Thank You!

the blessings continue...we received some gift cards from our family
what a blessing!
they'll make for special date nights, and hopefully some special visits to see
YOU!
THANK YOU AGAIN SO MUCH
we love you and miss you so much.
It is times like this that we wish we were closer so we could give our family a hug.

We have a tree!

...with a star!

...and decorations!

While decorating, we came across some ornaments that make Christmas here kind of bittersweet- like the "our first home" ornament, and one for Harriett, for her first Christmas. We left those in the box for now. Maybe next year they'll have a place on our tree.

We've decorated our home for Christmas, and are finishing up the Christmas gifts to send to our families. The house smells like cinnamon and cookies while we play Christmas music whenever we get the chance.

Last weekend, we drove through a live nativity. To say we "drove through" sounds like we went driving like maniacs through a barn or something. Really, it was about 4 neighborhood blocks of scenes depicting the Christmas story. We waited in line behind dozens of other cars, then when the 'census' was taken, we turned our headlights off and drove slowly through the neighborhood. The scenes were put on by the youth at a local church, and they braved the cold doing the scenes of the census, Mary and Joseph looking for a place to rest, the wisemen searching, and the shepherds, uh...shepherding. The scenes ended with a beautiful display of baby Jesus in the manger surrounded by donkeys, camels and baby goats.

So taken with the real-life scenes, I snapped only a few pictures with Tim's phone. Of all the Christmas decor, the nativity scene is one of my favorites.

Tim and I received this wonderful, early Christmas gift in the mail. I love the simplicity of these figures.

Some other, favorite decorations. Love them all for very different reasons. 12 days until Christmas!