We were still battling covid the first couple weeks
of Advent and we felt God's presence in powerful ways...
bringing new meaning to Immanuel - God with us!
Our holiday season included less people,
less stuff, and less going ...
it was simple and refreshing!
Grace and I made birdseed ornaments
hanging them on the tree outside our windowseat.
We decorated this tree for the birds before our Christmas tree!
I was so thankful that I am a planner
and prepare ahead when able.
Christmas gifts were bought and paid for before
we got sick. I had supplies bought for ornaments
and fudge gifts and prep done early too.
A lot of this wouldn't have happened without that!
Grace and I made faux stained glass ornaments
as gifts for family and church family.
And we made three types of fudge -
chocolate, peanut butter and maple walnut -
as gifts for neighbors and Matt's co-workers.
And we finally got our tree up less than two weeks
before Christmas so we kept it simple.
Grace and I made cinnamon applesauce ornaments
in star shapes for the tree.
We put on lights, pom pom garland,
Christmas carol paper chains and the stars.
I loved it!
Grace has a lot of fun creating gingerbread
houses from kits we've been given or bought.
So this year, I ordered a set of gingerbread house
cookie cutters and took Grace to the dollar store
for candy etc. She drew out her plans
for her village. We made gingerbread from scratch
baking all the separate parts. Then came the glue icing
and assembly. And finally the decorating.
It was a two day project and worth every minute
plus penny spent!
Matt's mom came up from Pittsburgh area to spend some time
with us on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed brunch,
sharing gifts, playing a new game, and
attending Christmas Eve together.
Christmas morning was a quiet and relaxing
time just us four at home.
Since our Christmas plans/family gift was a
trip to Florida that got canceled, I only had ornaments,
books and chocolate for the kids.
It worked out though because they both
still needed money for summer camp so we
used FL money to finish paying that for them
as their Christmas gift.
And they both were thrilled with books and chocolate
for our day after Christmas tradition adopted from Iceland.
We were excited that my mom had recovered enough
from covid to host us Christmas afternoon.
We enjoyed dinner, homemade egg nog, desserts,
playing games, and sharing gifts.
My mom made the kids these super cool pillows!
On the way home, we got hot chocolate and drove
around looking at Christmas lights.
(Christmas cards were one of the many things I
let go this year, so...)
MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family!
We had a lot of fun with our family traditions
on New Year's Eve!
bowling for the afternoon
picking up pizza at our favorite local place
coming home for pizza, snacks, m-n-m buffet
and movie marathon
(original Star Wars trilogy this year)
And just before midnight, we went out to light and release
Chinese lanterns ...a fun and beautiful idea until
the first one got stuck way up high in a tree in the woods
still with a fire ...so the second one which was lit got
stomped out and the other two didn't get lit.
Thankfully the flame died out and it rained
instead of us having to call the fire department!
To end this post, I want to introduce you to Nosiata,
our granny in Uganda. Our church has close connections
with ROTOM and we have chosen to monthly sponsor
Nosiata. Remember this summer, we were selling
firewood to raise enough money for her to receive
a rainwater filter system? We raised more than
half of our goal, but not quite so we asked family
to donate money towards this effort as our
Christmas gift and two did, helping us
reach our goal. I'm super excited to announce that
Nosiata and her family will now have easy
access to clean water!
Happy New Year!
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