To Be Jolly What a Christmas. It was incredible. I won't go into too much detail, but basically, it was just an amazing, relaxed, fun day with the whole family. These past few days have been incredible, just spending so much time together. It's just again so weird that these are the times that will be fewer and fewer. It's sad, yet amazing to think about how powerful these times are now. Every time we hang out now as a family, it's awe-inspiring. Every breath is a walk down memory lane. Every laugh is absorbed for future comfort. Every smile is remembered. Every connection is strong. It's amazing.

Anyways, this year's Christmas was a little different in that for the five Carl kids, we all agreed to pick names this year, so that we could spend MORE for a nicer gift for one person as opposed to spending less on four siblings. My person was John, so I got him a pair of Abercrombie jeans which he loves. The person who had me was Laura, and she and Dar got me two gift cards, one to Best Buy and one to ITUNES. WOO HOO! I love that. Pavel, John's Russian friend who is visiting with John got me two amazing, very nice drawing pads for my architectural designs (which he discovered I like to do and asked me to help design a house he wants to build in real life... wow). Uncle Tom got Ryan and me an XBOX game, and my Aunt Linda and Uncle Joe got me a Visa Gift Card. The drum roll occurred, however, when it was my parents' turn. There were five gigantic bags, all matching, and we (the kids) didn't know what they were or anything. We each had to open the bag at the same time, and it was incredible. At first, we were like... "umm....oh" 'cause there was just a huge towel inside each bag, but hidden in the towel for John, Laura, and Me, were envelopes. Basically, to sum it up, David and Ryan got XBOX 360 Elites with the whoooooole kit (XBOX live, controllers, rechargeable batteries, cords, etc...), and John, Laura, and I each got a huge APPLE gift card!!!! and turns out, my parents' gift to each other is an Apple as well, so there will be five new Apple computers/laptops in the family. It was breath taking when we saw what it was... totally unexpected. God has blessed us so amazingly, and it is incredible to see how he is working right now.

So that was my Christmas. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to get my new Mac.


-Jeff Carl  ¶ 12:30:00 AM