{Christmas Memories : 2021}

By -

 Our Family Christmas : 2021 


Decking the Halls: 
We put the tree up Tuesday Nov. 24th. It was an evening time after school. We just couldn't wait any longer. It was so fun to unpack all our family christmas stuff. It was all on a container ship last year and we had the bare minimum so it was a joy to go all out and have a tree full of memories and family. We hung the stockings under the bay window, hung snowflake window stickers in the front. The manger scene went in the dining room and we hung our wreath in our entrance way door. Oh and I bought a new welcome mat that says Merry Christmas! 

Our Christmas Favorites: 
Ornament(s): we got new, hand crocheted ones from our neighbors, Jan & Teri. 
Decorations: the tree itself is our fav! The way it casts that warm white light glow in the evening and early morning hours. 
Song(s): So many! But I love how Eddie danced and got all excited over Run Run Rudolph
Food: our frosted christmas cookies and Spritz! 
Smell: we have enjoyed diffusing Thieves essential oil for that clove and cinnamon smell (plus it keeps the germs away!) 
Movie: we start the season each year with Elf! What a classic. However, we enjoyed a new British movie called Arthur Christmas. It was so cute. We happily added it to the rotation for years to come.  
Book: The Jesus Storybook Bible does an advent, and while we aren't great at keeping pace during the weekends, we really enjoy reading thru the stories and hanging the ornaments each night. Following and leading up to the story of Christmas! 
Drink: nothing new - we drank lots of tea, hot cocoa, and coffee 
Moments: Uncle Jason's visit & all the fun places we got to share with him
Best Cookie: the traditional christmas cookies 
Biggest Cookie Monster: Either Tim or myself (shhh, don't tell the kids! lol) 


Favorite Parties or Events: 
Sadly a lot of our plans and events had to be cancelled due to the kids getting covid right before Christmas. But we were able to enjoy the church's Teddybear Christingle and was able to be a part of the whole church nativity service and carol sing. We missed our ugly sweater party, but know we will bring it back to life next year! 



Christmas EVE: 
We were able to video chat with both sets of grandparents on Christmas Eve. What a delight it was to share gift opening and chit chat over the phone. The kids enjoyed their gifts and the time "seeing" grandparents. We then just enjoyed the day together. We spent the morning hiking Lordstones then came back for video chats and hot cocoa. 
We then had our Shephard's Meal together by candlelight. 
I made a potato soup with baguettes, raisins, celery, carrots, dates, nuts, and sparkling juice. 
We answered some questions about our year together in England and chatted about things we are learning and growing in. After a time of prayer we broke out into a nice little praise and worship with some of favorite songs. Then we cleaned up, got our new Mandalorian pj's on and watched A White Christmas. 



Christmas Day: 
What a wonderful Christmas morning we had! It was relaxing and chilled. We didn't rush anything, but really, truly just enjoyed being together. We began by eating Cinnamon Coffee Cake, then read the final advent story and celebrated Jesus. After clean up, we moved to the tree and began to open up our gifts. The kids were very blessed with many gifts from lots of folks this year. 
After gifts, we just enjoyed the day. We played a lot of new games, video chatted with more family, and I prepped for a larger Christmas dinner. 

Under the Tree.... 
This year for family gifts, Tim & I decided to pool the kids' budgeted money and get 4 new family games then get each of them a few new books. It was a huge hit! 
New games were: 
Carcassonne Safari 
Ticket to Ride Africa 
Kingdomino
Castle Panic 
The kids then shared in Sibling Secret Santa and as always, had a blast buying gifts for their sibling. This year Milo had Norma, Theo had Milo, Norma had Eddie, and Eddie had Theo. 
There were lots of Mandalorian gifts, drawing/art stuff and books. 






Best Kept Secret: 
Uncle Jason's visit!!!! 
We didn't say anything to the kids, mainly due to the fact that we weren't sure if covid would allow the trip to happen, but with great joy we were able to surprise the kids with Uncle Jason walking thru the door!  It was such a blessing to have him here through the week. 

Christmas Menu: 
We shared our evening meal with two amazing guys from our church, who are seeking asylum here in England. It was a joy and honor to hear their stories and get to know them better. It was a true gift in and of itself. 

We ate:
Ham 
Baked Potato
Baked Sweet Potato 
Green Bean Casserole
Corn 
Blackcurrant juice 
Tea
Coffee 
Milk 
Cookie/treat tray for dessert 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There's No Place Like Home

By -
Image
This December marks the start of our 4th year in our old, cozy home. It's this time each year I begin to think of all the hard work that was put into making this old farmhouse our home. It took months of work, (mostly time of Grandpa Keith's), and lots of imagination. I remember when Daddy took me thru the first time, the place was SO dirty, run down, and in dire need of some TLC!! But the little details and charm of the place got to me and I knew we just HAD to live here!! It was perfect. I fell in love. It had so many “old” things and so much history to it; from the kitchen cabinets, to the door knobs, & who doesn't just LOVE the hand crafted cabinets?! And it wasn't just the house, it was the surroundings. The fields, farms, country way of life, and of course the location... so close to our families! Beautiful spring/fall flower collection  The wheat fields This is our road ... down by the river. BEAUTIFUL during sunset!  The beau...
Read more

{FIVE.2019}

By -
Image
PRAISE GOD!! It is with the greatest joy we announce that our family has made it to the 50% mark in our monthly fundraising goal! Praise God! With that being said, we are setting new goals and continuing on with eager anticipation as to how God will work in the coming months. We've set some goals and are praying to be at 80% by October so we can attend the month long pre-field training near Asheville, NC. Our goal is reach Stockton-on-Tees at the beginning of the new year! In other news, God has been answering prayer here in our simple way of living in our front yard! I am writing a post dedicated to how God is moving and what we are doing, but until it's all done, I'll just recap it quickly. God has been bringing folks to our yard, expanding our friends in the neighborhood and making old things new and beautiful. Our front yard is now a gorgeous oasis of light and beauty and we are excited to have more summer meals, parties, and conversations around the new rock p...
Read more

{Monthly Minutes}

By -
Image
Sunday morning, watching The Pond before church  Well we finally have some form of internet out here in the boondocks. ha! Hopefully that means more posts... but I wouldn't hold your breath. So until I get better at this blogging things and keeping things up to date, here's a little recap and some fun highlights of where life is now. (and of course there's tons of pics at the end and thru it, because, well, i'm much better at capturing life then writing about it! ha!) First, Highlights! -Eddie is a cruising baby now. Dude, you are amazing at pulling up on just about anything and have only taken a few little falls. Determined to get to where you want, there's not much that keeps you still now, except food! You love food. Recently learned how delicious Ritz crackers are and watermelon. Bananas are still a fav though along with any fruit really. -We began fundraising!!!! WOOHOO! It's been a week on the trial and we are sitting at 8% already. Our goal i...
Read more