Christmas recap

What a sweet day we had together on Christmas Day this year!

I don't know if it was because the rest of the month seemed so busy (and full of hard work)

and we were finally able to relax and just enjoy everything,

or because Christmas has always been full of delightful surprises!

The biggest surprise??

We woke up to crashing thunder and lightening with pouring rain,

and by the end of the day, we had two or more inches of thick, fluffy SNOW!!

What a special, memorable gift for those of us in Texas!

On Christmas Eve, we always order Chinese food for dinner,

and this year we played "Christmas Bingo" after we ate.

To cap off this fun evening, we opened our first family gift

and watched the movie "Soul Surfer."

The snow had been falling for a couple of hours when it was time to load everyone up and head to the north side of town for an evening of  fun and fellowship at our very long-time friends' home.

My husband decided it would be safer to take our little two-door, front-wheel drive Honda,

but that required two trips for 9 people and tons of food.

What fun it was to spend the rest of the evening with all of our favorite people!

One of our favorite things this year was watching this little 6-year-old work for a several months to earn this bike.  He had asked to do chores for us, and even went and did chores for a couple in our church

to earn money.  He carried the money he earned in his pocket every day with this goal in mind.

With money he received for Christmas, he was finally able to go with his dad

and buy his own bike!!

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas this year and were able to share the love and grace of Jesus
with those you surrounded yourself with!!

December Recap

What a busy, busy, busy month this has been!
So busy, in fact, that I just struggled to keep up with everything.
Several things fell through the cracks:

1. The Laundry

2.  Eating healthy and walking regularly

3.  Managing our Type 1 Diabetic's blood sugars well

4.  My blog

I'm already getting plans in place to get back on track with all of these things!!

The laundry issue will prove to be more of a struggle though as my dryer decided to completely "give-up-the-ghost" two days before Christmas.  Grrrr.....

Instead of trying to journal with words all that we enjoyed throughout the Christmas season, I've chosen to use pictures to chronicle our December.

Warning!

Lots of pictures ahead....

Every year we go to a wonderful "living nativity" called "Bethlehem Revisited."

This year some very dear friends went with us!!  Twice the blessing!!

Christmas Parade 2012

Our Abby is on the right and sings the second verse of this pretty Christmas piece
during the Junior Choir Christmas program at our church.

This year, I had the awesome (frightening) opportunity to direct the drama for our church's

Christmas program.  My husband has always been involved in the choir.

This is from the adult choir Christmas celebration after the Cantata.

Our church family is such a gift to us!

Click on this picture above to see a better view of the lovely, large Nativity scene they had on the upper balcony.

We added something new this year to our family Christmas traditions that was just so much fun.

After all the parties were over, the Christmas programs were done, the rush was past.....

 one evening late in the month,

we loaded everyone in our giant van, turned on the Christmas music, and drove

to the fancy part of Dallas where all the big houses are professionally decorated.

It was such fun to hear all the "ooh's and ahh's" from the children

as we saw how differently and beautifully each home was lit up!

Then we treated everyone to some McDonald's french fries as we continued to enjoy

watching the scenes of Christmas in a big city!

What a lovely time of simply enjoying each other's company during the holiday season!

Terrific Tuesday: Family Pictures 2013

As we turned the calendar page to the last month of this year, December, our lives were swept into warp speed!

I can hardly remember a December that has been this busy, and yes, even overwhelming.

There have been moments already when I felt as if I were standing up, pulling back hard on the reins, to hold onto the horses just bolting ahead and threatening to tip this entire wagon over.

And this year, just to make things more interesting, we have multiple activities overlapping.

I've told several people that I can feel myself developing a nervous tic just trying to keep it all the bases covered.

Anyway, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, we scheduled a wonderful afternoon with a dear, dear friend (our youth pastor's wife from our church) who is also a fabulous photographer.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

If you're interested in seeing this photo shoot in it's entirety, go here.