The holly and the ivy...

Christmas was great. It was different without stephen and Achel... but it was very nice.

THis year was a different year to me... well last year was similar... but with stephen. I did all of my shopping without him this year... but it was still good. I actually still haven't bought him a present yet (d'oh!) but I have some time still. Anyways since I was at school and since finals were especially hard for me, I had an insane time getting into the christmas spirit. It was nice coming home to a pant-load of snow, which helped a lot. My family didn't even get a christmas tree til sunday haha... but we were all busy... it was just a busy busy time...

However there is one thing that usually gets me ready for christmas: the candle light service at church. Oh man. It was great this year...

The first thing that happened was a song by Craig Peffer and then they did a little skit about the donkey in which Barney Barnhart did the voice of the real donkey (pedro) that was in the church. It was sweet. (I am starting to forget the order of things that happened...) but yeah there was singing of songs all between the things.... then there was a skit with the youthgroup kids where this guy kept throwing away his fruitcake that he would his aunt would send. BUT his aunt had been giving him a lot of money in there... and he had been throwing it out all these years. Anyways it was that people have the gift of christmas but they throw it out each year. Interesting.

So then a few more songs, then Linda sang O Holy Night. This is like my favorite thing aobut the christmas eve service... she is amazing and she sings this song every year. It always gives me chills when she nails the high note. Then Pastor read the christmas story and they acted it out... it was great. They passed out the candles and we sang Silent Night along with Pastor and Wes (who played the guitar like every year).

It was great.

Every year the same thing, with a few random changes now and then but it is usually the same thing and I love it... it is always there like an old friend, reminding me the real meaning of christmas. When we got home I realized that we usually get a box of pop corn from a friend of ours named Rick who moved away. I told dad and we called him and told him that we missed getting the gift and seeing him... not that the popcorn was anything great,(oh we loved it haha) but it was the thought that he was nice enough to think about us and the fact that it happened every year.

It was a great christmas... not the same without Stephen and Rachel (and scott and jenni) but stephen and rachel came to surprise mom and dad on saturday... it was great. They had no idea and we had a fun weekend.

I love getting out of the routine... I like changes... but when it comes to Christmas, I'll take the good old fashion Miller christmas... a few changes happened this year, but it was still the same christmas I always remember ././.