*The Atkins Christmas*

Mike & I had such a wonderful Christmas this year! We started out on Christmas Eve--we went to the Christmas Eve Church Service at Lakepointe with Mike's Dad, step mom, 2 stepsisters & their spouses/child. It was an amazing service filled with Christmas Carols, a great message and as always ended with everyone lighting a candle and singing "Silent Night". THE BEST PART was the surprise that they had for us...Jason Castro (from American Idol) sang "White Christmas" solo and sang all of the carols with us!! It was great! I love him, maybe just cause he goes to my church and EVERYBODY is a HUGE fan, but it was wonderful!!
After church we went back to Mike's dad's house and we had the traditional filet dinner with very tasty wine and a great bottle of Dom Perignon! We opened gifts after dinner and came home around midnight!
The next morning we were going to Plano to my mom's house for breakfast so we decided to have OUR Christmas at midnight on Christmas Eve/Christmas morning (however you look it). So before we went to bed, we opened our gifts and had a great time together.
On Christmas day we woke up around 6:30am to get ready and head to Plano. My Mom, step dad, stepbrother and grandmother were there and an we enjoyed a HUGE breakfast along with mimosas. We of course opened gifts afterwards and stayed for a few hours before heading to our next destination!!!
Around 12 noon or so we headed over to Mike's aunt's house about 5 minutes away from my mom. This is his Mom's side of the family. Including Mike's mom and her husband there were about 12 of us. We had a HUGE dinner around 3 with turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, a few casseroles...everything you can think of!! It was delish! Then...again...we opened gifts with them and headed home around 8pm. Just in time to unpack all of the gifts and go to WORK on Friday. Blah! We ended up closing early so it wasn't so bad.
I got so many wonderful things including a diamond & pink sapphire ring, a navigation system thingy for my car, a portable DVD player, ALL of the seasons of Grey's Anatomy, a WHOLE case of my favorite wine (Seven Heavenly Chards), 90-minute spa massage, 12-days of Christmas ornaments & tree from Crate & Barrel (LOVE them), Nordy's GC and many other small things...what a wonderful day to Celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ!!!

Luke 2:8 states: "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."