Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Today has been a BUSY day! This is the second year that Ryan and I have hosted a Christmas Eve party at our house. Last year we did a cookie exchange where everyone brought Christmas cookies or another dessert and we sat around stuffing our faces, drinking coffee or Ryan's apple cider. This year we decided to do finger foods instead of just sweets.

I spent most of the day yesterday trying to get my house clean. Not only for the party but because my parents are coming in Christmas day and my house has to pass my mother's inspection! Not really but I make sure it's extra clean for her! :) Abigail tends to create more messes for me to clean up so the work doubles as the day goes! Today I spent most of the day baking, cooking, decorating, and cleaning. I made fudge for the first time today and it turned out so yummy! I was pretty proud of myself. I also made Oatmeal Jumbo cookies. They are a family favorite. I came across a recipe for them last year and gave them a try. They quickly became my favorite cookie! I also made hamburger dip. Ryan's mom and Mimi and sister-in-law Mellissa also brought some goodies. We had a great time eating all the goodies and engaging in conversation. Ryan's cousins Josh and his wife Leah and baby Jansen came. As well as his Aunt Susie and cousin Trey. Aunt Selma, Amanda, and her girls, Samantha and Sabrina stopped by too. (Pictures to come. My computer is being slow about uploading them tonight.)

Mellissa and Jon stayed for a bit after everyone had left and Mellissa helped me clean up! I am so blessed to have two great sisters-in-law. After they left, I put Abigail to bed, read her a Bible story and a Christmas story. It was late so she went right to sleep. It's nice to be able to put my feet up after a long day. I need to put out her presents from Santa before I go to sleep. She doesn't really understand the concept of Santa yet but she definitely knows what presents are! She's been asking me every day this week when we were going to open presents!

My Facebook/Twitter status from earlier in the day was a passage of Scripture from the book of Isaiah. I often think of this passage of Scripture during Christmastime because part of it was used in a song that the choir at my home church in Georgia sang when I was in high school. The lyrics go something like this, "we who were walking in darkness have seen a great light, a great light, a great light." Isaiah 9:2 states: " The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of darkness, a light has dawned." If Jesus had not left the splendor and glory of heaven and come to earth as a baby born in a cattle stall and placed in a lowly manger, we would still be walking in darkness! Thank you Jesus for being the Light of the world! Thank you for being born in the shadow of the cross! Thank you that we have more to celebrate at Christmas than Santa or Rudolph, or Frosty, or other commercial fixtures of Christmas. But we can celebrate the LIGHT!

Not Me Monday

I am NOT the worst blogger on the planet! :) I just can't seem to keep up. I'll try and do better next year!

I did NOT slide down in the muddy infield during softball practice within the first five minutes of being there! My pastor did NOT take a picture of my muddy self and threaten to post it on Facebook. I did NOT get ragged the rest of practice. I was NOT surprised to find that even my underwear were muddy because it has soaked through my shorts! Nothing like that ever happens to me. NEVER!

I did NOT sleep on the couch with Abigail when she woke up in the middle of the night because she was sick and had been running a fever. I did NOT wake up after NOT hearing her throwing up. I did NOT realize that she had puked all over me. I did NOT take her to the bathroom to clean her up and she did NOT puke all over the floor. I did NOT clean her up and I did NOT change her pj's. I did NOT have to change my shirt. I did NOT have to get a new pillow. We did NOT fall back asleep only to NOT wake up to Abigail NOT throwing up again! I did NOT put a puke bowl under her mouth and I did NOT congratulate myself for catching all the puke. I did NOT get up to clean out the puke bowl and I absolutely did NOT stick my hand in a puddle of puke on my blanket. She had NOT been throwing up before I woke up and realized it! I did NOT just throw the blanket in the hallway and grab another and go back to sleep!

Ryan and I did NOT decide to bake and ice cookies with Abigail. I did NOT tell him that he didn't need to buy blue food coloring because red and green make blue! He did NOT laugh at me because he would NEVER do that to me. He did NOT threaten to make that a quote or status on Facebook (why is Facebook such a good place for blackmail or embarrassing people?). I did NOT argue with him that I was NOT right. I do NOT tend to think that I'm am NOT always right! Abigail did NOT play in the flour and get it everywhere. I did NOT take a lot of pictures to capture the memory because I do NOT like taking pictures! Here are a few pictures that I did NOT take:

Update

I was doing so well with keeping up this blog but here we are and it's almost the middle of December and I haven't posted in a month. Here's a look at what we've been up to:

Abigail celebrated her 2nd birthday on November 21. She had a Dora and friends party. We had a great turn out and she got some great gifts. Now she is obssessed with presents. I have a hard time keeping her away from the presents under the Christmas tree. She thinks they are all hers and can be opened whenever she wants! :)

A few days later we traveled to Georgia to be with family there for Thanksgiving. It was an unusual Thanksgiving due to the fact that my aunt and uncle and their family were gone to Ohio to be with relatives up there. And my cousin Kyle was getting married the day after Thanksgiving so several members of the family didn't make it due to traveling Thanksgiving day or the next for the wedding. I was sad that I wasn't able to go but I heard it was a beautiful wedding and I wish them all the best.

The following week after we got back our family passed around the stomach bug. Apparently Abigail got it from a kid in the nursery and passed it on to me. Ryan got it a little later. It was not a fun week in our house. We had to cancel the youth Christmas party/progressive dinner. But to make the day better, the Gators lost to Alabama. Woohoo! :) I'm a Georgia girl but I cheer for whatever team Florida is playing against!

This week has started out slow. We've been getting over being sick last week. The house work has piled up but I've had no energy to do it. I was able to to buy a few more Christmas presents on Monday and yesterday Ryan and I watched Christmas movies while I wrapped presents while Abigail took a nap. December is really flying by and I don't want to rush Christmas. I absolutely LOVE this time of year but I'm a giver and once the presents are bought and wrapped I get ansy. I am so ready to give everyone the gifts I picked out for them and see their reactions. The only downfall is that we wont be seeing my brother and his family this year for Christmas. The invention of web cams and Skype makes it easier to be away from the ones you love. We'll open our gifts from each other via web cam so that we can see each other and their reactions!

The holiday's are so busy. We have the church Christmas party on Saturday. On Monday we are going to Ryan's work Christmas party at the Ritz Carlton. The invitation says "cocktail attire"! I have no clue what I'm going to wear. I don't own any "cocktail attire" at least not that still fits! :) Later on over the next couple of weeks we have the choir Christmas cantata and various other holiday obligations. I am looking forward to them. I just want to make sure that we don't lose our focus. It's not about presents or parties but about JESUS CHRIST! He left all the splendor and glory of heaven to be born as a lowly infant in a stinky manger all because He LOVED us! I am always reminded that Jesus was born in the shadow of the cross. He paid a debt He didn't owe for a crime He didn't commit! The greatest gift of all is His death on the cross for our sins!!! So this Christmas let's remember to celebrate His birth because without His birth there wouldn't have been a death! JESUS is the REASON for the season! Merry Christmas everybody!