Christmastime 2012

More beautiful memories...

The Lord is good. Oh, so good to us. We cannot give enough thanks for His goodness.

NaNa & PaPa

Christmas was just a couple days ago. Another beautiful day for our family of 4. Me, Scott, Adeline and Graham...in pj's all day, taking our time unwrapping gifts, playing, napping, playing some more. Christmas music playing. A no technology day, of course! I prepped food early so no cooking that day either, of course! ;)

Britney, Graham, Adeline & Blake

Lets not forget the most special time of the day...before anything else happens...we all sit together and daddy reads the 'true' Christmas story from the Bible. It never disappoints. It never gets old. It is what sets our entire day. It is what sets our everyday.

And then a time of prayer.

Thank you Jesus for your Word. We need it daily. We desire to draw closer to you daily.

Thank you for the wonderful gift of family you have blessed us with!

Adeline's most favorite gift(s) from Santa (aka: St. Nick) was Doc McStuffins. I say St. Nick because we have decided as a family to share with our children the story of St. Nick. Hence, Santa Claus. We are Christians and Jesus is the main reason we celebrate, but we want our children to understand the reasoning behind Santa Claus. It really is a great story of a very generous man who did great things for the needy.

Doc McStuffins is a newer show (cartoon) on Disney Jr. A girl who's mom is a doctor, so she is a doctor to her stuffed animals. It's a cute show and Addy can't seem to get enough of it these days!

Graham didn't have a favorite per se, so I will guess that he is going to throughly enjoy his new leggos with table stand in the near future. :)

Great Grandmother & Grandfather Snodgrass, PaPa, Uncle Pat & Daddy

This, my friends, is what it's ALL about....almost 90 & dancing!

Grandma

Great Grandma Leivian

Scott and I decided to give gifts this year, but to scale it back significantly. A few small gifts each. I got him a camelback water carrier and he got me a handheld water carrier - both for running. Great minds think alike! ;)

Scott also got me a charm for my Pandora bracelet. I told him I would love one symbolizing Down syndrome and/or adoption. Can you believe Pandora doesn't have either? So, my creative hubby found a dainty, dangly charm with a 21 on it. Love! It's perfect and although many will purchase this same charm to signify someone's 21st birthday, this charm means SO much more to us. My favorite gift of all!

I would like to fill the spaces with a lot more things of what we did, but honestly, it was very low key...as we had hoped for, as we did last year, and as we hope to continue to do in the future.

 Uncle Brian & Uncle Terry

 Auntie Heather, Chels, Uncle Nick & Gav

We did, however, have a few wonderful Christmas gatherings with our family in Jeff City the weekend prior to Christmas. And then, my brother Nick hosted a party as his house on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, only half of our family could be there, but it was still nice to have some of us together. We left there to go to Christmas Eve service ~ a tradition we started last year as well. This year, we went to 2Rivers Church and heard Pastor Ron preach a message on "Immanuel---God with Us". A wonderful message indeed about our Lord ALWAYS being with us. Another beautiful reminder of all He gives us...daily. Then, off to drive around looking at Christmas lights as a family. Adeline really appreciated the lights this year. Actually, she had a whole new appreciation in general for Christmas. We got home, set out cookies & milk for Santa and off to bed she went. Yes, she was in a hurry to go to sleep so Santa could come! Jazzy, our Elf on the Shelf, was a delight this year as well. We like to call him Jazz, for short. ;) Seeing Ads face walking down the stairs on Christmas morning makes my heart melt. Oh, the joy our children bring us.

Merry Christmas everyone. May God continue to pour His blessings on us.