Day 34 - Christmas Day

Today was 'the' day. The day that all kids can't wait for and unfortunately most adults dread. It was Christmas Day. Before we all went to bed Debbie made a bold statement saying that she was definitely going to be the first one up Christmas morning. When I arrived at the lounge room this morning Maddie and Stef were bunked on the couches claiming that they had beaten their mum. Deb showed up about 30 minutes later claiming that she was actually the winner saying she had been up since 5am....who knows who actually won! We sat around the Christmas tree admiring the reindeer prints left after their busy night and eventually opened a couple of presents each before heading off to church. 

The breakfast we made for Deb's birthday

Church was packed for the 9am Christmas service with Christmas greeting and cheer filling the church. Pastor Jeff reminded us of the reason for Christmas and it's relevance to us today considering it is over 2,000 years since Jesus' birth. Jeff's wife Tammy shared a great Gospel Christmas message to the kids and we were also fortunate enough to witness an Italian family sing a Christmas song in Italian and a young girl sing 'O Come All Ye Faithful'. 

Alex, the gingerbread house expert

After church we ventured home and finished off the unwrapping of the Christmas gifts. The stand out reaction was Lisa when she received a large poster of Justin Bieber. She screamed like it was her last breath and fell to the ground with the poster locked in her arms as she kissed it...yes, she really did kiss it, numerous times! Once we had finished unwrapping the many Christmas presents we started preparing for a BIG Christmas lunch with over 20 people due for the feast. We swam, ate, shared stories, ate some more and all the Christmasy lunch things. A great time was had by all! After lunch, Jonno, Alex and I were invited back to Des and Pete's for a game of Monopoly. The game went for no less than 3 hours and in the greatest comeback from almost complete bankruptcy, Jonno and I somehow managed to win the game...and I know I don't have a good track record in playing fairly, especially in Monopoly but I can honestly say we won fair and square. 

Christie with her electric guitar

Lisa with her beloved Beiber poster

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and took time to consider the real purpose of Christmas. We give gifts to represent the perfect gift God has given to us....Jesus. He wasn't sent out of obligation, or sent to condemn us for our sin, but sent out of God's compelling love for us. So, Jesus was born as a child, and was later sent to die on the cross for our sins, so that we may be reunited with our God and be in relationship with Him. That is the greatest gift of all. A gift given out of grace and love and one that will never perish or diminish in value. We hope you all had a great Christmas with those that you love and above all remembered the reason for the season! 

Andy