When it was time for church, it was sleeting. Jeff I left 90 minutes before church for preparations and rehearsals. I din't realize how bad it had gotten until I noticed our kids weren't in church yet..Chime team played well and then the choir lined up for the processional. Finally Sarah Mary and Matthew were sitting in "our pew". Whew! The service was very nice. The music was good. The orchestra song went along pretty well, just a few hesitations with a couple transition ares. Mary complimented my piano playing! Mary read a good part of the service and did an awesome job. The candlelighting portion of the service is always special. I can't help but see my dad with the Christ Candle as I was growing up. I still miss him very much. He was a great dad. Silent Night on Christmas Eve is hard for me to sing, but I was able to a few verses in, that is what dad would want. I found out later that the weather was so bad that Sarah had to look out the side window to drive to church. They ice wouldn't chip away! The stopped a few times to keep scraping. Glad we only live a mile away! I experienced this myself on the way home. The cars were covered with ice! LOts of scraping! I couldn't see out the backseat windows of the the van.
We did lots of pictures taking, both at church and at home. Thanks to Mary she styled all of the Wilhelm ladies hair for Christmas. I think we look pretty nice. Even at this moment I am uploading pictures that you can see on our Photo Album. Be sure to take a look at it!
None of us ate before church, so we had our traditional hot dogs, cheese puffs and christmas cookies for dinner. A tradition from years ago when I was a little girl at my Grandma Heumann's every Christmas eve night between services. That was lots of fun. Mary was supposed to attend church with her friend, Brandon, but their church was cancelled due to the weather. Sarah had us open the gifts from her and she opened one from Mary. By then it was time for bed.
We all slept in this morning, what a luxury! I cam down to finish a Christmas present, only to find it was done and wrapped! Christmas Elf?? No, it was Mary. She had been helping me all along and woke up early and finished it, then fell back asleep. We made double chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and then headed to open presents. Thanks for the nice things from our family and friends too! We are thankful to have such a loving family. We had three little fishies to our family. Matthew got three goldfish for Christmas..Mr T., Mele Kalikimaka and Streak.
While Jeff Matthew and Sarah played a Mario Kart on the Wii, Mary and I got the roast in the oven, it smells so good cooking in the oven. Once that got done, we made cookie dough for Chocolate Mint Surprise cookies. We hope to bake the tonight. We have plenty of time for movies and games and whatever tonight.
Weather update: Today it is raining and heading toward 40 degrees! Wonder how much snow will stick around! Cold weather returns tonight with some snow in the days ahead. We might get to see the sun on Tuesday!
Matthew gets another xray on Wednesday. Maybe no cast! We shall see what comes next. He has been a trooper!
Hope your Christmas has been a Wonderful One!
Grace
