This Week at Our House # 52 Christmas

**I didn't get any pictures of Christmas morning or when Santa Claus came on Christmas Eve because the flash died on our camera. But don't worry, we have every intention of buying a good expensive camera and starting a photography business once we get the tax return.**

On Dec 23rd for United Families International, I wrote:

"To my children tonight, I read the words, “Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small, Was singing! Without any presents at all! He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same!”

These words mean a whole lot more to me this Christmas—more than they ever have. My husband lost his job 9 months ago. Despite trying and applying for job after job, as the holidays approached, he still hadn’t found employment. We did not know how to approach the holidays with our 10 children. The week before Thanksgiving, we sat our children down and told them to not expect too much for Christmas. We explained that Christmas means a lot more than just presents, and it would be okay. We would still have Christmas.

That very week, the miracles started happening.

Several of my friends had gotten together and donated money for me to buy presents for our kids. They gave me this the day before Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving, some people I did not know came to my door. They purchased a new washing machine, new pots and pans, a new Kitchen Aid mixer, new cups, and new towels. Not expecting anything and certainly not asking for anything, two days earlier, I had posted a list on my blog of all the items that had either broken or were just wearing out since my husband lost his job. These gifts came from complete strangers.

After that, we had several people offer to help with Christmas. We had money either come in the mail or dropped off on our doorstep—some anonymously and some not."

On Dec 24th Santa Claus, like a real living person in a red suit, showed up at our house with a whole bunch of wrapped gifts. My dear friend, Marianne stopped by at midnight with even more gifts. My children had a huge Christmas.

This is the first year John and I did not know exactly what was under the tree. The kids woke up at 7am. I had grabbed Suzy up a little early to feed her. We went downstairs together to open stockings and get the unwrapped Santa gifts. Anya cried because she wanted Joseph's gift. She said she did not want her gift and gave it to me. Everyone else was in present heaven and very happy and excited. After a time, we moved to the Christmas tree and began opening presents. After opening some more of her presents, Anya took her Santa gift back and decided that she actually did want it. 

Suzy didn't last through all of the gift unwrapping before falling asleep. Arwen was cautious about opening gifts at first, because she had been in a lot of trouble the day before when she unwrapped about 5 gifts. I am glad that she got the message. Josh loved everything he unwrapped. He got an array of cars, trucks, trains, blocks, and legos. Joseph, Johnny, and Adam would unwrap a gift and then move to the other side of the room to play with it before their turn to open another gift. Kate got everything blue and some paint, which she loved. Ruth got mostly clothes, make up, and perfume as was her desire. Ruth and Adam helped hand out the gifts. Rachel got a lot of arts and crafts stuff. She has been very happy and it has kept her quite busy.

We really did have a magical Christmas and the kids knew why. They knew that their gifts came from a lot of Christmas Angels.