Besides our regular Sunday service, we also attended the Christmas Eve traditional service on Monday. The service was lovely, particularly the music, which put Duane and I both more in the spirit of Christmas. Because Winston-Salem is the home of the North Carolina School of the Arts (a very prestigious institution for artists, dancers and musicians across the country), we are fortunate to have many of the faculty and students from that school as a part of our congregation. Our music director is a faculty member at the school, so he is able to bring in music groups and choirs that are fantastic. As a result, we always have outstanding music at every service. The Christmas Eve service was no exception! We had a harpist and a group of about 6 young girls that sang, and the church music director played the violin. This music, along with a nice Christmas message from our equally awesome minister, made for a very nice Christmas service.
The rest of Monday was pretty low-key for us. I wrapped a few last presents and we just enjoyed time at home playing with Sarah. Once we finally got her in bed for the night (she has been trying to stay up late the past few nights), Duane and I began our job of assembling Sarah's wooden kitchen that Santa brought for her. Apparantly, Santa's elves were swamped this year with toy assembly, so Santa dropped off Sarah's kitchen a little early and left it for us to put together for her ourselves! The directions estimated 90 minutes for assembly, which we took to mean it would take about 4 hours for us! The scientist and perfectionist in both of us tends to make things a whole lot more difficult than they should really be! We started our assembly at 9:00, and we were pleasantly surprised when we looked at the clock when we were done and realized that it was only 10:40! We were quite proud of ourselves for not over-analyzing things and dragging this task out into an all-night affair! With the kitchen assembly done, we were ready for some sleep ourselves.
The fully-assembled kitchen!
Christmas morning was lots of fun! Sarah woke up early and was overly excited by the kitchen that Santa left for her. She walked out of her room, saw the ktichen, and immediately started smiling and pointing at it and saying "Look!" to me and Duane. Don't worry...we captured it all on our new video camera, so I'll post some Christmas video clips once Duane has edited everything. Sarah had fun opening all the cabinets, the oven and the refrigerator. She even decided to cook the three wise men from our nativity by placing them all in the oven, closing the door, and turning the knobs on the oven. Poor wise men! After a big pancake breakfast, it was time to open presents. We did stockings first, then moved on to opening the wrapped gifts. Sarah got into the spirit of things by tearing the paper off all the boxes. Lucky for us, she likes to put things away. We would just hold a garbage bag out in front of her, and she would put all the wrapping paper in the bag...right now she thinks cleaning up is FUN! So at least we didn't have a giant mess on the floor! Sarah got all sorts of accessories for her kitchen - lots of food and even a wire shopping cart so she can go grocery shopping! She really had fun pushing it around the house and "shopping."
The first wise man heading into the oven!
After lunch, Grammy and Paka Lehtinen came to visit and they brought more presents! So Sarah was all excited and ready for round 2! She got a stroller for her baby dolls, the Little People Carnival playset, a LeapFrog FridgeFarm magnetic set, a new picture for her room and a new outfit. She has been having lots of fun pushing her stroller around the house! We were lucky to have Grammy and Paka stay with us for a couple of days. So Wednesday we went out and did some shopping! We had a few Christmas returns to make, but we also took advantage of some of the after-Christmas sales and got Sarah quite a bit of new winter clothes for next year. Otherwise, we spent the rest of the day yesterday playing with Sarah some more.
Pushing her baby around in her new stroller
Sadly, today we had to come back to reality. Grammy and Paka left this morning, Sarah went back to daycare, and Duane and I are both back at work today! Oh well...at least it is a short work-week.
We are looking forward to more holiday festivities this weekend! Saturday we will be heading to Charlotte to visit with Aunt Kristin (Duane's sister), Uncle Mike, Madison and Brady since they were not able to make the trip to Winston on Christmas afternoon. I am sure all 3 kids will have fun playing with all their new toys! After our visit in Charlotte, we will head on down to Anderson to see Mimi and Papa Bagwell for a few days. I am sure Sarah will have yet some more presents waiting for her there! Santa sure did make lots of stops for her this year! We are looking forward to also visiting with extended family while we are there: Sunday we will get to see Frances, Kim, Luke and Ashlee. And at some point we will also get together with Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Marisa. We are staying through the New Year, so we will be able to help Mimi celebrate her birthday as well.
We are thankful for all that 2007 has provided for our family. We hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and that you will have a happy and healthy 2008! We will be posting video clips as we get them edited. More updates to come after the New Year!
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