Christmas at our House

[Note:  There are 4 new posts. 

Enjoy them all!]

from the Alden Smiths

Jesus ~ love; God sent His Son to Earth.....

to live as a baby, a boy, to mature, to teach, to love,

to give His life for our sins. 

God made a way for us to  have a relationship with Him. 

What better way than to

come to this earth.....

Jesus, God's Son, to live among us.

We know Him. 

We are BORN AGAIN.....

to live in eternity with God.

Eternity begins HERE on this earth.

We live on this earth......God living through us....

to teach and love as well. 

Thank you God for loving us and caring for us each and every day.

We rejoice. The weary world rejoices!!!!!!   

We have a few new ornaments this year ~

a llama from Hannah's trip to South America,

orphan ornament for Lincoln and Levi and all orphans around the world,

and a wonderful treasure of my sisters and brother-in-laws' visit and friendship.

A tradition for our family to have aunts and uncles "gifts"

in cards on our tree.

One of my uncle's started that when we were little....

and we carry on this special tradition.

Our mantle ~

remembrances our of our mothers.

My mother needlepointed our stockings and Alden's mother

gave us some cute little reindeer...one for each of us.

Christmas Eve we headed to church ~

enjoying our tradition of cold cuts before going. 

After church, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights around our area.

We have a different kind of Christmas every other year.

We call them our "quiet" and "full" Christmases.

Courtney and Pat have us over every other year ~ that would be our full one.  :)

This year, Courtney and Pat had the Cassadas over and Phill and Christy went to

PA to be with her family. 

Thus ~ this is our "quiet" year ~ Alden and I, Steve and Hannah.

We love both ~ they are just different. 

Enjoying stockings.

Our Christmas morning is always the same.

Alden and I get up ~ get the coffee, cheese balls, monkey bread (and

Sara Lee coffee cake {my family's tradition}) ready.

Alden then goes upstairs saying "ho ho ho, Merry Christmas".

That is the "word" that all is ready and you may come on down.

This was also my Dad's tradition.

Isn't it fun carrying on little traditions from generation to generation.

I love it.

We eat while we enjoy the stockings.

We then all take turns reading the Christmas Story.

Then.......we slowly open gifts from each other.

I love our Christmas mornings!

Um......I succumbed to a sweet nap.........

On our "quiet Christmases" we go to a movie in the afternoon.

This year we saw "War Horse".  It is a GREAT movie.....

but a tad "intense" for Christmas Day. 

We would highly recomment it. 

Then.....we decided to drive over to National Harbor...

and walk around.

Christmas at the Gaylord.

The beautiful tree near the water.

We ate a light dinner and just enjoyed being together.

 A fun, sweet evening.

Christmas 2011 ~ we enjoyed you!

Hannah ~ we LOVED having you HOME with us!!!!!

Much love to you all ~