(once again, I am ignoring the fact that I'm way behind on blogging and am just going to pick up where I left off...perhaps this calls for a blog post a day for the next week...check back often!)
We had a great (and yet different!) Christmas this year. I truly just feel blessed all around. Being that I am a "legit" pastor now, it's inevitable that I need to work on Christmas Eve. And given that I'm 2.5 hours away from our typical Christmas eve celebrations at my Aunt Terri's house, we realized this year that Christmas Eve might just have to look a bit different this year.
We started off the week with Grammy Carmack (Michael's mom) flying into town, and on a FREEZING night (one of the many that we have been having here lately), two days before Christmas, we took the girls to Paul Bunyon Land to a Christmas/Santa celebration that they were having. Very informal...completely free...it was great!! We were able to catch Santa in-between the "train rides" that he was leading to get a quick picture of him with the girls since we hadn't gotten our annual Santa picture yet...
Then the day before Christmas Eve, my parents and Brady came up to Aitkin to spend a couple of days with us! Christmas Eve day, we opened a few presents ("cousin presents" with Brady) and just spent time together before I had to go to Church to lead worship. Everyone came to the Family worship service at 3:30pm, and then when I got home after the 2nd service that I had to lead, we opened presents, ate great food (our annual shrimp plate, steak & lobsters & slushies)...it was a WONDERFUL Christmas eve celebrating with our families
This was the first year since I can remember that we didn't get to spend Christmas eve with some extended family at the Green's house and we did dearly miss them...especially when I got this snapchat from Abbie & Marcus on their way home from church...
There's a time and season for everything, and right now, we celebrated the birth of our Savior in Aitkin, MN with our immediate families and while we missed the rest of those we used to spend Christmas eve with, it was a great night celebrating the way that we did.
Christmas morning, we woke up early to some fun stocking surprises, enjoyed some breakfast together and then headed out to the cities to meet up with our extended family for Christmas day celebrations...
We enjoyed family, laughter, food & love (and traditions of White Elephant gift exchange and of course looking for the pickle - which I found this year!! yay!!)
The day after Christmas, it was a winter wonderland!!! We had a day of hanging out in the cities, and the best part is that we got to enjoy some time outside with the girls (and Brady)! So much fun...
And the day after that, we got to celebrate Christmas again at our annual Seekel Christmas Party! There were so many kids running around and playing together and really it was controlled chaos (minus the controlled part) but I absolutely loved every minute of it....especially when there were moments like this in-between all the chaos (Adelyn with her cousin Nate)
The weather also allowed us to get outside some and play our annual football game and do a bit of sledding too!
Another great celebrating with all the amazing family that we are blessed with!! We headed back to Aitkin the next day, and enjoyed our Christmas tree, the peace of our home, the love of our family, and the presence of the newborn Christ fresh in our minds.
Merry Christmas to you all!!!
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