Impromptu Visits

Are you ever amazed when someone invites you over last minute?
Are you a type of person that has to have the house clean and ready before you have guests over?
On Monday night, JM and I went to choir practice, yes choir practice.
I may have come full circle in my years of watching my dad direct choir and my mom and siblings sing.
I vowed I would never do it for as long as I can remember.
And what have I been doing for the last few months?
Practicing with the choir for one song in the Christmas Eve service.
Well, aside from that...
After practice, a family from our church invited us over because they [and JM] were all singing songs from:
"A Year Without Santa Claus" & "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"
...movies I had never seen.
They wanted me to experience all the fun and music that was so special to their family and childhoods.
I'm so thankful to share a first Christmas movie memory with this family.
We all piled in our cars and had a great evening that was all last minute.
They grabbed egg-nog, snacks and opened their home.
We have never hung out with this family outside of seeing them at church.
It's times like this when I hope that I can always open our home happily; even if it's last minute.
No matter the time or day or if the house is clean.
What a lovely experience!

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String!

This year I decided to go with simple gift-wrapping and if you love The Sound of Music as much as I do, you too will be familiar with gifts of "brown paper packages tied up with string" (and tape because I'm not that good!). We spent $8 on 90ft of brown paper that can be used year-round for all types of projects! If I had a lot of money and beautiful paper and bows, I could probably find myself spending way too much time and money on just gift-wrapping alone. I've really enjoyed Christmas shopping this year: 1. We've had the money to do it and 2. Most of our gifts have a lot of thought put into them. We really tried to be extra-special with gifts this year as I hope for every year! Personally, I would much rather a cheap, but thoughtful gift over something expensive just for brand-name's sake. Most gifts we are giving were hand-made [by me], local and small-business, and bargain or refurbished gifts! Yay! Most of our shopping was done before December and we've stayed pretty close to our budget... but we did go over :(
But, aside from earthly gifts, we cannot forget what they represent. We love the season of Christmas because ALL have received an amazing gift we do not deserve. GRACE! We have received grace through the birth and life of Jesus Christ. Boy, have we done a bad job at representing grace at Christmas.Think of what Christmas turns into each year. Please, let's not get caught up in our decorating and perfecting [Rahel]. Enjoy the raw meaning of Christmas. Enjoy family, friends, and the fact that we do not have to live in fear of this world. Find JOY in our Savior, Jesus Christ the King.
Enjoy the holiday spirit and be thankful for all the blessings the Lord has made.

A Year Ago Today

A year ago, my life was rapidly changing. I was finishing my last semester of college, making last minute wedding plans, packing my life away and experiencing a lot of transitions! Here are some photos from a year ago today! I am so grateful for my education at Lee University and proud to call it my Alma Mater. I had amazing teachers, classmates, friends and an all-together unforgettable experience. After 3 semesters of nearly failing, I took 1.5 years off before transferring to Lee to start fresh. Going from nearly failing to a desire to learn, grow and succeed helped me push for my almost 4.0 average while at Lee. Too bad my grades transferred over from where I began, but I worked so hard to receive an overall college GPA of 3.2! I celebrated with my soon-to-be husband, family, teachers and friends!

President Paul Conn and his wife!

Our Tree

Aren't lit trees just so mesmerizing. I could sit and look at the lights and reflections for hours.

When we were little, we would get up in the mornings and sit almost under the tree as we ate our cereal and just stared at the lights. Do you have any childhood memories of your trees over the years?

One year my brother got a really bad shock from trying to plug the tree in.

Another year one of my sisters tipped the entire tree over - we won't name any names,

but I'm pretty sure she was really embarrassed.

I can still remember her screeching scared apologies and crying.

My favorite ornaments on my parents' tree were the little wooden rocking horses.

A few years ago my mom decided to get a big holly tree for their Christmas tree.

It was a good idea and they could plant it after the holidays...

but it would prick you if you bumped into it and unfortunately - 

it didn't survive after they planted it.

JM's family usually puts up the tree on Thanksgiving Day.

Merry Christmas!

Join Us For Christmas, Here's What You'll Find

December 1st

We decided to try and make December 1st a special one for now and years to come.
We want to make it the day we get our tree as we grow into a family!
This year was our first tree-picking event as a married couple and I think we found the best one!
We spent the night fluffing, decorating, listening to hours of Christmas music, and celebrating what Christmas is all about!