Rockin' New Year's Eve

Its only 8:49pm, so how could I already be posting our New Year's celebration?  Well we parents are sneaky and because we can we decided to celebrate at 7!  We got dressed up (the girls say I look like I am going to have a baby, so yay for mommy tummies even 4 years later), lit candles, had sparkling apple cider, said something we liked about 2012, said a prayer for 2013, watched a ball drop from years gone by on youtube and listened to Auld Aunsaigne (or whatever it is), then put the kids to bed and since its raining here we don't except a lot of fireworks so we should be asleep before the new year too!!  Here's to this season of our lives and enjoying every minute of it.

Cousins!

 We had a nice surprise visit from Justin, Catherine, Gabriel and Abigail on his birthday.  They are finished with their time in Virginia and are heading to Russia (here we come Summer 2014!) and saw some of his family in San Antonio.  They came up for Gabriel's birthday and we had a nice visit.  The cousins even posed for pictures.

 Then in Salado we captured this cute one of Boyd cousins with Granddaddy.

 in Beaumont of Christmas eve, this was after putting out cookies for Santa...

and the whole gang on Christmas night (we missed Nathanael and McKenzie this year but are thankful we got to see them at Thanksgiving).  Thankful for fun times with lots of cousins!

Radical...again

(I get books for free from agreeing to review them on my wonderful blog from Multnomah’s Blogging For Books.)  I chose to get David’s Platt’s The Radical Question & A Radical Idea because my husband and I have read Radical and Radical Together and really enjoyed them.   They challenged us, made us think, and cause us to evaluate the way we live our lives as followers of Christ and the way we do church.  I thought I would be a good addition to get the new one in the series.  Well, this is not new.  The Radical Question takes material from Radical, The Radical Idea from Radical Together and puts them into a cute little hardback book.  So the material is great; but I have already read it all.  If you want a quick Radical refresher in a nice format, this is a great book for you.  If you want to get someone interested in the concepts but they aren’t big readers then this would be a great gift.  If you want to read something new, then skip this one.  Though I don’t blame Platt for doing this because I listened to one of his sermons today and he shared that all the proceeds from the Radical series goes to spreading the gospel and helping the poor around the world; so go buy a stack of them!

Christmas in Beaumont

 We arrived in Beaumont in time for bed and Abby jumped in with Lydia-which is fine with her because she is going through a phase where she doesn't like to sleep alone.

 The next day was Christmas eve and was full of more chalk, walks, Christmas sweets, Merida bow & arrows.  A small group of us went to the Christmas eve candle light service....

 then home for our own carols and Christmas story....

 and getting cookies ready for Santa!

 who came and brought Gloria a Ariel paint tail (she wanted a paint 'neck' but was still happy)

 and Lydia a unicorn pegisus!

 then tons of presents from all the family!

 then several walks (in the late morning a crazy storm came threw and blew everything around but then the sky cleared up but the rest of the day it got colder and colder) so after walking we had hot chocolate!  Heidi, Catherine, Linda and I went to see Les Mis and left the kids with the boys who did a great job of getting them to sit still and smile for a group photo!

We woke up early the next day and were off to Caleb's cousins!

Christmas in Salado

 We arrived in Salado after Bill and family and jumped right into festivities, like decorating gingerbread men.

 The next morning we opened presents including Nana's thoughtful year in review tree ornaments.  C-fishing santa, L-first day of school, G-swimmer and me-globe for Friendship Int.

 The girls dressed up since they have so many cute Christmas clothes, then after a nice lunch they changed into play clothes to do chalk and play outside.

 Nativity play-this year a baby doll Jesus and Lucy was a cute shepherd with Lovey Lamb.  Gloria got to be the angel and even said the lines and poor Jonathan is always stuck as Joseph :)

 Sunday morning we went to FBC Salado.  Lydia wore the dress that I wore for Jan & Glen's wedding.

All dressed up.  After a BBQ lunch we drove to Beaumont!

Christmas at Home

 Before traveling we had our own Christmas with hot chocolate, peppermint bark, reading of the Christmas story and carols.  Then some presents.  Thanks to craiglist we are very newly outfitted for the new year with gadgets-we got a wii and new mac laptop.

Lydia on a horse

A few months ago Lydia became obsessed with horses.  She shouts for joy when she sees one outside the car window; she hugs the book when one is on the page.  She also requested from Santa a unicorn pegisus (why does spell check not help me with that word??).  After Christmas, we drove to Caleb's cousin's home in the country outside Corsicana and spent the day with his dad's side of the family.  Who have horses!  So besides catching up with family and eating amazing fajitas, the girls got to chase goats, build a hay fort and RIDE A HORSE!  It was worth the 8 hours in the car that day.

Trail of Lights

 Austin brought back the Trail of Lights this year for one week only.  We went with Kellaura.  Got a great (free) parking spot and first spun under the Zilker Tree!

 There was a line but the weather was great and the kids enjoyed playing while we waited a bit.  then we joined the mass of humanity to walk through 36 different light displays.  Favorites-L-World of Disney and baby Jesus, Gloria-Little Mermaid and Belle.  There were free books from HEB...

 we got funnel cake and watched some dance performances before heading back to our car.  Lydia got a little tired at the end but considering the crowds, time and complete stimulation of the event it went really well and was a fun time!

Santa!

 Lydia wanted to go to see Santa again this year so we went after school and had to wait in a line, but there were letters to write, babies to play with and the train to watch.  Nana got a great picture.  Well the innocence is over; now the girls know you get to ask Santa what you want for instead of just visit and say hi. So they both had a specific request (L-unicorn pegisus and G-Ariel paint doll)

They then rode the train, we had chick fila and rode the escalator a few times before heading home!

Random Christmas Fun

 Sunday school party.  Our class had a potluck dinner (so much food!) and then the children did a Nativity play.  Lydia got to be Mary and Gloria in the pack of angels.  They did a good job and had a good time.

 I left that party and went to a ladies gift exchange.

 Nana came for Santa and while Lydia was in school we took Gloria to see the Gingerbread houses etc at the Four Seasons Hotel.

 Lydia and Gloria made peppermint bark to give their teachers.  Lots of sticky yumminess!

Our church had a Night in Bethlehem with lots of the rooms done up as stores in the marketplace and I got to head up the wreath shop (Romans used wreathes to celebrate).  It was fun seeing all the big kids.  Lydia got to do it as well and Gloria was home (kinda) sick.

Performance

 This was Gloria's first year to do a choir performance.  She stuck by Jackson and they all did a great job and of course looked so cute.

 Lydia is a pro now :) and we brought our neighbor Summer who joined in after only going once before.

Nana & Grandpa (who used to drive for 2 songs of Lydia got to hear 5 this year) took us to Free Birds for a late dinner and fun foil designs.

Lydia's 6th Birthday

 Lydia requested a volcano party for her 6th birthday (yay for something other than princesses)  Nana helped complete the theme with Hawaiian touches!

 After the parade, we came home and got everything ready including the cake.

 Then friends come and we did little explosions of lava in personal volcanoes-lots of squealing fun!

 Yummy simple dinner (on sticks) and cake before

learning how to hula from a fun video (the skirts and flower hair bows were their favors).  Then Lydia opened up a bunch of neat presents, everyone left and Lydia, Gloria and Summer tried out the gifts.

Prayer Book

Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours Is the Night: A Morning and Evening Prayer Book by Jeanie & David Gushee

A book like this is, of course, only as useful as you make it.  After a short introduction and calendar of movable holy days, Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night contains a daily prayer for each morning and evening of the year.  They are taken from every century, as well as many countries and denominations.  You are warned these prayers are not to replace your personal daily conversations with God but as a ‘springboard’ to deepen and start them each day.  I really enjoy the care that was taken to represent different traditions and wording in the prayers.  They are also short so not cumbersome. 

The book is a nice hard cover and rather large, which can be a problem if you do your morning and evening devotions in different places.  This one might actually be better in digital form as most people care their ‘device’ around with them more than a book.   

Overall I recommend this book, especially for people drawn to liturgy and community and the church universal, both as a devotion took as well as to learn about those things; as well as for people who want to freshen up their prayer life.  Of course the discipline of reading it twice a day is a great reminder that-Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night.

(I got this book for free from Thomas Nelson for agreeing to review it on my blog.  Check out Booksneeze.com)   

Tree

 The first Sunday of Advent (and the day after Lydia's birthday party which I still need to blog-so many pics to chose from!) we put up our Christmas decorations.  Summer's parents were out of town so she spent the day with us.

 The finished product!

but of course it is continually changing as the girls rearrange.