Christmas at home.

The first part of Christmas holidays we spent at home just us in Mississippi. 

Christmas Eve day, I made our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and the cookies for Santa.  

We attended the Christmas Eve service at our church, and said good-bye to our sweet friends, the Moudys, who have now moved to Nicaragua to serve as missionaries.  

Story and Miss Laurie.  

After church, we enjoyed fellowship and yummy food with friends.  The plan was to go back to Lewis Lights to walk through, but we just enjoyed staying in and talking together.  Thankfully, we had already made a trip earlier in the season! 

Christmas morning was so much fun with these four!  Some favorite gifts for each one:  Carter, a new target for his bow; Summer, a gift card to get her ears pierced (separate post coming); Tilly, a Barbie bicycle, and Story, a baby doll with a stroller.  

David and I do not usually do gifts for each other for Christmas.  Sometimes, we buy something for the family that we need or want.  Oftentimes, he surprises me with treats on Christmas, which he did again this year.  I knew I wanted to do something special for him.  David's love language is words of affirmation, and frankly, I just stink at loving him this way.  I think he knows how much I love and appreciate him, but I really just take that for granted.  Last Christmas holiday, I purchased a daily planner, and over the last year, I documented something that he did each day that was a blessing to me. I got the idea from one of my childhood friends, Dana, who did something like this for her husband.  I called it "my hero journal" because that's what he is every single day, my hero.  I had no problem finding something that he did each day that blessed my soul because he is ALWAYS doing things for me and for the children.  What I loved the most is that he had NO idea that I was doing this for him and was just completely surprised by my gift!  Yay!  It has been fun to relive some fun memories over the last year together.  There were a couple of hard months this year for our family, and it was healing and refreshing to only record the good.  Often in life, it is the hard things that we remember because they seems to make a strong impression.  I want us both to look back on this last year and remember all the good and all the sweet ways that David has loved on us! 

And, as soon as we could make some order of our home, bathe and get dressed, we hit the road north to Arkansas to celebrate Christmas with David's family!