12 Drummers Drumming

I can't believe it is only 13 days until Christmas! This year has gone by so fast I can hardly believe it is almost over! I am almost done Christmas shopping though! YAY! I only have to get Allen a few more stocking stuffers and then I will be done! Allen on the other hand...he hasnt even started. I guess it is a good thing he only shops for me these days! I take care of the rest of the family :)   His rule is he will not start to shop for Christmas presents until after his birthday. His birthday is Tuesday (the 14th) so lets see how quickly he gets on the ball after that. :)  I know Christmas is not about the presents it is about spending time with family and rejoicing in the birth of Jesus!
Can I just tell you about the first Christmas I spent with Allen and his large family? at the time there were 14 of them (we have morphed into 18 in the 6 1/2 years Allen and I have been together). They get together at his grandmother's house on Christmas eve morning and have a big breakfast and after that they all pile into one room and pass out presents and everyone opens them at the same time. (No offense but I have always found it awkward when families go one by one to open presents, I guess mainly because that is not what my family did and so it was odd to me. So when I found out they opened presents as a group, I knew I liked their style!) But seriously, that first year that I spent with them literally brought me to tears. My family is great, don't get me wrong but my parents are divorced and there are many members of my family that don't get along with each other so we are rarely in a large group setting with several members of my family together at the same time. Not at all the case with the Jones'! 14 (plus one) all sat together in the same room laughing, talking, and opening presents and having that Christmas that I always saw on TV and envied. There was wrapping paper flying all over the room and seriously I had tears welled up in my eyes. I fell in love with Christmas all over again and we weren't even married, in fact we had only been dating about 9 months. but seriously it renewed Christmas for me to be apart of their family tradition. I am excited for Noah to be apart of this tradition this year and I hope as he gets older he does not take this setting and his family for granted because there are so many that don't have it!

(I light of my blog title today, I thought I would share that Noah is getting a DRUM for Christmas from Mommy and Daddy! I will tell you what Santa is bringing him later! :)