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.