It's Christmastide!

Technically, Christmas begins on Christmas Day and continues for the next twelve days into the New Year until January 6th which is Epiphany.  I particularly love that this most special holiday doesn't have to end after one day.  All that waiting - Advent - is fulfilled by an almost two week period of celebration.  I don't know if it's liturgically accurate, but we continue to light the Christ candle each night at dinner throughout Christmastide.  I'm a sucker for traditional celebrations, the more obscure the better.  Christmastide isn't exactly obscure, but it makes sense to me to prolong the celebration of Jesus's birth!  And so we continue to celebrate!

    Papaw bought the girls some low-noise fireworks.  Between the anxiety-prone dogs in the house and Lyla's fear of sparklers (she burned herself on the neck a while ago) this was a good little "firework" display. Gwyn and Celee lit all the sparklers and we set off two volcanoes in the driveway.  Lyla kept wanting to light some, but she was too afraid to hold it herself.

     We also got one more play date with our "Mississippi friends."  That's a mess of girls right there!

    After a week in Newton County, we headed west to Texas to spend the next week with Jason's family.  His parents recently moved back and this is our first time at their new house.

     This was the girls' first time to Texas - there's a lot to explain, like TexMex restaurants, big everything, and people really wearing cowboy hats and boots in normal life.  This was also our first time meeting some of Wally's family.  They are quite the hoot. The girls had a blast playing with a newly met cousin Sylvia too.

     On Sunday after church we got to have the affore-mentioned TexMex.  I so miss it!  I do cook TexMex quite a bit on my own, but nothing beats hot crispie chips with homemade salsa!  And I just can not totally recreate the restaurant taste of the main dishes too.  It's probably because I would not want to know the whole list of ingredients, but ignorance sure is tasty sometimes.

     We got Monty (Jason's mother) the game Spoons for Christmas.  She had previously told us how lively this game got when she was younger and played it with family.  It still gets pretty lively!  If the pictures are blurry, it's because once someone grabbed a spoon everyone was grabbing and squealing!  So fun!

     We also got a treat when one of Jason's best friends from his childhood came by for the day with his family.  I got to hold a sweet baby for quite a while, the girls got to play with his older girl, and the men got to shoot the bull for the afternoon.  That's quite a nice way to spend an afternoon!

     I am having a wonderful time relaxing, reading, making music, meeting Jason's family, seeing old friends, and eating food I did not cook.  It's quite a nice end to the year.  It's also nice to be ready to go home.  I don't necessarily want to leave, but I am ready to be home.  It is nice that our "home" in Carroll County, Maryland has become a real home to me.  Not just the house, but our friends, neighbors, and church have given us a sense of belonging that I truly appreciate.  And so I'm savoring our last few days here with family and friends, but also looking forward to going home refreshed and ready for the New Year.

On Christmas Day, On Christmas Day

     I can't believe I was worried.  I mean up in the middle of the night worried!  Our Christmas tradition had to change this year.  There wasn't going to be quite as big of a hullabaloo on Christmas morning.  What if the girls were disappointed?  What if the threads of belief in Santa weren't enough to hold?  I don't really like to make a big deal about Santa, but I usually don't have to.  This year it was on us.  And you know what? It's all going to be ok.  The girls were excited anyway, and happy, and joyful in their giving too.  Isn't that what I'd rather see them focus on anyway?  They did not disappoint. 

     We made the 16 1/2 hour drive down to Mi'sippy on Saturday. Coupled with the fact that 3/5 if us already felt like we were coming down with something before we left, it was a hard day.  But we made it and got to go to my mom's church on Sunday.  It's the old-fashioned songs out of the hymnal kind of church, and it was very nice. No big production, just a heart-felt Christmas message and songs everyone knows. (Except one, but we all struggled through it). After the service they had a pot-luck, or as I like to refer to it, a jack-pot.  I do love Southern ladies' potlucks!  Yes, I will even eat the black-eyed peas cooked to a mush with bacon and okra in it.

     We also got together with some of my very best friends from school.  It's always cool to get together with people you've known (and liked) for most of your life.  People who knew you in your awkward phase or your stupid phase and still like you - those are the keepers.

We also got to hang out with Uncle Casey, Brandy and her daughter Danielle. The girls really enjoyed playing with Dany. They cracked up playing MadLibs and Don't Break the Ice. Then Jason, Casey and Gwyn played Pathfinders and Munchkin. Gwyn is getting to be quite the gamer!

Christmas Eve the family all came over to celebrate. Gwyn, Celee, and Lyla always look forward to playing with their cousin Jeffrey. And we always look forward to catching up with everyone else! We kept trying to get everyone in the picture at the grown-up table. Finallly I had to just take Jerry's picture on his own. I think I caught him in a candid moment!

One of the many ways I dropped the ball this season was that I forgot to bring the girls' stockings. So we decided to channel some Dickens and hang up their actual socks. It probably helped that we had just watched the Black Adder Christmas Special a few days prior, so they were actually excited about it. We ended up borrowing some of Papaw's socks for two of them because they decided their socks could not hold very much.

The socks held enough. Gwyn and Celee both always say the stockings are their favorite thing on Christmas morning. Lyla was very excited that Santa actually ate the cookies she left out. So it was all good.

After everyone was up we opened gifts. Everyone was excited and surprised about their gifts. Gwyn, Celee, and Lyla had picked out presents for each other and everyone on their own. This was the first year that I had no hand in it. They picked out and paid for the gifts on their own. And they were so excited to give their gifts! I was excited that the Rainbow Dash hat I made Lyla fit. ;)

Gwyn and Celee got recurve bows for Christmas. Lyla already had one from her birthday so we all went out for some archery fun. We put out some balloons and the girls (and the adults) all gave it a good try popping the balloons. I will brag a little here and say that Jason and I were the only ones to actually pop one. Gwyn did bump one, but it didn't pop.

We got to have Christmas lunch with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Bill. We don't get to see them very often, so it was special treat. A lot of people ask Celee where she got her blond hair, well this is where. My aunts Barbara and Gale (and my Mamaw Goss) have that blonde hair.

So for all my worrying Christmas went well. Yes we did presents and all that jazz, but we also focused on Christ's birth and how thankful and blessed we are. Both in familial and material blessings and in the miracle of a God who chose to abide with us. We lit the Christ candle with joy that Christ came as the light to the world. He is the Word made flesh and He is Love. And He is here! Halllelujah!

A White Christmas

     It snowed here, early and a lot.  We got over 8 inches at our house by our ruler.  Then we got around four inches a few days later.  The girls had so much fun sledding!  Our yard is very steep so it makes for some awesome sledding, as long as they remember to roll off before they go off into the woods.  

     We also walked down to the river which was really beautiful in the snow.  Parts of the water were iced over and there were deer tracks all around.  We also climbed up to some boulders and found a "cave" and long icicles.  Tink went with us, even though I had to carry her most if the time because the snow was too deep.

     The snow was so pretty the second time it snowed because it stuck to all the trees.  It really was a winter wonderland!

     We've been lighting our Advent candles one more each week.  The girls fuss over who gets to light them, and blow them out, but all-in-all they're pretty good about it.  I like the reminders of Christmas coming and the focus on Christ each night at dinner.

     I took the girls to see the train display at the Kenilsworth Mall in Towson.  It wa really cool!  There are little buttons that control parts of the display all around it.  It's also full of every sort of cartoon characters, from Minnie Mouse to Ironman.  I even found the Tardis!  The girls really enjoyed looking for what the buttons controlled and finding all the different characters.

     It snowed again.  This time only a dusting, but I'm getting lots of snow shoveling practice after a years' respite.

     Jason and I celebrated 13 years of marital bliss on the 16th.  The traditional gift for 13 years is lace, so Jasongot creative and found me this pair of lacey mouse flats.  So cute!  We celebrated with a candlelite dinner in the dining room.  The waitresses in this restaurant are a little pushy and prone to eaves dropping, but it was a lovely dinner.

     Out of the blue Lula decide she wanted her ears pierced.  I already had the gun, so we stopped at Sally's and got the earrings and did it at home.  It was NOT fun.  I have sworn off ear piercing.  It's a good thing we don't have any more kids - if they want some other holes in ears, they can do it themselves. But, Lyla's ears did get pierced and she is proud of them.  I think they're pretty cute looking too.

     The rest of the week we were busy getting ready to go home for Christmas, finishing up school, cleaning, and finishing up some home-made Christmas presents.  I was able to get enough sourdough starter made to give to some friends and neighbors.  I love to give people stuff like this!  

     This was perhaps the first Chriatmas that I haven't been finishing some project or taking something in the car to finish on our way home for Christmas.  It all got done with time to spare!  Woohoo!  So now we can head south and relax and enjoy our family and Christmas.