1. A hot cup of coffee on a cold, rainy Saturday morning with the newspaper in my hand and a fire in the fireplace is good for any weekend. But on Christmas Eve morning, that is about as good as it gets.
2. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I chose wrapping paper. For some reason, it just seems more fun to open a present that is wrapped. I had to lock myself in the bedroom to wrap Lottie's presents, and had to tell the boys that I was text-messaging with Santa. They wanted to know if only men know Santa's number. It's a secret.
3. Not that anyone asked, but my favorite Christmas hymn is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This is a great rendition of that song by Casting Crowns. My second favorite is "How Far is it to Bethlehem."
4. I managed to get through the entire Holiday season without going to a mall!
5. I made gifts for Kelcie and Lottie, which helped make #4 possible.
6. For some reason, when Christmas falls on Sunday that seems to throw a lot of evangelical churches into such a quandry. How is it so difficult to grasp the concept of worship on Christmas Day? Our Episcopalean and Catholic friends have been doing this for centuries.
7. Mannheim Steamroller's version of "Silent Night" is greatness.
8. Not that anyone asked, but "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge is my favorite Christmas movie. I watch it every Christmas Eve.
9. I don't remember very many of the Christmas gifts that I received as a child, but I do remember the joy. The older I get, the more quickly I tire of the commercialization of Christmas, but I never tire of the joy.
10. As far as I know, there is nothing under our tree that includes the words, "Some assembly required." I remember my Dad staying up on Christmas Eve putting something together in 1968 while listening to the crew from Apollo 8 read from Genesis 1 as they orbited the moon. Not that I was awake. He used that story later in a sermon illustration.
11. I predict that my 17-year old daughter will complain tonight about her younger brothers wanting to get up early on Christmas morning, and then she will be the one to come in and wake us up early.
12. And finally, "Merry Christmas to all," and in the words of Charles Dickens, "God bless us every one."
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