Christmas Eve at the Beach

We went to the beach today to partake in the ship's festivities. The ship put on a potluck gathering at one of our favorite beaches. As you can see the MWR has set it up pretty nice. We have these HUGE umbrellas that cover two very large concrete picnic tables on a huge concrete pad with a little water faucet near by to use as needed. We even got rained on at one point and all we did was just scoot in a little to take shelter under the umbrella. No worries! I made some cruzan/caribbean stuffing and pumpkin/curry fritters. The fritters went over very well (thanks to my in laws who are infamously excellent cooks!)
The girls had a blast running around the grass and as you can see, Eve was eating dirt. I guess she thought it was tasty cause I had to tell her a couple of times to quit. Silly girl! I feed them quite regularly.
I can't wait to see their faces tommorrow morning when they see all the present and their new bicycles under the tree. We had so much fun last year opening presents with them, I can only guess it just gets better every year. They still freak when they see Santa Claus, but they rip right into a wrapped box when it's presented!
At any rate, we're all good here. Sylvin's home and we're together and healthy I can't complain. Shopping done, presents wrapped and sent. Still never got Christmas cards out this year. I meant to, but sheesh I'm terrible. There's always next year, Lord willing. That brings me around to the real reason for this yearly celebration. Aside from Santa and presents and being with family....I pray that those who do not know God's love personally be touched by it. I pray that a realtionship form in their hearts with God and that they are saved by His love.

Here's a cool story about the Christmas star I came across.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE3D81F39F931A15751C1A967958260

Love to you all and have a Merry CHIRSTmas!