Along the Narrow Way: This Christmas

Merry Christmas! Thank you for stopping by my blog. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. To those of you who are suffering this Christmas season, my prayers are with you.

Here are the highlights and details from this Christmas that I don't want to forget!

1.) The season started with Josh receiving a letter from his birth mother, Diana, whom we have never met before. We were fortunate enough to get to meet her and get to hear all about Josh's birth and background. He's Irish, Scottish, and German. Diana is a wonderful woman, full of respect and love for Josh and his parents! It was so great to meet her!!!

2.) Baking cookies with Anya. Although we had many spills, she had a blast and was very proud of her work. We made Aunt Cindy's pistacio cookies, pretzel peppermint bark, cutout cookies, rudolph cookies, peanut butter blossom cookies, and a funfetti Jesus cake! Anya even got to frost cookies with Grandpa!

3.) The "This is Christmas" concert at Christ Community. Our church was transformed into a Winter Wonderland for the kids (train ride, artifical snow room, ice rink) and then afterwards their was a great concert, complete with talented artists, dancers, and acrobats.

4.) The Christmas Eve service at CCC. I love the traditions we have every year, watching the train around the Christmas tree while sipping on hot cocoa. During the service we sang all of the classic Christmas carols, a moment I made sure to take in. I love singing carols! Singing Silent Night with our candles is such a neat experience that I look forward to each year too.

5.) Playing Hide-N-Seek with Cocoa our Elf. Every morning Josh hid Cocoa from Anya and when she woke up I took her downstairs to find him. It was a cute way for Josh and Anya to connect in the morning. This is a fun tradition we have started!

6.) Watching Anya go "sledding" down our tiny hill in the back on Christmas Day. She looks so grown up in her Hello Kitty snow boots and snow pants!

7.) Relaxing each night to a different Christmas movie....Elf, Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, Wonderful Life, Christmas Shoes (SOOO SAD!) Dear Santa (adorable!) Christmas with Holly (also adorable!) and my very cheesy cheesy Hallmark chick flicks.

8.) We got a few new ornaments this year: Anya's handprint salt dough ornament, a pickle ornament from Aunt Cindy and Uncle Tony (a German tradition I'm excited to start) and a beautiful shamrock ornament from Diana to Josh. I love new ornaments!

9.) Anya loved playing with her Little People Nativity set that I got her. She loves animals right now!

10.) Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus in the morning and opening gifts was very special. Anya loved opening her gifts and really got into it. And we eat Jesus cake for breakfast. This is a birthday tradition Josh grew up with so we do it for Jesus too. It takes everything in me to let loose and eat cake for breakfast...but it is a fun tradition! We have our real breakfast/ brunch after we open gifts.

11.) Visiting my family Christmas Eve for brunch and to Skype with Cindy and Tony while opening their gifts. Anya "washed" our dishes when we were done eating. It was so cute! She enjoys being Gram's little helper.

12.) The Christmas party with Josh's extended family was a ton of fun. We hosted it at our community rec center because there are so many of us to hold in a house. We played Minute to Win-It games and it was a total hit. Turns out we have a pretty competitive family! We also played Polar Express for the kids and had a hot cocoa bar using tins from Grandma.

13.) Christmas Day our parents and sister Katie came over. This is the 11th year we've done this with both of our parents. We are very blessed our parents are friends and we all get along very well!

14.) Visiting Cary with Anya to decorating Grandma and Grandpa Harrington's house for Christmas. We also visited Grandma and Grandpa Nilsson's for brunch. Anya loved their tree!