Our December...So Far

Well, Braelyn's down for her nap, I am eating my lunch and before I get back to cleaning and laundry and such, I thought I'd post a little something.

We welcomed Christmas into our home December 1st with the arrival of our nativity Advent calendar (phew, just in the nick of time!). This has been a lot of fun, although I'm concerned that Jospeh is missing. One of the shepherds will have to stand in for Joseph.
On December 3rd we decorated the house in order to be ready for the party we were having on the 4th. That afternoon Braelyn, Casey and I went to one of the gifty shops downtown and bought our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. What's even more sad is that it's artificial. :( I love having a real Christmas tree, but frankly we just don't have room for a big tree and this little guy was only $20 bucks and I don't have to clean up pine needles for the rest of the winter. Anyways, the 3 of us had fun decorating while we listened to the Charlie Brown Christmas CD...my favorite.

Here he is. (and I know I have 4 stockings and only 3 family members. I bought the extra one on Ebay last year so that I would have a matching one for whenever there is a 4th Cease. I just hung it up cause I thought it looked better. :)

Moving on. December 4th we had our college small group Christmas party. It was a great night! Over the course of the night we had 22 kids stop by! I cannot tell you how excited I am about what God is doing with these students. I didn't get very many pictures, but here's a few.

The table setting. Sorry...just had to share. I loved my little rosemary trees!
(Cat, those are the candles you gave me last year! I LOVE THEM!!!)

The girl in the red and white sweater is Erica. She lives in our garage apartment. And standing next to her is her boyfriend, John. They have become such a huge part of our lives. We loves those guys!

Braelyn hugging Lyssa, who gave her a fancy new princess dress.

Braelyn in the princess dress...and crown..and high heels...and choker...with Tressa.

It was such a great night. I don't know what we are going to do with ourselves while they are all away! Oh wait, I know...work like a crazy woman on homemade gifts!

What has happened since then? Casey finished his 2nd to last semester of school. Hallelujah! I've been working on gifts. Braelyn and I got colds. The Texans have been winning! Woo Hoo! And we went to the Brenham Christmas parade for the 2nd year in a row...unfortunately, I don't have much to say about that except that I'm glad we were there with friends.

**A side note to the Brenham Christmas Parade Coordinators: Next year, you might consider spacing the floats a little closer together. Pa-leeez! I'm pretty sure the baby who played Jesus grew into a toddler by the end of the parade. I can't be sure though, because WE LEFT before it was over!

Oh, and it snowed! That was fun. If you look closely you can see a snowflake in my daughters hair. WOW!Today, the 3 of us are packing up to go to a retreat with Casey. It's been a while since we traveled with him and I am hoping I'll have lots of time to work on gifts and write my Crazy Love book review. Once you finish reading this post, and after you leave a comment, of course, ;) ...just kidding...kind of...you should go get this book!

Alright, well, I've blogged way past my lunch break and the laundry and packing and dirty dishes are calling my name, not to mention the shower. Yea, it's 2:00 and I haven't showered yet, SO WHAT! :)

That's it. I'm done.