Christmas Day

Our Christmas was a little different this year. Generally we all get up, open stockings while Daddy wakes up and comes down stairs. Then we all open presents, one at a time. We eat breakfast and Daddy plays with the kids (or with the kid's toys) until company starts to arrive - all the while I am making a big Christmas meal - I so love to do that.

Well, Oregon is having the worst snow it has seen in 30 years. Due to road conditions, company could not come over - so dinner will be delayed until the weekend. We spent the day together as a family, opened presents, ate breakfast, played with toys, baked a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake, played games, etc - just us - it was nice.

After breakfast, Bill used his new family devotional Bible to read about the meaning of Christmas to all of us. Something hit me in a new way as he read it - besides the actual story of Jesus. In the Bible they track the heritage of the men - but not the women - Joseph was in the blood line of David - not Mary. However, Jesus was not born of Joseph. God does not look at a blood line as important, as many of us do. It is the spirit that is important to him - family has a very different meaning - it is a group of people connected by the heart, not by blood. The most important baby born to this world was, infact, adopted. Now, I knew that before, but I hadn't put together the heritage - of Joseph vs Mary - it has so much more of an impact on me, now that I have that understanding.