Sweet Home Santa Barbara

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Scenes from Christmas

Happy December 26th! It must be hard being that day, such a touch act to follow. 

I hope you had a lovely Christmas! Ours certainly was. I have the pictures to prove it. 



We spent Christmas Eve evening with Grace Point Church. They did such a wonderful job of putting together a powerful & memorable service. We've spent Christmas Eve at this church quite a few times, and each year, it gets better and better! One of my favorite parts this year was the worship. Worship is always what gets me, and I loved the addition of a worship painter. The first time I saw worship art was at Influence Conference, and I was excited to have that again. 


The message was beautiful, inspiring, and packed with some serious truth. It was all about the confident hope that we find in Jesus, and it definitely blessed me. The service was ended with a candlelight portion, and this always gets me in the Christmas spirit. 



Our Christmas morning always starts suuuper early. I'm talking 6AM early. Mike & I outgrew that riiight about when Milissa was old enough to catch on to the excitement, so early rising remains a part of the tradition. 

This year, Santa thought Mil was extra good, and decided to bring her something that was a biiit too big to fit under the tree. 


All that jumping worked up quite the appetite, which was great considering we feasted on Thanksgiving part 2. 


Mom earned herself some serious bragging rights for this one. 

We may not have had ourselves a white Christmas, but I don't think any of us were too disappointed.  


Our traditions may be simple (getting up at the crack of dawn, staying in pajamas for 99% of the day, watching the sunset at the beach), but I love them.

For fun, you can check out this post from 2 years ago to see how much Christmas 2011 resembles Christmas 2013.

I hope you have yourself a fan-freaking-tastic December 26th. 
 

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Aww this looks like a magical Christmas. Love your traditions! And what a lovely service too :) Thanks for sharing this today!

xo, gina

Kerrie Williams said...

Merry Post-Christmas Amy! Looks like a fun day!

Brittany said...

Looks like a nice day. The candlelight service is always my favorite. We most definitely had a white Christmas over here. But I'll take the beach today :)

. said...

You have such a great memory to remember that Christmas 2011 is pretty much the same as this year. How do you do it?!

Julie said...

Such a sweet holiday! Simple and low key Christmases are my absolute favorite :)

PS- cutest family ever!

Unknown said...

Haha you're the freaking cutest! I did have a fan-freaking-tastic December 26th, thank you very much!! ; D Glad you also had an amazing Christmas!!

Jennifer said...

Okay, you and your siblings are the. CUTEST. for reals. and yay for happy christmas'!! :)