We're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas...

It's Christmas Eve and I am on the verge of having what I've always dreamed of... a Tennessee Christmas. Let's all sing it together, shall we?

"Another tender Tennessee Christmas,
The only Christmas for me.
Where the love circles around us,
Like the gift around our tree.
Well I know there's more snow
Up in Colorado
Than my roof will ever see,
But a tender Tennessee Christmas
Is the only Christmas for me."

This year, Mom has joined me and Jason for these festive days. So of course, one of the first things we did tonight was put in our well-worn VHS copy of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The best part of watching this with Mom? She has watched this movie at least twice every Christmas for the last ten years. And yet she will still gasp and jump and "Oh no!" every time Clark gets his head whacked with an attic floorboard or falls off the ladder or the squirrel jumps out at his face from the tree. Every. Dang. Time. It's truly one of my favorite things about the season.

This Christmas is certainly more hopeful than last year's. While we are once again in the midst of great change and some uncertainty, there is a greater sense of peace and trust in our hearts this year. The Lord has provided in this last year (sometimes not as we would have wanted or expected) and He will provide again.

Merry Christmas, y'all....