Christmas with the Allen Family
Merry Christmas everybody. This is a chance for our family to come together. Everybody's together right now, and we just wanted to share with you some of our favorite memories. Some of them are good, some of them are messy, some of them are chaotic, but we do love each other, and we love Christmas time. So I'm excited to bring you into this part of our lives, and you'll get to hear from the whole crew. They're all sitting here on the couch with me today.
Let's start with you Connor. Now you're grown, and you look back over your childhood. I want you to name a few of your favorite memories.
I did coordinate the play with the cousins. I was put in charge of a Christmas play that I had to coordinate where I had to assign roles for everybody to act out while I read. I was the narrator, and I read the whole story of Jesus. All the cousins. Everyone was in their own costume. Yeah, it was pretty tough, but we coordinate everything. Everyone looked pretty funny in their costumes. It was a good way to make it seem real. Make the words come alive.
Okay, Kate: memories. What do you got?
If I'm completely honest, the most memorable ones were the ones that were kind of miserable, but that's okay because you look back on them and those are the funny ones. You and your sister had this tradition for Christmas where your mom would have all of y'all sleep in a closet together for Christmas. And you have all sisters so that kind of worked, but when you have four kids, two of them being boys, that doesn't work as well. We did it a few times and not happily at all, but we still followed through with it until, I think Connor was like a sophomore in high school or something like that. And I remember, the way that the house was structured was there was the closet in the back, but in between was the bathroom. And so you tried to shove all of us back there, and Connor ended up just sleeping on the cold bathroom floor for Christmas. All because you were so insistent on carrying on the tradition of you and your sister sleeping in the closet. All I’m going to say is that was the last time we slept in the closet.
Okay. Caroline's memories are helping. Like you are my best helper with shopping, helping everybody get ready. You love it. Something about you loves helping get everything ready.
Kate: No, she likes the power of knowing what everybody's getting so she can kind of give them a look like, “Ooh, I know what you're getting”. And then she just holds it over everyone's head all the days leading up to Christmas.
Caroline: One day I told Kate that she was getting a Kindle for Christmas, and she absolutely lost it. She was mad. She was like, “I wanted it to be a surprise”. Me and Connor usually look on mom and dad's computer and see what we get before. And we team up. Last time I found out when I was younger that I got an American girl doll, and I freaked out. Then Connor got this really cool hat that he always wanted. So just like every year we team up and figure out what we get.
Okay. Cooper, you're up. Why don't you talk about what you love about Christmas?
The thing that I like about Christmas is getting to see my cousins, and after Christmas night we all get shoved in the playroom. Then we all are blindfolded walking down the stairs and take a picture before we get to see our presents. It's really hard to wait because you want to know what you got, to see if you got the good stuff that you wanted. Also it’s playing with your toys, sharing them with cousins. And also the thing I like about Christmas is when I get to sleep in the closet instead of outside.
I've never made you sleep outside all the days of your life.
You made me sleep next to you.
Oh, outside like in our bedroom. Everybody thought I made you camp.
Another thing is when we did the play, that was really fun.
Well, my favorite is how chaotic it is and how everybody's together and we all are just grateful to be together. We’ve had hard Christmases and good Christmases and either way, it just felt really good for us to all be together. But to me the very most meaningful thing that we've done every single year is the reading of the Christmas story. And so we wanted to do that for you guys today. Some of you may have never heard it, and it is from the book of Luke in chapter 2, and Zach and my kids and I are going to read it to you today in case you've never heard it.
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
So wherever you are, I hope that you're with people that you love, getting to remember the things that God has done for us, and the ways that we are grateful. So I am thankful for these people, and I'm thankful for this story, this story that has changed my life. And I pray if it has never changed yours, that this would be the first night that you would believe that Christ really is the son of God and came as a baby in a manger for the sins of the world.
