Blessed Beyond Measure

We have had a beautiful Christmas. We both worked right up until the last minute. Even Christmas Eve itself was kind of stressful, but by the time service was over, we were ready to really chill and enjoy our family. We love going out of town to be with extended family too, but every other year or so it's really nice to stay home and enjoy our own traditions. This year we did some new things;

1) the Riverwalk. Oh my, that was beautiful. We went down on a night when it was almost 80 degrees! It was lit up fantastically and we got some really neat photos.

2.) Fiesta Texas. No photos this year, but we did really enjoy riding rides as a family, and especially the "Night of Miracles" performance. Incredible.

3.) The Bethlehem experience in Burnet. Wow, this was totally worth the 2+ hour drive up there. We went with several families from church. It felt like we stepped back in time and experienced the world the way it was when Jesus gifted us with His presence.

We also visited the Walkway of a Million Lights on the way home from Burnet. That was amazing too!

4.) Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D. Not so hot on the 3d, from a photography perspective it really kills sharpness, which is of utmost importance to me. But LOVED the story. We took the youth group, and our own kiddos. What a special night and shared experience. LOVE when our work makes us better parents.

4.) Christmas lunch at IHOP. Yep, you read that right. Sarah had the idea of going out for pancakes on Christmas Day. I was totally cool with this, I love to cook, but I hate that my family is not generally excited about a traditional Christmas meal. This was a perfect alternative. And it was yummy.

And of course, we still did the usual things, like the Children's musical. Eli was a wiseman and Sarah was an angel and it was fantastic, of course.

It wouldn't be Christmas without candlelight service, so that was pretty special too.

And now we have almost the entire week off. No church this evening, we've been compelled to 'spend times with our families' and I am so cool with that! Rob's talking to his dad now, but we are halfway through the new Robin Hood and I'm pretty sucked in. It's so nice to just lay around the house and chill. Last night I watched 3 episodes of House back to back. That never happens in my world. My number one goal this week is to relax. My number two is to finish up 'Evangelism in the Local Church' - I have one unit left. My number three goal is to organize the condo a bit, and number four is to prep our papers and numbers for taxes. If three and four don't get accomplished, I'm not going to get too worked up about it.

We are still hoping to drag the kids out of bed late one night, shove cups of hot cocoa in their hands and run around and look at Christmas lights. (that's on my list) And we may try to head back to Six Flags for a few more rollercoasters. But really, we are planning on just enjoying each other's company this week. And feeling really blessed to have that priviledge.