Rock Harbor's Christmas Eve service is one of my favorites. It is a short service and everyone is included. Kids and adults alike. I set up about 200 candles around the stage and as the service goes on the lights dim more and more until we are singing the last song, Silent Night, by candlelight only. The candles represent the Light of the World. By Jesus' birth He brings joy, peace, and hope to a dark world. Very moving.
Our Christmas Eve tradition is two-fold. We spend time reading Luke 2 as a family and we discuss the events and how they can apply to us today. Tonight we talked about the shepherds in the field and how the shepherds were usually the youngest son in a family. How awesome to be the first to be told that your Savior had arrived!
After we are done the boys get to open one present. Every year it is the same, Christmas pj's. My mom started this tradition back when my sister and I were little. I enjoyed it so much I started it when we had kids. Up until a few years ago it was great and really cute. As the boys have gotten older I have come to learn that boys aren't as excited about cute pj's like girls can be and also that boys don't wear pj's after a certain age. A few weeks ago Brian was teaching on traditions at church and he challenged us to look at our traditions and evaluate why we are doing them. Do they make sense for your family to be doing them or do we do them because we have been doing them for so long. My boys don't wear pj's so this tradition didn't have the impact on them that it did for me as a kid. So this year I changed it up a bit. We kept the tradition of the same one gift for each boy but got them something they would actually use. I got them electric throw blankets. It was a hit and something I think they will enjoy. That makes my heart happy.
Before we called it a night we took the annual kids in front of the tree with their gift displayed picture. I always love the final picture but what I love even more is the journey getting there!
Merry Christmas everyone!
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