Most noteworthy, was Thanksgiving. Every year, we rotate with our parents which family will spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with us -- all in an effort to keep the holidays as simple and stress-free as possible without running to everyone's houses each year. This year, Eric's family was on the docket for Thanksgiving, so we packed up the family van and headed south a few hours to spend the weekend with his family.
Thanksgiving was a great day, in and of itself. Eric's mom prepared a wonderful meal and Eric's brother was even able to join us for it (he brought a puppy with him -- NOT helping the whole "Mommy, we want a puppy!" issue, but cute as could be!). Josie was completely smitten with the puppy and loved every minute she spend with Eric's brother, whom we don't get to see nearly as often as we would like. Besides good food, and good family, there were good games and Josie's introduction to Monopoly. Look out world, here she comes!!! Norah, well she simply enjoyed having folks around to listen to her piano playing (read: noise making).
The day after Thanksgiving, Eric and I were able to take part in some of the Black Friday craziness. This is not something we often do -- and we never do it with kids in tow. Since Eric's folks didn't have any desire to get out in the early shopping, we took advantage of the child care and made our way into the craziness. Part of me wondered what on earth we were thinking, but we did get a lot of shopping done (not all Christmas shopping -- why not buy new bath towels on Black Friday?!).
Since Thanksgiving, we have been very busy with the season of advent. This is my first advent at this church and it comes with a lot of excitement, wide-eyes, and a huge learning curve. I continue to count myself blessed that I am able to "train" with the current Christian Educator through this season before she retires at the end of this month. Such as opportunity is rare in the United Methodist Church!
Between Bible studies, worship planning, and shopping, we have enjoyed the programs put on by the kids. Josie has done a Christmas musical at church (where she was an angel) in addition to her Christmas program at school.
Norah's program at preschool is still forth-coming, but we have thoroughly enjoyed her personal renditions of Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Norah talks about Santa daily and is very much looking forward to this event/day called Christmas. She may not understand what it is all about, but she loves hearing about baby Jesus and when Santa visted the church, she was wide-eyed and full of joy!My folks are headed into town for a week during the Christmas holiday and we will be joined by my sister and her family on Christmas eve. We will have a house full, but we are looking forward to all the joy and wonder that the children will share!!
I promise to get back to blogging more regularly. Wait... I think I have said that before. If only blogging were as simple as updating facebook. Oh well. I do promise to make an effort to be better at blogging. If you don't think we are posting enough, join us on facebook where you can get the scoop on the events as they happen rather than waiting for us to update here. :)
Hope you and yours are having a blessed advent and Christmas season!
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