Christmas in Collinsville

What a busy week! My family celebrated Christmas in a big way as usual. We don't do anything small in our family. We started Sunday by having my mom's side of the family Christmas at my brother's house. Even though everybody wasn't there, we still had a great time visiting with each other, eating, and of course opening presents. One of the traditions of the Beeman family is to have a different grandchild read the Christmas story every year before we start present time. This year was my sweet little cousin Amberlee's first time to read. She is only 7 and she did such a fabulous job. That King James version isn't the easiest for anybody much less a second grader. The next day, Christmas Eve, the entire Luke clan emerged on my parents' house for a day long event. Christmas Eve is almost certainly my favorite day of the year. We celebrate all day long and this year was no different. The first guests arrived around noon and the last ones left about 9 that night after a day of food, fun, fireworks and once again tons of presents. The next morning I woke up about 7 so that me, my mom, and dad could all open our presents to and from each other before seeing what Santa brought the boys. Before we could even finish, Braden called, ecstatic about what he had. We made our way up there and though I didn't think Santa was being very smart bringing an actual 4-wheeler to a five year old, he was so excited and it was so cute to see him in his helmet ready to ride. And of course, Cooper was precious in his big red fire truck that he has talked nonstop about for the last month. I know I'm more than a bit prejudiced but they are two of the cutest kids I know. I love seeing them so excited. Overall Christmas was such a wonderful holiday. I'm sad that it's over and I have to go back to work next week. But I am so thankful for all the time I got to spend with my family, all the presents I received, and even for all the food that I ate (which by the way should be enough to last me atleast 3/4 of the way through 2008). Most importantly, I'm thankful for what this time of year means...a chance to focus attention on Christ and his birth. What a gift we have been given. I decided that you probably didn't want to see me post a million pics from Christmas so I made a slideshow that will hopefully work. You can then choose to look at the pics or not. Completely up to you. Hope you and your family had as great a Christmas as we did. Happy 2008!


Christmas 2007