Then, a couple weeks before Christmas, we were able to have our missionary friends, the Duggans, over for dinner. Since they live in Costa Rica, we hadn't been able to have face-to-face fellowship in many, many months. They were a great encouragement to us and shared words of wisdom that we will not soon forget.
Of course, we enjoyed seeing Steven's family - Ronny, Teresa, Michelle and the kids... and later, his parents. We are grateful for those moments.
The fellowship kept on going with dinner at the Smith's house. (YUM. My friend Hallel never fails at creating a meal that is totally delish.) And of course we laughed a lot.
We were able to visit with my Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Leon at our house the week before Christmas. We soaked up the quality time since they will be in Florida through April! The kids loved showing off while they were here!
Then, on the night before Christmas Eve, we went to a Christmas Eve service with our friends the Brewers. We enjoyed the service, and our fellowship over dinner was wonderful with our sweet friends.
Although there were many friends we weren't able to see this season, we treasure the moments of connection we had, and we look forward to much more fellowship during 2012!
Christmas day for us started out with our little family, celebrating together in our master bed. The kids got on the bed (well, Isaac was already there - he comes into our bed around 5 AM each morning and finishes sleeping right in between Steven and me!) and Steven got the guitar out. We sang songs to Jesus and enjoyed some family worship time before heading downstairs. When we got downstairs, the kids saw some fun gifts and immediately started playing. They didn't even get their entire stocking emptied because they were consumed with the other gifts.
Later in the morning, we went to my parents' house. We spent most of the rest of the day there, eating, visiting, playing, eating... It was a wonderful time with some of our favorite people!
Here are our babies, eating their Christmas breakfast of Butter Braid and Turkey Sausage:
Opening presents:
Elise loves her necklaces from Isaac!
Steven was thrilled to get a puzzle from Isaac (in fact, he's working on it as I type this post):
Hugs for Daddy!
Oh! I got an apple corer from the kids! (they went to the Dollar Store with my parents to pick out our gifts. How sweet!)
Our family on Christmas morning: (in our Christmas morning finest, as you see!) :)
Isaac, opening a gift at Mom and Dad's:
Elise, opening one of her gifts:
Now, the photo shoot pictures...
Our family:
Granny and Pawpaw with the kids (I LOVE this one!):
The guys:
The ladies:
Kati and me: (I <3 my sister!)
Our big family (My Dad's parents, my parents, Kati and Ray, and our family):
Christmas really is about Jesus' love... showing it and sharing it with others. We were blessed to experience that in a beautiful way again this year. Thank you Lord!
4 comments:
Um, is Elise wearing her PJs backwards? Ima need to hear that story please.
Yes, she totally is wearing them backwards! A few months back I smelled a poopy smell in our hallway during naptime and thought our cat had had an accident. But the smell was strongest under Elise's door. When I opened it, I saw that she had taken her clothes off as well as her poopy diaper, and she'd spread the poopy all over the crib. Yuck! I cleaned everything up and tried using duct tape to secure her diaper (had to switch to paper dipes). BUT she managed to get the tape off after a few nights. So, my neighbor suggested putting her nightclothes on backwards. So that's what we've been doing for the past couple months. There are a couple ones that she can get out of herself, but most of them are still too hard. I'm hoping she'll potty train SOON before she's able to get out of the trickier PJ's! Ahhh!!! Did N or A do this?!?
hahahah! no, never.
but please make sure there's a pic of her backwards PJs and the reason behind it in her baby book! that'll be one of those hilarious "remember when Elise had to wear her PJs backwards" stories in a few years! :)
Yes, you're right! I really need to blog about it because my blog is basically my scrapbook/babybook all in one. If it's not on the blog, it's probably not anywhere else. ;)
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