The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This Christmas has been the most fun yet. We had lots of fun celebrating the season with family traditions. Grace really got into Christmas this year. Here are some of the fun things we have been up to.

-Grace enjoyed helping decorate our tree and hearing the different stories about her ornaments. (We give the girls one each year)

-Having family movie nights. We did a movie night & made "hot" chocolate. Grace got to try it for the first time. One night we watched the Muppets Christmas Special on TV. Jeremy loved the Muppets when he was little and Grace does too. My favorite comment, "Where did the waubi go?" She doesn't know what a comerical is, we only watch movies & the Disney channel.

-Making special homemade Christmas gifts. This year we were "green" and made reusable shopping bags for the grandmas.

-Grace was so excited about the snow. She wanted to go sledding. She also made a snow angel.

-We made a Birthday cake for Jesus. Faith checks out Baby Jesus on top.
-For the second year we made cookies for our neighbors. This year we all bundled up as a family to deliver them. It was freezing outside (literally, the temperature that night was in the teens!)
-Each year I have expanded my candy making. This year we made Tiger Butter, Peanut Butter Balls, Toffee, & Christmas "Buttons." Grace made the buttons herself.
-One night we all loaded in the car in our pj's with blankets and went to look at Christmas lights. The girls both enjoyed this. We went out to Mark Twain Cave to drive through the lights display.

-Reading LOTS of Christmas books. We have a collection of Christmas themed books we only get out at Christmas time.

I LOVED having so much family time in December. It was a lot of fun seeing both the girls enjoy some of the same things Jeremy and I did as kids. I am looking forward to having a little more time to do all these fun things next year (Since we were gone for 5 days in December this year).  And I am hoping to add some type of Advent/Countdown activity to our celebration. More on Christmas soon...

I am so proud of my man!

Jeremy received some very exciting news this week. He wrote an article that is going to be published in YLO. YLO is a "magazine" of sorts. There is a company called Interlinc that provides Christian music to youth ministries at a reasonable price. Four times a year Jeremy recieves a box of the latest Christian music & videos from Interlinc. Included with the music is a rescource book for youth ministers called YLO (youth leaders only) that contains articles & bible studeis based on the new music. An article Jeremy wrote entitled, "Lanes Merging" is going to be in the next YLO that comes out in 2009. I am SO proud of him!!!!! Writing is not something that coes easy for him and he pursued the opportunity to write for Interlinc totally based on the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I am so thankful for this blessing of encouragement- Go God!! I'm sure I will put a link up when it comes out.

MEXICO!

So, technically our anniversary isn't until May. But we celebrated anyway!

Getting ready to go snorkeling. It was fun except that the water was very rough. And towards the end I was a little sea sick.

The sun was perfect. It wasn't hot- just warm. We actually had to make an effort to get tan.

On Sunday morning we got up early (5 a.m.) to watch the sun come up. It was gorgeous. Jeremy and I both thought it was a great way to worship.

One of our favorite things was getting dressed up and going out to dinner each evening. It was absolutely lovely to not have to cook, or cut up food, or encourage good manners, or wrestle a little person who needs their face washed, or shout over little people noise in order to talk!

I have to admit I am still adjusting back to cold weather & being in the middle of the Christmas season. Our trip was amazing! And other than missing our girls it was absolutely perfect. We didn't have any travel issues. We had fun going snorkeling at a coral reef, shopping in Playa del Carmen, eating yummy food, laying on the beach, reading, walking (our resort was HUGE), listening to the ocean, and just having time with each other when we didn't have to share. Our biggest adventure was going to explore a cave. It was part of an underground river system so we had to wear wetsuits. Part of the time we were swimming. It was really cool. I don't have any pictures I can upload because they wouldn't let you have a camera (at all). The flashes can damage the cave (a.ka. they take pictures and charge big bucks!). So we hated to do it but spent $25 so we would have one picture to remember our adventure.

I think one of my favorite things about the trip was enjoying the fulfillment of a dream. Jeremy and I from the very beginning had set a goal of getting away every five years. It was so fun to reflect on the past five years and see the blessing of it actually coming to be. On our way to our resort the van we rode in dropped off some people at the resort we stayed at on our honeymoon! It was also great to realize I enjoyed this trip even more than our honeymoon. I am still crazy about my husband and he is still my favorite person to spend time with. The world tells us that all the "excitement" is before you get married and then everything is down hill from there. What a lie! The past five years has been full of challenges, but it is such a blessing to think about how my love for Jeremy has grown! I was very worried about being away from the girls. We both missed them, but they seemed to have a great time while we were gone. And they are enjoying the maracas we brought back for them.

Jeremy,

I love you more now than the day I married you. And I am already dreaming about 10 years! You are my best friend, an amazing husband, and my favorite person to experience life with. You have gotten me to do stuff I never would have (Caves were not my thing!) and I wonder what that will include in the future. Thank you for challenging me, loving me, and helping me to grow.

Jennifer