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. 

 

My first Friendsgiving!

This past weekend, I attended my very first Friendsgiving. 

Can I just say that I am beyond blessed to have so many amazing people in my life? I couldn't help but look around the room, and feel super thankful. Some people I've known for years now, and others not as long. Some know every tiny detail going on in my life, and some are just acquaintances. But none of that really mattered, we all got together and celebrated this beautiful thing called "friendship."

And if you think that's cheesy, you should have heard my toast. ;)

I will now introduce you to the guest of honor. He's the newest edition to the group, but we've taken quite nicely to him. He's stolen just about every girl's heart, and I think you'll see why.  

If we're snapchat friends, then I probably blew up your feed with pics of this little guy.

#sorrynotsorry

I hope to make Friendsgiving a tradition for years to come. These people really have become like a second family to me, it's only fair that we celebrate the major holidays together. 

Happy Friendsgiving! From our family, to yours.