December 26th and a Christmas Recap

It is funny how crazy busy life is in December until December 26th.  During this season I seriously feel as though some days I have to plan down to every minute so as to make sure I can get it all in.  Don't get me wrong, it is a good busy...parties, programs, shopping, wrapping, baking, church events, family time, etc.  And then you have December 26th...a day of relief and sadness mixed together.  Please tell me I am not the only one with the after-Christmas blues?!?!  So after living on adrenaline for the past month, we took it easy this morning and let Jude play with his new toys.  Then, around noon Matt & I went on a date, which was so nice. :)  After, we came back home to Jude and continued exactly what we did throughout the morning.

As for Christmas...it was just such a wonderful time.  We are so blessed to have families to celebrate with.  I am finding as I get older the gifts are definitely not as important as just being with the people that I love and care about. Both Christmas Eve and Christmas day we were running back and forth from Matt's family's and my family's gatherings.  In addition to all of our celebrating, Matt took our youth group to serve breakfast on Christmas morning to a homeless shelter.  We also kept another tradition with us going to candlelight service at our church on Christmas.  Here are a few moments we captured throughout the two days.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Have the Merriest Christmas!

We just want to wish all of our dear family and friends a Merry Christmas.  Hoping your day is blessed with peace, love, and joy.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is now variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Photo by Jessica of J. Lauren Photography

"All Aboard!"

We kept with tradition and took Jude for a train ride to "the North Pole" last week.  Honestly, we didn't get off to the greatest start.  It was pouring the rain and the train company had a slight delay in boarding.  We are starting to think we are bad luck or something, since it rained on us last year too (you can see our visit here).  We didn't let this deter us though, we made the most of the train ride and our visit with Santa.  Speaking of Santa, I had been prepping Jude on St. Nick (or "Claus" as he calls him) since this would be the first year he would realize he was sitting on a stranger's lap.  We have discussed what Santa says, does, and what Jude would say to him.  However, all the prepping in the world could not change the instant fear that overcame Jude when he saw Santa.  He said, "Scary!" and I happened to be THAT parent that told him to just sit for a quick picture (I know, I feel awful). Oh, but what a picture it was!!!!  Jude did have a blast on the train.  He has a pretty big fascination with trains as it is, so getting to ride one made the day so much more special.  Two of his favorite phrases right now are "All aboard!" and "Tickets, please."  So Santa, if you're reading this...we have a boy that would love to have some trains around here. ;)

Tree Hunting on a Snowy Day

After getting hit with a lot of snow on Friday, we were kind of worried that our weekend plans were a bust.  According to Jude's Advent calendar we were supposed to go find our Christmas tree on Saturday.  Thankfully the snow didn't stop our favorite tree farm (you can see last year's visit here) from opening.  Dressed as warm as we could get, we ventured out early Saturday morning to find one.  The fresh snow and the clear blue sky made for the perfect setting for our tree hunt.  It didn't take us long to find THE tree.  She is a beautiful spruce which we promptly brought home, trimmed, and decorated.  Jude was pretty impressed with all of our ornaments.  He said, "Oh look, toys!!!" when we opened our collection up.  We are loving this season a ton over here.  Hope you are getting in the spirit of Christmas, too.