After Christmas

Christmas Eve I had a nice dinner with the Jackson family and Johnny. We had goose! Id never really eaten goose before--but I enjoyed it. It kinda tasted like chicken or turkey. Not a very distinct flavor, but not bad! Later on that night we went to a Catholic Mass to spend some time with some of our highschoolers. It was a midnight mass--again a new experience for me. Im glad that I went, but I was soo cold for 1 1/2 hrs, even though I was bundled up in a coat, gloves and scarf!! That night I stayed at the Patty's house. By the time we had all gotten back from mass we had all started to wake up. Needless to say I was up to a pretty ridiculous hour, all because I was past the point of exhaustion! Christmas day was a lot of fun. We opened presents with the Patty kids--this took Hours!! And then Christmas night there was a Christmas Children's program. I was in charge of the dessert afterwards. It was so much fun having our youth group serve our church! I felt like we werent individuals but a team. We all helped each other out. And when we had downtime, we all huddled together out in the cold drinking hot coa coa, talking and laughing. To think that just about a year and a half a go there was NOTHING, and now--we have this group of kids that love the Lord and are serving in their church. My heart didnt have words to express my amazement at the goodness of the Lord.

Today is the day after Christmas. And its so odd that I seem to swing the pendulum of being ridiculously busy to having nothing to do. Last week I worked 10-11hr days. Right now, Im finding myself with the feeling that I have nothing to do. Its times like this that I dont want to look back on and feel as though it was a complete waste. And at the same time I think rest is incredibly important and stopping after a crazy week and not doing anything is probably a good thing!! Its just so hard to do when given an entire day! And sometimes I waste time.

Anyway those are my ramblings for today. I will try to post some pictures of our Christmas party when I get them. One of my girls, as she was leaving the party said, "Wow, this is what I want Christmas at MY house to be like. Without all the fighting."

Its good to know im here for precious girls like her.