December Wrap-Up

Seeing from my last post, you can tell that December started out great! We were blessed to get some snow right at the beginning of the month! It was a fun way to get pumped up and ready for Christmas.



The next two weeks were VERY eventful. I volunteered to help lead the music for the children's Christmas program. We practiced for a few months and I honestly had no clue how the real thing would go. To my surprise, the program was wonderful! It was so nice to take a deep breath after the fact and realize that we got through it. It was also a really cool experience to be on the other end of the children's program. I have been involved in stuff like that my whole life, so to get to direct those children was an experience I will never forgot.



A week later we celebrated Emmy's birthday. My baby is 4! FOUR. YEARS. OLD. This does not seem possible!!! We threw her an Angelina Ballerina party complete with a ballet teacher and all. Emmy was decked out in a fluffy tutu, birthday shirt with a number 4, and a bow to match that I made for her. She also got to have her hair done the morning of her birthday party. We had a wonderful time! One thing I will always remember about that day was how she proudly proclaimed that she was "The Birthday Girl". I'm pretty sure that every time she asked for anything the whole day she made sure to remind us of that! lol Oh well. It was nice to have a day to just spoil and focus on her!



Emmy's party was on Saturday, December 19, and our adult Christmas play was on Sunday, December 20. It was a busy weekend, especially for Tim. I am so proud of him and how well he led our choir in that program. I know that God is using him in a huge way at our church. I am so blessed and proud to be his wife.



Since we didn't get to have "Emmy's special day" with our little family on her actual birthday because it was so busy, we decided to do it Tuesday. We started off by letting her have one of her best friends spend the night. This was Emmy's first sleepover. I was hesitant because I know that they are still so young, but I thought that we could at least try and if her little friend got sad we would take her home. Monday evening was filled with playing, dressing up, ordering pizza, playing hairdresser after baths, and ended with watching the Wizard of Oz and eating fruit loops. (Don't ask. That's what they wanted instead of popcorn! ha!) I put the girls to bed at around 10 and Emmy did great. Her friend stayed awake and quiet for a while, but ended up going to sleep around 11. The next morning we took the girls to a children's museum and to lunch at Chili's. Emmy just HAD to go to Chili's for her birthday so that she could get "some of dat yummy corn". :-) We had such a fun day and I am SO thankful that it went so well! When we got home all 3 girls took a nap!! What a good day.



It seems like as soon as we caught our breath from all of the festivities it was time for Christmas! We celebrated Christmas in our house a little differently this year and I LOVED it. Tim's brother and his wife introduced me to "The Wisemen Christmas" last year and I looked forward to making it a tradition for our family starting this year. Here is the article if you would like to read more about it. We believe that Christmas should be celebrated because of the birth of Jesus Christ. Basically, instead of Santa bringing the presents, we gave the girls presents that would compare to the gifts that the wise men gave Jesus at his birth-Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Emmy's "Gold" was a brand new 16" Disney Princess bike with a matching helmet and knee pads, her "Frankincense" was "The Jesus Storybook Bible", and her "Myrrh" was a set of pink towels with her name monogrammed in curly hot pink letters with a Tinkerbelle bath set. She LOVED all of her gifts and I really think she understands why we celebrate Christmas. Addy's "Gold" was a Fisher Price horse that you ride and put a doll in front. Her "Frankincense" was a Praise Baby DVD and her "Myrrh" was the same towels that Emmy received (except with Addy monogrammed on it, of course) with some Johnson's Buddies bath soap. She too was THRILLED to see her gifts. Addy obviously can't understand a lot, but I know she will get it in years to come. Our Christmas was very special this year. We spent Christmas Eve with Tim's family and my side of our family's houses throughout Christmas day. All in all, I am very thankful to have our family close by and blessed to have not only have received so many wonderful material things this year, but also more of an appreciation of why we celebrate in the first place.



The next few days were packed with shopping, playing with new toys, and just spending time with our family. New Years Eve, Tim and I were fortunate enough to go to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl to support the TN Vols. We even spent the night in Atlanta without the kids thanks to my Dad and Step-Mom. Our team lost, but we enjoyed some much-needed time to just focus on each other. However, we were both VERY ready to get back to our sweet girls. We missed them!



Ok...I think I've covered everything now! I hope that you have all had a blessed year so far!




(I have started this post for weeks and would then delete it or leave it in my drafts and start a new one. I don't have a camera cord right now so that is why there aren't any pictures. I'm sorry...I know it's no fun, but I just really wanted to update!)