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Our lives are a multitude of stories.  Some are sad tales, some are filled with stomach wrenching laughter, and some are family legends that grow more epic each time they’re told.  Join me this week as we curl up in our favorite spot in our virtual living room.  The tree casting a twinkling glow.  Hot chocolate, eggnog, and cookies sit in our laps.  Our friends & family sit with us as we laugh, rejoice, & begin to share our tales of Christmas.

Since I was little (aka born) Christmas has always been a family affair.  Tucked away in the small house we grew up in or with Grandpa & Grandma & the my aunt, uncle, & cousins in California.  We were always with family.  Sometimes friends translated into family.  I didn’t have necessarily a wonderful childhood, but I remember pleasant Christmases.

We grew up knowing Santa wasn’t real.  Our gifts were always under the tree days before.  The only thing that wasn’t put out was our stockings.  Mom would fill those after we’d gone to bed on Christmas Eve and hang them on the mantle.  Every year we received a new one.  That was mom’s tradition.  And that would be the first thing we’d open once we were allowed to take them down.

Christmas Eve if we weren’t in California had it’s own special tradition.  We were each allowed to open one gift.  Mom & Dad selected.  Even as a teenager my brother and I looked forward to that one gift.

Today Christmas looks different, but it’s still a family affair.  We’re all grown up and each of our own families.  Time spent with in-laws and our own family.  I have six nephews and a niece due on the 26th.  We eat, we laugh, we Skype open gifts with my brother-in-law & sister-in-law in Northern California.  And I hope that in the quiet of our hearts and hope even more with the words we speak we remember why we’re gathering.

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I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as I did.  Today I’m giving you the opportunity to share your own story.  Click Mr. Linky below to share your Christmas tales.

And since we’re sharing stories I have a gift to share with you.  It is a little canvas I created using written word.  Portions from popular books, including Dracula, various Sherlock Holmes stories, Persuasion, and East of Eden.  Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win the canvas.  Contest ends:  12.31.10 at Midnight Mountain.  One entry per person.  Winner will be announced 01.03.11.

Our lives are a multitude of stories.  Some are sad tales, some are filled with stomach wrenching laughter, and some are family legends that grow more epic each time they’re told.  Join me this week as we curl up in our favorite spot in our virtual living room.  The tree casting a twinkling glow.  Hot chocolate, eggnog, and cookies sit in our laps.  Our friends & family sit with us as we laugh, rejoice, & begin to share our tales of Christmas.

Our best Christmas present – without equal – arrived in September 2005, a few months before the holiday.

While it gets lost sometimes in the haze of daily routines and in-the-moment challenges, the the birth of our daughter Jadyn is a milestone which comes into clearer focus at Christmastime.  The desire to become parents weighed pretty heavily on Amanda and me in the early years of our marriage. Despite our best efforts, it wasn’t happening.

In June 2001, we experienced our first miscarriage. I took the typical man’s approach and encouraged her to just get over it and drive on. I’m learning better over time.

Four more Christmases came and went without a new addition to our household. Then, around New Year’s Day 2005, several tests showed Amanda was pregnant and it wasn’t a faint positive, it was a strong one.

Due to a work-related relocation, we spent our first night in Starkville, Miss. the day Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast then barreled its way inland. Jadyn was born about two weeks later.

We debated about what to name her and settled on “Jadyn Liana,” which means “God has heard” and “God has answered.”

The gift we have in this talented, smart and beautiful child becomes more apparent when we stop to appreciate her and admire His handiwork.  The clarity gets sharper when we compare and contrast the successive Christmas photos, see the maturity over the passing years.

We are grateful for God’s provision of this special gift and we’re glad to get reminded how precious she truly is.

Since her birth we’ve encountered another round of infertility and aren’t sure at this stage whether we’ll have more children.  So I write this without pat or cheap answers for those who long for a child or are mourning the loss of one they’ve had.

As we wait on God in this new phase of life, we’ve seen Him open our eyes and hearts in previously unexpected ways to things we didn’t know we needed to understand.

So it is with a refreshed sense of gratitude we look forward to another Dec. 25 watching Jadyn rip open the year’s presents and with grace-filled hope for many more to come.

Paul is husband to Amanda, father to Jadyn.  He is also a writer and picture taker.  He & Amanda serve with LifeChurch.TV’s church online. You can check out his blog and follow him on Twitter.

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On Friday, Dec. 24th, we will have a link up for all of us to share our Christmas stories, and I’ll have a giveaway.

Our lives are a multitude of stories.  Some are sad tales, some are filled with stomach wrenching laughter, and some are family legends that grow more epic each time they’re told.  Join me this week as we curl up in our favorite spot in our virtual living room.  The tree casting a twinkling glow.  Hot chocolate, eggnog, and cookies sit in our laps.  Our friends & family sit with us as we laugh, rejoice, & begin to share our tales of Christmas.

Christmas time is about the only time my side of the family tries to get all of us together, even though most of them all live in the same town.  One of my primos is in the navy so he lives near San Diego, and his brother lives in Austin with me even though i haven’t seen him or his family yet, but such is the split of our families.  I think we all try to get together mostly for the sake of my Grandparents, which reason enough.  Like all families we have our random Christmas rituals, I usually sit around while the guys in the family talk sports, weather, and politics.  I am not really in to sports, I can only talk weather for five minutes and they don’t want to hear my views on politics, I subscribe to the anti-political Jesus for President view.  You get the picture.  All this time my 31 year old sister is snooping beneath the lit up rubber tree plant that we use as a Christmas tree (that is really my favorite part).

In his own words Russ is husband to Elora, Jesus follower, Private Chef, social activist, church planter, guitar-playing, self imposed hippie who just wants to change the world.  You can check out his blog and find him on Twitter.