It's Christmas

Christmas has come and gone. The new year is approaching fast. My holiday was different this year. But still blessed as ever.

One of my most favorite parts of the holiday is our Christmas Eve service at church. It was beautiful.

We spent Christmas Eve dinner with my grandparents, uncle, aunt, and cousins. Christmas Eve night always means lots of family jokes, presents, food, games, and getting home late. It's a blast!

On Christmas morning we all woke up around 7:00 (which is early for me folks) and headed downstairs to see what Santa had left us. And boy was it a sight. People, over my two days of Christmas, I've never seen so much Doctor Who merchandise...and it's now all found its home in my very own bedroom. *happy dance*

After all our presents were unwrapped and we'd all made a thorough mess, we got ready for our day. This year we hosted a big Christmas day brunch and invited multiple families from our church and home school group. Our house was packed! This was my absolute favorite part of Christmas this year. Serving these people, my friends, on Christmas Day...what a huge blessing!

{Photo credit goes to my dad.}

The night when Christ was born.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees

Oh hear the angel voices

O night divine,

O night when Christ was born

~~~

Truly He taught us to love one another,

His law is love and His gospel is peace

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother

And in His name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

With all our hearts we praise His holy name


Christ is the Lord, 
we'll praise His name forever
His power, and glory 
evermore proclaim

This was just a little bit of our wonderful Christmas.  Don't forget to remember Jesus' birth.  Even though the holidays are over, the Light of the world is still here...shining bright. 

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

P.S. All photography credit go to my dad and sister, Annie.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I have news!

Such great news!

You ready?

Ok I'll tell you...

Christmas is almost here!

All right so I'm sure you already knew that but it's still great news right?  My family seriously celebrates Thanksgiving for about half a day and then it's Christmas until January.  Haha! 

Our tree went up the day after Thanksgiving.  We get a live tree but because we aren't near a forest we do the next best thing and run to our local grocery store to pick out the prettiest one.  And I'm tellin' ya...everybody else lucked out because I think we got the best one in the lot. ;)  It's gorgeous! I think the prettiest we've ever had. But who am I to judge...you all can have a look for yourselves.

My sister, Annie, got to put the star up this year.  We go in birth order...so in two more years it'll be my turn again. :)

Ta-da!  What do you think?

Family <3

Merry Christmas!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

"We wish you a merry Christmas.  We wish you a merry Christmas.  We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year."

I hope everybody had a fabulous Christmas!  I know I did...and I wanted to share it with you all. :)

Before I get started, I must warn you, this has the makings of a very long post with a lot of pictures. ;)  There, you are officially warned.

On Christmas Eve we went to our church's Christmas Eve service and then headed to our grandparent's house.  We do this every year. ;)  At my grandparent's we eat yummy food and then open presents.  We start out opening our gifts one at a time so we can all see what everybody else gets.  But, usually, our excited-ness kinda grows because of the mound of wrapped presents sitting in front of us and the organization disappears.  Haha!  It's so much fun! ;)

Here's some pictures from Christmas Eve:

 

All six of us grandkids.

Goofy picture! ;)

I just had to post this.  Hahaha!  My brother is seriously a goof-ball.  100% ;)

My family <3

So, that was Christmas Eve. :)  It was awesome!


Now, onto Christmas Day.  Guess what!  You'll never believe it!  My dreams came true!  We had a white Christmas for the first time in six years!  Here's some pictures: 

Isn't it so pretty?!

On Christmas Day, we woke up at 8 o'clock on the dot, because Mom said we couldn't get up any earlier. ;) Haha!  Which was fine with me...my little brother ended up getting me up.


First, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

And then we opened our stockings. :)  We have 10 stockings.  Six, for all of us (Dad, Mom, me, Zach, Annie, and Logan) and then three for the dogs (Nickel, Nellie Mae, and Nyle) and, last but not least, one for our fishies. ;)  If you look in the picture, mine is the really long one.  Haha!  I hadn't emptied it yet.

After we went through our stockings we went on in to the living room and opened our presents!

As you can see, we're all like half asleep. ;)

Nyle is in the middle of it all.  Hehe :)

Then we called up my family and they came over and we had a big Christmas feast!

A big 'ol stack of yummy waffles!  Mmm!

Hehe ;)  Can't forget the chocolate!

I also thought I'd share some of the things I got for Christmas. :)  What did you get?

iPod dock!

Some really cute boots!

I love these movies!

My favorite perfume :)

This amazing hat that I received from my BFFE (best friend for eternity), Kaela. <3

Some clothes!

So, that's what I received. :)  Among other things like:

• Point of Grace Christmas CD
• Hobo gloves
• Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion and body wash
• A head band
• jewelry
• Lots of money ;)

I wore this bow on my shirt all day. lol 

All six of us on Christmas day. :)

I hope you had a great Christmas!!  Feel free to comment and tell me about it.

P.S. Oh!  One last thing!  Happy Anniversary to my amazing parents!  They've been married 19 years today. :)

The First Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas day.  Jesus' birthday.  So I thought I'd share the account of that very first Christmas. :)

Luke 2: 1-20

"In those days Caesar Agustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped Him in clothes and placed Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."


Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."


When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had heard."

Have a very merry CHRISTmas!

P.S. {None of these photos are mine.}