughing their heads off. After a huge variety of first class entertainment, the choir came marching in down every aisle in their red robes accompanied by Faith Mountains awesome band playing Kirk Franklin's 'Jesus is the Reasonnnnnah for the Season'. After singing this Kirk Franklin 'groove', we sang Norman Hutchins' beautiful 'Emmanuel'. Just when I thought these kids couldn't put out any more, they 'took it to church' with Whitney Houston's black gospel version of 'Joy to the World'....Well, my little blonde princess (Chantal) stepped out, opened her mouth, and SANG!!!! Look out Whitney! We ended the night with the lights out, 250 candles sweetly flickering, and our ladies group sang Avalon's, 'Light a Candle'. What a beautiful evening.

A sweet couple in our church hosted our couples Christmas party, and it was incredible! It was catered, and the food was AWESOME!! We played games and had such a wonderful time. When we got into a circle to play games, we had to keep adding chairs. I was so touched seeing this HUGE circle of couples that God has given to us. I remember when we needed just a few chairs...God is GOOD!

A lady in our church asked me the other day "What is one thing you really want for Christmas?" I quickly, confidently, and truthfully said.."All I want is to have quality time with my family". Nothing could have made me happier than to have my sweet kids and my wonderful husband all giggling, hugging, and just being together. That is EXACTLY what we did!!

One of our special family Christmas excursions is going to Julian and watching 'A Christmas Carol'. This play is INCREDIBLE, and of course the foot and a half of snow made the evening even more 'holiday-ish'. We got something to eat and headed up the mountain early, and enjoyed watching the kids and Cynthia play in the snow. After the play, David hadn't had enough of the snow, so we found a good spot, put the van lights on high beam, opened all the doors, turned the christmas music all the way up, and let the kids loose! Jonathan, David, Chantal, and Cynthia raced out into the snow and attacked it while Christmas music blared from our car at 11:00 p.m.!!!

Also, I informed our family that we would be making gingerbread houses this year. I thought (and my blond princess agreed) that this would be a neat 'family time' fun thing to do, and also we could deliver them to some of our church kids. This idea was received with much scoffing, and groanings (probably not a word, but a perfect description). I didn't let the negative nay-sayers discourage me, and I persevered. Much to the boys (and my husbands) utter amazement, they actually REALLY enjoyed it. In fact we found out that David is a WORLD CLASS gingerbread house maker/contractor! It was hilarious!!!! We spent as much time laughing at each other, as we did actually decorating these little masterpieces. We then made the famous 'Bertram Crescents'. It was another fabulously fun family event with flour EVERYWHERE...but boy were they ever simply de-lish!!!!

Christmas day was very relaxing and fun. We woke up in the morning and opened gifts, and then I made a huge breakfast. We played games, visited some special people, came home, had an incredible Christmas dinner (china, crystal, and goblets no less), played more games, and loved being together! The next morning, we called some friends for another party, and said "come in your robes and slippers"....WHAT A BLAST!!!! All day in our robes and slippers, playing games, eating, and enjoying
'The Special Times.'

And yes, I received the gift that I asked for....and I'm so grateful.