"How lovely are thy branches!" I love Christmas and I love Christmas trees. Ours was so pretty in our little apartment this year. Clint and I stayed up one night after we put Aslan to bed and put it up. We were so excited to see his response the next morning. So we turned out all the lights except for the Christmas tree and walked in the living room... and he was mesmerized. Finally, after staring at it for a while he said in awe, " WOW." He makes everything so much more exciting. And he was so good, he learned very quickly that it was off limits to his little fingers. However, he had a harder time with the presents. We are so poor and can't afford to buy a lot of stuff, so I got these two little trains at Target for a dollar and put them each in a little bag with tissue paper. That way at least there was something under the tree for him... however the bag with tissue paper was torturous for him. And several times he was overcome by curiosity and had to open them. Thank goodness the memory of a 21 month old is very short. :)
Our pretty Christmas tree.
A few days after Aslan and I got home from my mom's we all packed up and went to my dad's for Christmas. Aslan really loved their tree as well, this is the one in their main living room. My dad is a big kid at heart and up in his office he has his very own tree with his very own ornaments. Just a few examples of his ornaments: Harley Davidson motorcycles, cars, tool boxes, sports things and of course numerous Elvis ornaments. I wish I had a picture of that tree. His office is also filled with boy toys like toy plains, cars and all kinds of stuff. He is a stellar mechanic and loves motorcycles and trains and tractors and guns and all things fast and dangerous. So needless to say his office is a boy's paradise and they had a lot of fun playing with all that.
I mentioned before that my dad is a big kid at heart (which you would never know at first meeting him because he is super quiet and reserved :)) but this is yet another example of him being fun. The santa hat he is wearing moves, the top part would move from one side to the other, very cute. Before we opened presents Christmas morning, Clint read the Christmas story. Then we all had fun watching Aslan opening all his things. I was so proud of him, he had such fun opening his gifts and then would give kisses of thanks to his Nana and Gramps. He also helped everybody else open their gifts, sweet.
He and Nana had a good time together. They played non-stop the entire time we were there. Here he is also sporting his new Christmas pj's he opened Christmas Eve. He had a very hard time understanding that we had to wait until Christmas day to open everything. So every day leading up to the 25th, he would wake up and run to the tree and pick up a package and sign 'please' (he refuses to actually say "please" so he signs it by rubbing his tummy-which is extremely cute and very hard to resist). Then he would get embarrassed when we would say no and he would start to cry. So Nana gave in on Christmas Eve and gave him just one to open (the pj's he is wearing) and he was completely satisfied. Heartbreaker.
He looks so serious :) He really had fun, but he was a little tired by the time we got started. 
We had fun and enjoyed the time with our family. We also went home to Belle Aire the sunday morning before Christmas. It was so beautiful. It has always been a beautiful church and they are always very festive in their decor. But this year it was exceptional, maybe because I miss that church so much... but mostly because it really was beautiful. As soon as I sat down long enough to take it all in, I started crying and didn't stop until the service was over. They had this huge, beautiful tree in the front with gold ornaments and this gorgeous teal shimmery ribbon flowing all the way down. On the back wall there were two huge wreathes with matching teal ribbon. The choir was full and sounded amazing and they had these gorgeous cream robes that almost looked shimmery gold with matching teal collars! It was breathtaking! And the orchestra was on stage and the music was incredible. My heart just soared at the beauty and comfort of being home and the emphasis placed on our sweet Savior.
Our pastor, who is a very quiet and reserved man, was so visibly excited too. When he took his place behind the pulpit he raved about the music and acknowledged the music minister for his heart to worship the Lord with such obvious passion, the whole church stood clapping with pleasure. Then he went on to preach an exciting and passionate and very evangelistic Christmas message. The service ended with the congregation standing as the choir sang "The Hallelujah Chorus" and by that time I had cried every bit of make-up off my face.
I love Belle Aire and I love our family there. We were there for over an hour after the service ended talking and being loved on by our church family. It was a little hard to leave. However, our empty stomaches and the excitement of an afternoon date compelled us to finally say good-bye. Also, our pastor made plans to have lunch with Clint on Wednesday, which made the entire trip for him. Being there was a perfect beginning to our Christmas festivities and Clint's lunch with our pastor was the perfect ending. They had met together for months before we moved and formed a sweet mentor/friendship. It meant the world to Clint for him to show such affection for him and his encouragement sent us back to Louisville with a renewed sense of purpose and courage. Our move to Louisville has not been an easy transition and has left us feeling a bit discouraged at times. So Brother Dean's encouraging words to Clint were transforming. What a great time. Praises to the Lord for His thoughtfulness and compassion towards our family. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
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