Christmas Time is HERE!

So, this past weekend we've jumped chin-deep into Christmas. On Friday night, at BIG Friday a group of us went to an older couples home for a visit. Besides the lovely decorations they had up, and the hot cocoa and cookies they had prepared, the Christmas carols we sung really made me feel like Christmas was here. It was a lovely visit, but by 9:30 PM, we knew it was time to leave. We hurried back to the church and helped make the last few cards for those on our list of "needing a note of encouragement".

Then, Sabbath morning, the praise songs I led with Marella and Debbie were Christmas carols. To hear the whole congregation belting out Silent Night really filled me with the warm spirit of Christmas. And to hear Pastor Jeff preaching about the way Jesus came to my world to understand me, reminded me of what Christmas is all about. A fun evening with young adults at Glow Miniature Golf didn't remind me of Christmas as much as the CROWDED mall we waded through to grab dinner and get to our venue (the mall parking lot rarely fills up, so that was the first sign).Then Sunday morning we picked up my grandparents and headed over the river and through the woods to the Taylor's home for a lovely afternoon of Christmas Tree decorating. We hiked out in the woods, found the tree, cut it down, shaped and trimmed it and then made it beautiful (see pictures).

It was really fun to have some of the family around helping our tree be straight shapely and decorated just right.

Mom hung the stockings while Jack baked fresh chocolate cookies for us to munch on and SMELL!

This is just the beginning of an influx of family time over the next week or so. Wednesday we leave for northern California to do it all again with Jack's family. I'm loving it!