Our 2008 Holiday Season

Many belated Christmas wishes to everyone! The fact that it's been almost 3 weeks since I've blogged pretty much explains how busy it's been! (That and the fact that we haven't had access to the internet). We had wanted to start decorating our home right after Thanksgiving, but were swamped with our semesters ending (grades due!), that we didn't get around to it until the following week. We didn't let the season completely pass us by- we did some Christmas-y things like walk Christmas Tree Lane, decorate a gingerbread house, read Christmas-themed books every night before bedtime, and Grandma was able to come and bake cookies with Grace. Our last day of teaching was Friday, 12/19, and with school "behind us," another rush was on- we are one of those families who doesn't think Christmas is the same without the hustle and bustle of last minute Christmas shopping (that's our excuse). We went up to Jennifer's house on 12/21 for a Christmas party with some of her close friends. It was a fun evening, and we stayed after the kids went to bed to play Pick 4 (I won!). We stayed overnight at Jason's mom's because his family's Christmas get-together was the next day. It was a relaxing amd enjoyable day. We ate a special breakfast in the morning, snacked on appetizers throughout the day, and then had soup for dinner. We thought that Jeremy would really get into the presents since he's such a curious kid, but we'll have to wait until next year. As usual, our family was extremely generous.
Our family's (the four of us) tradition with celebrating on Christmas Eve started before our kids were born. We made and ate a fantastic dinner (beef tenderloin, asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, bread, and garlic red potatoes), then headed off to the Christmas Eve service at church. I grew up always going to church on Christmas Eve, so it has now become part of our tradition. When we got home, we wanted to open gifts with some hot chocolate and cookies. It was a great idea, but got to be hard with Jeremy getting into everything and Gracie getting really hyper from all the sugar. We'll have to rethink that idea next year! We did absolutely nothing on Christmas Day, and it was great! First thing in the morning, the kids found that "Santa" had left them a present and stockings. For dinner, we met up with Jennifer and Jason's mom at Dai Bai Dang. No one wanted to cook, but we all wanted to be together. We came back to our house and played games after putting the kids to bed. (We took quite a few pictures over this holiday season. Click on the picture on the right to see them).

This is my last post of the year!!! It has been an amazing year for our family and we are grateful for God's continued guidance and provision. Thank you for being in our lives- many wishes to everyone for a healthy and blessed 2009!