Christmas Day--Sharing Our Happy Home with Others

God didn't give us a happy home just to keep to ourselves at Christmas time. He gave it to us to share.

For the last several years, we've been able to share our Christmases with several different kinds of people from several ethnicities--from Hindu/Indian to Mexican to American to Australian.

 And our Christmas didn't begin in the morning with a beautiful white blanket of snow, but the night before.

Inspired by a "Names of Christ" theme for a table at a ladies' tea earlier this month, I decorated our table on Christmas Eve. 

I couldn't do the pretty decorations she had, but Danny's Christmas gift to me was a set of about two dozen elm branch wooden rings he sawed for this project.  

And I simply found a whole bunch of names of Christ throughout the Bible after Christmas Eve gift-opening time and wrote them on the wooden discs, with references. 

 I was awed at how many names were given to Jesus, our Lord. He is all we need! His names tell us so many things about Him!

For our Christmas morning devotions after a delightful breakfast, each of us chose a favorite name of Christ from along the table and read that verse from the Bible.  

The children teased Danny about his "wedding suit" that he had received as a gift!

Rose got a kick out of the way a sibling explained that her gift would be arriving later.

Jonathan had bought a meat smoker on a great clearance a while back, which everyone is putting together and admiring.

Danny admiring the ax that had gotten wrapped in a guitar case with an elf hat for decoration!

Jonathan's father had asked to spend Christmas with us, which we were happy for him to do. I gave him a "Memories of Mama" album with a collection of hundreds of memories that family and friends sent in cards, by text, online, or otherwise.

Crystal and others made a new arrangement of the names of Jesus and pointsettia so that there would be enough room for the dishes of food. I wasn't up to a huge meal, but we still had mashed potatoes, ham and gravy, corn, and a tossed salad and fresh rolls. Simple is perfect for me!