A Month of Christmas

This December has been especially wonderful. It's been a busy wonderful month as you can imagine with two little ones, and here is a brief description of our month:

1. We have developed friendships that will last a lifetime. Went to Legoland with one family, attended a small group Christmas party, went to 2 homeschool Christmas parties, had several families over to our house one at a time, visited friends at their home, and shared long conversations with old friends by phone.

2. Visited Savannah for Christmas...1st Christmas in Savannah ever as we had a previous rule about being home on the morning of Christmas. Sometimes there is just too much to pack in, and sometimes rules are meant to be broken. It was fun to break our rule this once b/c it was a sign of the release of tradition. I find I can get in bondage of the hold of tradition, and it was nice to just go with the flow this year.

3. Visited Vero Beach and stayed there until midnight playing games with friends from the past who will be forever friends. We also enjoyed a nice long walk on the beach (yep, in December and it was perfect). This visit was particularly special b/c we got to visit with not only the couple who we have grown to love dearly but with both of their boys who now live in different states. We love keeping in touch with them and watching as the Lord leads them. What a special time!

4. Made our own Advent calendar from scratch and read scripture that pointed to the birth of Christ throughout the month. I saw Andrew grow in his understanding of Christ, and we all enjoyed this new tradition. Of course, we also promoted family time by doing something fun as directed by each advent card - played games together, read stories, played Wii, at Christmas treats etc.

5. Andrew had his piano recital at the beginning of the month (er end of last month) where he played Go Tell It on the Mountain. That was only the first of many Christmas songs he learned to play. We enjoyed singing along as he played the songs to really get us in the festive spirit of Christmas.

6. We spent an entire day baking Christmas treats. We made chocolate covered pretzels topped with peppermint Andes candies, buckeyes, sugar cookies with coconut oil instead of butter, gingerbread cookies, Ritz bits dipped in chocolate and a mistake which happened to be our favorite chocolate covered graham crackers dipped in chocolate sprinkled with the peppermint Andes candies. I might have eaten a few too many sweets this season.

7. Mat was off several days of this month after working a crazy schedule the first 2 weeks of the month. It's been so nice to have him home, and we had lots of fun times together just living life.

8. We got a new car and a new camera all in one month :)

9. We bought a groupon to ride a boat around Merritt Island, and we enjoyed doing that as a last minute activity since the groupon expires at the end of the month. It was beautiful, cold and breezy on the boat, but our tour guides were equipped with blankets and treats. We met some sweet people on that boat ride.

It's been a delightful month, and we hope you all have had a very Merry Christmas. It's not about the things we do, but the joy that fills our hearts by knowing Christ and celebrating HIM all year long.