Kaydi's first Christmas-Part I

Kathryn's first Christmas (part one) was this past weekend.  Since Ben and I are always in Michigan over December 25th, my family is wonderfully flexible and we have Christmas on a Saturday that works for everyone.  This year it happened to be December 17th.  We were supposed to be at mom and dad's around 9:30 AM.  However, I was so excited that I had trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and then woke up at 5:40AM and did not go back to sleep.  In the past I have been so excited about opening gifts...don't get me wrong, I still love presents....but this year I was so excited to hang out with my family, watch all of the kids open presents, and to just experience the joy of celebrating Jesus' birth.
Once we got to mom and dad's things were different than normal but in a good way!  Dad started off reading the Christmas story after that instead of stockings first, the kids opened all of their gifts.  After that we got to the adults.  I was excited to pass out our gifts because I felt certain that everyone would like them (I do not always feel this way and then I feel anxious about it). Of course, Ben and I received wonderful gifts as well.  After gifts, we all had a fabulous brunch that mom had cooked and then just enjoyed everyone's company.  The kids got totally exhausted and I did as well since I didn't sleep the night before :).  It was a wonderful day and reminded me again how many blessings have been poured out on my family.  Here are some pictures of the day.