DSGO Christmas Party/Christmas meaning

Last night our family headed to Springfield for our Christmas Party with our local Down Syndrome Group of the Ozarks. We had a such a great time! We sat with some good friends of ours, who have a son who is 18, T, with DS. I was his speech therapist for many years and I love him to pieces! At the table next to us sat some more families from Marshfield. One family who I have known about 13 years who we know well was there with their daughter too. Their daughter, L, is one of the reasons we chose to adopt a child with DS. We love these kids with all of our hearts! Addy thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the kids and she especially hit it off with the cutest little guy ever! R is 4-5 years old and was so funny! He and Addy played and played, it was too cute! We had a delicious meal and then all of the kids sat on Santa's lap. Each child got a gift too! Addy got a Leap Frog farm toy that you match the front and back to make the animal sound and it says the color. She has enjoyed making it sing! The pig is her favorite sound though! The boys each got a really nice set of Hot Wheels, you can never go wrong giving little boys cars! Jarika wasn't left out either! She received a free Value Meal coupon from McDonald's and a free Concrete from Andy's Frozen Custard. Andy's is her favorite! She was excited too. I am so glad that we got to spend that time as a family!

L and T :)

Addy and R! Is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen???

Addy's first visit with Santa!

This morning at church was awesome. Our praise team sang many beautiful songs about Christmas. They were moving. It really makes you think about the reason for the season. I have been bummed because this year money has been really tight and we were expecting a significant amount of money to show up and not only did I find out that there's very little chance that it's going to arrive before Christmas, but it's going to be about 75% less than what we expected. We were going to use this money for our Christmas but our plans are going to have to change. But this morning I once again realized that I have got to stop thinking about what we don't have and give thanks for what we do. I have a wonderful husband who I love more everyday, I have four children that are such blessings. My kids are healthy (relatively), they are home, they aren't in the hospital like we were facing last year, they have clothes on their backs, a home and plenty of love and attention. They may not have as many things under the tree this year, but they have the love of a family.
In my church bulletin this morning was a paragraph about the Christmas tree: The fir tree has a long association with Christianity, it began in Germany almost 1,000 years ago when St. Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity, was said to have come across a group of pagans worshiping an oak tree. In anger, St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and to his amazement a young fir tree sprung up from the roots of the oak tree. St Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith. But it was not until the 16th century that fir trees were brought indoors at Christmas time. The evergreen represents the eternal life which we receive in Jesus. The point of the tree points to heaven to remind us that Jesus was God's gift of love and grace to all people.
So as I put up our sad little tree this year, (our beautiful pre-lit one was destroyed in our spring floot), I remember that there is a reason for this beautiful tree.