Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, gifts, and food! Jesse and I were serving on lights and slides at church on Christmas morning so we had to be up super early. We opened a couple stocking stuffers at home together and then loaded the rest of the gifts to take to my parents house to open after church.

Jesse and meSiblings

We didn’t even start opening gifts until after lunch which made it hard to wait, but was also kinda nice because usually the excitement of Christmas morning is over by then so this made it last longer. In my family we take turns opening our gifts so that we can enjoy seeing what everyone else got. Dad usually passes out a gift from youngest to oldest, and we keep going in rounds until all the gifts are gone.

Dad with power toolMom opening scarfMom wearing scarfAsh with GPS

This year every gift seemed to come with a long story about how, when, why it was purchased. It’s always fun to hear about all the sneaky-ness that everyone had to keep secret until the gift was opened.

DeweyNicole with jewlery boxJesse with message cardMe with popsicle molds

As you can see, everyone gave and received so many nice gifts. There are lots of good shoppers in my family! So what was your favorite gift to give or get this year?

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

Isaiah 9:6-
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Matthew 1:21-
And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Nuggets: December

I can’t believe that Christmastime is here already! December has just flown by so quickly, here’s a little of what we have been up to…

:: We got to go to a Bucs game. It’s only the second football game I’ve been to. I’m not usually a big fan, but games are more fun in person than they are on TV. The tickets were Jesse’s birthday gift from my parents. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

Bucs game

:: The CF wives planned a cookie exchange at our last dinner. I just love getting together with these girls, and look at all the cookies I took home. I’m serving these yummy treats for Christmas Eve.

Cookie exchange

:: I even got to take home a plate of allergy-free peanut butter cookies. One of the girls made a batch just for me… and I’ve been super nice too and shared a couple with Jesse.

Peanut butter cookies

:: I came across this recipe for black bean fudge. At first I thought there was no way it could be any good, but the reviews were great… so I had to give it a try. I love it! I served it to my family and they almost didn’t believe me when I told them it was made with black beans.

Fudge

:: We went to Church Street Christmas last night. It’s just a simple Christmassy activity, walk up and down the street admiring the Christmas lights and a few performances.

Lamp postChristmas house

:: When we went last year it was FREEZING! This year, not so much… which was a bummer because I really wanted to wear this new, beautiful scarf I got as a Christmas gift. In case you don’t catch the significance it’s purple, for CF, with roses, also for CF… from one my CF wife friends. (I really love it, Ami!)

Scarf

:: I decided that I would just wear my scarf anyways… which made the rest of the girls decide that they all wanted to wear scarves since it was Christmas after all. So all the girls just pretended it was cold enough for scarves even though it was 62 degrees. It’s a fashion statement!

Scarf girls

:: Ashley is home from school for Christmas. Yay! Now we can take some silly pictures!

Muscle girlsSiblings

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!