it's a christmas miracle!

i honestly can't remember ever waiting until Christmas Day to open christmas gifts. as a kid growing up we always went to my grandma and grandpa deyoung's house for christmas eve, then on the way home christmas day stopping at grandma and grandpa sheldon's. so because of all the traveling, we would open our gifts the night before christmas eve, though most of memories consist of opening one gift each (for me and lisa) on the nights of christmas programs for school and church, and then one each night leading up to christmas eve.

this type of tradition (if you can call it that) and general impatience has carried over into my adult life. I think our worst year was when we lived on the lake and we opened our gifts on December 17th. (or some other ridiculously early date before christmas)

today is December 22nd, all our gifts are under the tree and in the stocking, and we haven't opened a single gift. we're going to open them on christmas day (quite literally at 12:01am christmas day!). this is also the first year we've allowed ourselves to splurge a little on gifts (rare indeed), and also the first year we abolished the "christmas list." so we have no ideas what's under that plastic tree. we're brave souls, thinking we know what will excite the other :) hehehe

on a less material note, we're learning more and more about giving where it's needed. while we've always struggled financially, now that we're making great strides in eradicating our debt (that engine bill is half gone!), we're very excited about the things happening in our church and the ways that we can support the movement ;) it's easy to forget that we're not here just to live our lives and be responsible for our own selves and be comfortable.

anyway, we have other christmas plans including the verve pipe, family christmases, the annual wade kung fu chicken spectacular (praise be to allah), and the pilgramage of the bremer (don't you love it when I name things?).

merry christmas to all, and to all safe travels, love, hope, peace and all that junk. hehehe

rie