Merry Christmas Card 2013

It's Christmas Eve....can you believe it?
I love Christmas cards. I love "creating" them, addressing the envelopes (I love handwriting the names and addresses) and mailing them. I especially love receiving cards from family and friends too, I love love love when there's a photo inside too. Sometimes a Christmas card is the only contact we have with some family and friends..believe it or not, not everyone is tuned into social media.

After all of our Christmas Card photo outtakes....here's our 2013 card. I love the color red, so I chose the red and green version of this shutterfly card, although the fushia colored one was pretty awesome too.

They have been mailed out, but it seems I never order enough. Next year I will start early and order more, and organize my addresses.

Merry Christmas, from our house to yours...

January is coming...we have the solution to your resolution.

baking up some memories

My girls have been wanting to bake. It's Christmas time and everyone bakes at Christmas, right? I really admire you bakers out there. Your baked goods look awesome. Always. Mine, not so much. But wanting to make memories with my girls more than making perfect cookies, we stopped by and bought the ingredients. My boys? They like to eat the dough while we bake, and eat the finished product. They did however, dash up to the store to get two ingredients that we needed that I forgot.

We found the rolling pins, and 3 cookie cutters. That's right, only 3 cookie cutters, a heart, a snowflake, and a heart.

Karlie and Jolie loved baking today...

The finished product was gobbled up quickly by the family even though the cookies didn't keep their cut shape.

Can't you see our excited baker faces?

Next up we tried a new recipe. It is a twist on an old classic. One of our favorites (peanut butter blossoms) mixed with red velvet, another of our favorites. I saw the recipe on this blog iambaker

These turned out nicely. I do much better with cookies that you roll in a ball dip in sugar and bake and then press a chocolate kiss in it while warm.

I tried to get fancy with it and take a photo on a Christmas plate like the real foodie bloggers do. 

We had fun making Christmas baking memories today...now someone pass the carb-ease please.

Do you really like Christmas?

The other night while we were driving to one of the many events that crowd our calendars during the month of December, I turned to my hubby, and sighed. 

I sighed one of those deep, sighs. The kind of sigh that can get you in trouble cause those in ear shot might think you're disgusted....

anyway...

I turned to him and asked him this question.

Do you really like Christmas?

He replied...well of course. 

I said

Yeah

I know what you mean....I love Christmas

the celebration of the birth of Jesus...but the stress that comes with the season.

I 

could 

do 

without.

A friend of mine told me about Ann Voskamps book about Advent. I read her blog, and have read her devotions for advent in the past, but this year she has a new book to help us prepare ourselves for 

the 

coming

of Christ

in 

the midst

of 

all 

of our 

secular lives....

I read it...I like it

But

Sometimes

Still

The 

Stress of

Christmas

finds 

me and wears me down.

Oh to bottle up that anticipation of a child waiting for Christmas...

Thinking it will never arrive

but as a parent...realizing it arrives all too fast.

but yesterday

on my way to one of those shopping trips I passed the little church on the corner.

There were no fancy ribboned decorations there, no fancy light displays, but simply a cross...a very plain cross, with a sign

with 

red 

words..

that simply stated

This I did for you

John 3:16

I snapped a quick photo with my phone while paused at the red light.

The church at the corner has it right

Christmas...it's about the cross...

nothing 

fancy, ribboned, or lighted

but

simply a cross

 with a message...

a gift.

so today, when I found myself out with the rest of my county making those last minute preparations.

My attitude had

a 

glimpse of that 

childhood 

wonder of Christmas and I took the words from Ann's book to heart.

Turning my secular tasks into something sacred.

Jesus is the gift of Christmas. Have you received this precious, awesome gift?

Breathe a silent prayer, asking God to clear the way, turning your secular tasks into something sacred.

  The Greatest Gift --Ann Voskamp

Christmas with EM

We were so excited to have Emily visit for a few days of Christmas break. She has already headed home, and we miss her bunches.

Opening a few gifts

 Christmas is fun

 Jolie can always be found

 Near Emily...

Merry Christmas, Emily...we miss you...hurry back to Georgia, soon.