Samuel on Christmas Eve.
We had a lovely day at home with my parents, then attended Bethany Lutheran's simple & sweet Christmas service. They focused on all the Scripture of the angel coming to Mary & Christ's birth, with focused songs intermingled in between passages, and two sermons. We all really enjoyed it. Then Philip & I visited Rae & family while my parents attended Mass. The kids had a great time. Sabrina & Alessandra read the Grinch, and Samuel hung out with us in the kitchen. We finished the night up singing carols while Rae played our favorites on her piano. Sabrina danced to all of the songs, sometimes with Samuel, and piped in whenever she knew the song. This year she's learned all of Rudolph, Santa Comes to Town, and Jingle Bells. She also knows most of Joy to the World, and some of a bunch of songs: The First Noel, Away in a Manger, Deck the Halls, and Little Town of Bethlehem. She really prefers fast and fun songs, so the slower/softer Christian Christmas songs are harder to teach her as she is less motivated to learn them. I don't want to pressure her & cause her to not like any of them, so I'm just being patient.
Christmas morning arrived and Sabrina was thrilled with her new bike. Samuel was not really sure what was going on, but he was really excited to have all of us home together. Samuel was most thrilled with his dump truck. Sabrina helped me with the turkey rub, and was exhausted by all the present unwrapping. We had to end round #1 of unwrapping because she just wanted to play with the toys she had received! Who could blame her? We took a few more videos, I'll share them soon. All in all, we were so satisfied and content with our Christmas in Austin. We enjoyed all of our family, and dinner was really yummy. I didn't burn anything to oblivion! Relief....
