Life with my sister

Hello all!!! Because I'm sure there are those of you that read this that are like me and want to know all the little details of peoples lives, I will share with you what I've been up to. At the end of November I was thrown for a loop, (there is a story there but I won't tell it) which put my December into sort of a funk. Don't you just hate it when that happens? We went to a few Christmas parties, went Christmas shopping as much as the kiddos would allow, and decorated the house with the sights and smells of Christmas. We watched Christmas movies on tv and even movies that really weren't Christmasy at all (like Cars and the Incredibles-what is Christmasy about those?) The boys sang in our church's Singing Christmas Tree. Samuel had a solo and did a great job all 4 nights. I think we had something like 1400 people come see the tree. It was a beautiful service all 4 nights, the music was wonderful, the singers did great and Stephen did a terrific, God-honoring job...

" You take the good, you take the bad..." I got Facts of Life...YEA. She knew I loved Facts and got me the first 3 seasons. My beautiful mother-in-law wanted a picture of us. How sweet of her...how vain of us! Lindsey took these pictures in front of our house when she visited in November . We used a couple on our Christmas card this year. Molly has helped us so much on our house that we thought it was most fitting to give her a photo of us in front of the house. My father-in-law opening his new Craftsman drill. He needed a new drill because he had worked his to death. He is so funny about this tools. I wish you could all see his shed full of tools. It is amazing. The hubs with his new GPS....he has named her "Ruby Route". Thank you Ben & Molly. We loved our visit and our gifts. Abby

I always wrap his presents so pretty...he of course forgets to put bows and name tags on mine. I love him anyway! He posed liked this on purpose in order to look "sexy" as he showed of his new wedding ring. Not sure he achieved his goal with this one...he is still cute though. This is a Willow Tree Christmas and it excites me. These are the 2 he got me. One is for our new home and the other is for the happiness I attempt to bring into our home. He is super thoughtful. We always go eat somewhere nice and exchange our gifts to each other before we head to the Fort each year. It makes our gift giving more personal and we are able to enjoy our gifts for a bit, before we have to pack up and leave. I hated doing it this way the first couple of years (it was all Rand's idea), but I have grown to look forward to it. Abby

I found some random pictures and thought I would post a few. I love Christmas memories and these pictures flood my heart and mind with lots of good times. Christmas Morning at Granny's 1985 I love this picture for lots of reasons. One is that Granny's hands and sweet little lap are in the corner of this picture. It melts my heart to see those hands. She was our great-grandmother. She died when I was in the 8th grade. Then, my sister who was super cool and in high school, is sitting in the other corner. I love Mama in this picture. She is passing out the presents. This is how she is pictured in my heart. Then there is Uncle Mike with the beard. My most favorite part is Sarah, Zach and me sitting on the organ bench in deep thought about the presents in our laps. Something that really catches my eye for the first time is the cards taped to the wall. Would you look at all those cards Granny got in the mail? She was loved big time! What a precious picture. Christmas 1996 with Mel...

Christmas. It evokes the same feelings in most everyone. It reminds those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus that it is indeed His birthday (and it is our earthly Daddy's b-day also)! We are reminded of the hope, the sacrifice and the joy that goes along with the birth of our Savior. It is a time to rejoice in the best gift ever given to all of us. I love that...we all share the same gift....we are all equal. For many of us it also reminds us of the added, fun and extra part of Christmas - Santa Claus. Growing up we always had Santa at our house. We knew the reason for Christmas was Jesus, and Santa was just a nice fat man who kept us on our toes all year. I loved Santa and the mystery of him. I still believe in some ways. It is most fun that way. For all of us it reminds us of gifts. Some of us give big, some of us give little, some of us give all we have and some of us are greedy with what we give. Yet, we all give. We grew up in a house that gave what was reasonab...