Christmas Happenings

Well, I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas, I know our family did. Ever since I have been with Jonathan, our Christmas holiday is always a bit crazy. We always spend the morning/afternoon with Jonathan's family and then spend the evening with mine.
This year was a little different but still crazy. Jonathan and I woke up early to open our gifts for each other (although we tried not to spend that much on each other since we are getting a new stove soon). We then got to eat lunch with Jonathan's parents and grandparents at the Brethren home. I couldn't believe how many people were there for dinner. I thought the employees did a great job accommodating the large crowd.
Next, we were off to the Swigart house for another filling dinner. We got there and things were in full swing. Complete with the smells of a cooking ham and a house full of anxious wound up children. By the time everyone arrives and brings there gifts, we have a mountain in front of the Christmas tree (a rather small tree this year Dad..). Every year we have the idea to "go slow" so that everyone can enjoy there gifts. But when dad declares it time to open gifts, it always manages to turn into a feeding frenzy. People hollering back and forth "Thank You. I love it" across the room. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any good pictures this year. I never seemed to have my camera when I needed it.

Now on to a sad story. On December 26, we sadly had a fatal car accident across the road from our house. About 6:20pm that night, Jonathan and I had just sat down to dinner, when the lights in our house flickered. We didn't think too much of it, until 10 minutes later, we heard the sound of fire engines and ambulances. We knew the accident looked bad but we certainly never thought it was fatal. From our house we could see a truck in the road an a utility pole down. We went to bed at 11PM and the police and fire were still working on the scene.
After watching the news the next day, an SUV with a 19 year old and a 22 year old was traveling on Gordon-Landis Road, missed the stop sign and pulled out in front of a truck traveling full speed on St Rt 49. The SUV flipped and was launched into the utility pole. We later found out that the 19 year old boy from Lewisburg, was killed in that wreck.
Even though I never knew this boy, I still felt heart sick for this boys family. Christmas probably won't be the same for this family ever again. I know that when I come to that intersection I will always have those pictures in my head of what we saw.
So next year, when I start to feel annoyed buy the craziness of our Christmas Holiday, I will definitely be thankful to have that full and crazy house.