Christmas Memories 2014

The Christmas of 2014 will be remembered with both joy and a little twinge of sadness.  The joy comes from our family and sharing special times together.  The twinge of sadness comes from the fact that this will be the last Christmas in our current home.  My wife and I are downsizing a bit and moving back into town.  We built our current home almost eleven years ago and it is really the only home that most of the grand kids have ever known as "Nana's House".  We love this house but the time has come to make decisions that are best for us, going forward.  We will be moving in January, so packing has already begun, but the pace will pick up very, very soon!
One of the joys of the season was watching our middle grand daughter dance in a local production of the "Nutcracker".  Photos of the actual performance were not allowed so all I have are some rehearsal photos that I took a couple of nights prior to the show.

I caught Emily during a short rehearsal break and captured this image for posterity.  Then it was back to work for her.

Emily is normally pretty quiet, but put her on the stage and she lights up like a Christmas tree!  She has taken several forms of dance lessons but ballet has always been her favorite.  I think is suites her very well.

Christmas Eve found the whole family at our home.  The evening started with a Christmas Eve worship service at church.  We came home and had a very casual "Tex-Mex" dinner with some friends.  Of course there are the annual photos that will be turned into ornaments for the "grand kids" tree.  You will have to scroll back a few posts to get more information about this Christmas tradition. 

Finally there were a couple of photos taken for our last Chirstmas in this home.  It was a bittersweet moment, but there are more great Christmas memories waiting to be made in our new residence. 

The evening concluded with reading the Christmas story from the second chapter of Luke, giving thanks to the Lord for His care, mercy and grace, and opening our packages.  I hope that your Christmas was filled with those things that will become precious memories for the future.  Merry Christmas to all.