traditions and celebrations

it's the most wonderful time of the year! 

 

 

last year we started a new tradition and welcomed eli into our home for the christmas season.  this year, eli was missing in action so i thought we'd be forced to take the year off.  however, when we pulled out our nativity to put it up as a family and talk about Christ's birth, we discovered eli had been hiding out with baby Jesus.  so...the tradition continues.  we've had fun looking for eli each morning to see what he's been up to.  

 

when john and i were dating and first married living in granger, we always went to a specific sub division that goes all out decorating for christmas.  they have people standing where you exit to take donations and then they give a different charity all the money from that day.  i think it's wonderful how the community comes together to do this and i always enjoy looking at their lights, so this year we decided to start a new tradition and take the kids to see them.  kenna loved looking at them but greyson kept asking when we could go to the store.  finally i asked him why, and he informed us that we needed to go buy lights to decorate our house like the houses we were seeing.  ha! thankfully, he was enjoying himself too! :) afterwards we went to red robin and had a great time dining out as a family.  (take note of kenna's red shoes.  she was determined to wear these even though they don't match.  her stubbornness is going to give me a lot of headaches i'm afraid.)

today we had our first family christmas at grandma barb and grandpa bill's house.  kenna was probably the most excited because she has been talking about ty-ty nonstop for weeks.  she loves her "baby" (he's only a month younger than her) cousin!  in fact, barb watched the kids earlier this week and all she did was ask for ty-ty because he's usually there when she is. 

 

i love all the hustle and bustle of the christmas season, but what i love even more is why we celebrate christmas.  i am thankful i serve a God who came in human form and gave his life for me.  if you don't know jesus as your Savior, what are you waiting for? he will welcome you into his family with open arms!