Merry Christmas

This year was London's first Christmas. We started with a great church service on Thursday night at Sea Coast Grace Church. The music was incredible. There was a beautiful rendition of the Wexford Carol, along with Stevie's annual "O Holy Night" that always gives me the chills.

We celebrated with the Van Leeuwen side of the family on Christmas Eve. We had a delicious lasagna dinner, family time and lots of gifts! The kids all had a great time opening presents. London was sleeping at 7, so I opened hers. :) We came home around 10 and left cookies and milk for Santa.

On Christmas Day, we stayed home. We did our gift exchange with the kids in the morning, and then Gramma Joan came over a little later. Brandon took care of our meal, and it was amazing! Roasted lamb shanks with herb butter and mire poir, leeks with bacon, and brussel sprout & red potato hash. For dessert we had Gramma's pumpkin cheesecake and my German Chocolate cake (Jesus' birthday cake that Hudson and I had made the day before). We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and Hudson blew out the candles. (A fun tradition we have done twice now.)

•   •   •   •   •

Late Thursday night, we got some sad news that Grammy Bobbie had passed away.  She had lived 95 wonderful years and was in great health for the most part. We had just celebrated Christmas with her last Sunday at Aunt Thelma's house with all the cousins. What a blessing that we had one last celebration with her. While we are sad for our loss, we are happy to know she is in Heaven and had the best Christmas this year with Jesus!