Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and a merry Christmas! My feelings about this time of year crack me up; I love it and all the decorations that are so beautiful, but the day after I am always ready to pull it all down. I'll probably be doing that today and hope to get a start this morning. More than I love the Christmas decorations, I love having a fresh, cleaned house for the week in between the holidays. This week is always one of my favorite weeks every year. I love all of the looking back and thinking of what's ahead, and I love this week of writing here in the blogging world. I hope you'll come back each day!
I thought I'd share some of our Christmas pictures with you, the few that I took. On Saturday night, Todd and I went to Kroger amidst half the town of Collierville after we ate dinner. We'd just gotten comfy again at home when Jonah asked if we wanted to drive through Starry Nights at our huge city park, Shelby Farms. It took us forever to get through, but we had fun and the lights were beautiful!
I came home and crashed afterward!
Every year on Christmas eve, we attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service. It's my favorite thing to do all year long! Afterward we went to Dad's and Sandy's for dinner. I'm so mad at myself for letting Christmas eve at Dad's go by without one picture; however I do also love that forgetting about pictures means that we were not on our phones and thoroughly enjoying family time together.
I love this service each year! I love having my boys sit beside me in this; Graham and Todd were working in the tech ministry.
After coming home from my dad's, Todd and I watched Christmas with the Kranks. Well, he watched it, as I was falling asleep. I worked on their stocking things while it was on. I woke up early on Christmas morning, but everyone else stayed asleep until almost eight, when Jonah woke them up. I'll tell you, Christmas with grown up kids is not nearly as exciting as Christmas with little ones! I think next year we're going to go back to surprising them with gifts instead of them giving us ideas on lists. I did take just one picture!
We hung around here until about eleven thirty, then we all went to my mom's and stepdad's. We had Italian food for our Christmas lunch again, and it was delicious! Todd's parents always join us at Mom's on this day as well, which is really sweet.
I didn't ask for pictures with anyone else, and we weren't really in the mood to do that. I only took these because I love to have them in my memory each year, and because I'm still mad at myself for not getting pictures on Christmas eve night. We're so blessed to have Christmas with our parents! I love seeing these pictures of them. ❤️
Lastly, I woke up to this Christmas message from my church, and then I remembered I was part of it this year. I love how these fun pictures turned out!
I hope your Christmas was wonderful! I'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all!
Merry. Christmas! It’s back to work for me today but I’m allowing myself a few minutes in blogworld before gettin up-and-going.
ReplyDeleteI usually leave our decorations out through New Years - it’s so much work and there really isn’t much else to do in January :/
Sounds like you had a full couple of days with family - so did we! Unlike you, I did document in pictures….sometimes I’m good at it and sometimes not. I love that all my kids were here…that is the best part.
Have a great week.
What lovely pictures of your Christmas. I'm with you - I can put my decorations up early but once Christmas Day is over, it's time to pack everything away!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I am all for putting the decorations up early (mine were really early this year) but as soon as it's over, all of the decorations come down. I actually just finished getting everything taken down and put away.
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds so wonderful! Our decorations will be up a bit longer a we were late getting them put up this year.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you, Jenni! I'm so glad you were unlike me and got lots of photos from the holiday. I love having them to look back on! I know lots of people who are like you in waiting until January to take down all the Christmas. I sort of wish I was like that; but then again, I'm okay with it coming down immediately after, especially since I have to also de-Christmas at the bookstore when I go back next week! I was glad to have today at home to do that, because I want to go do something fun tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pamela! I know I am not alone in this. I am also my mom's daughter!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cathy! I totally get that and would do the exact same, had mine been late in getting put up. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and got to see your family open up their gifts on Facetime!
ReplyDeleteRachel, that's awesome! You made me laugh with that. I have one friend who did this yesterday after she had Christmas lunch!
ReplyDeleteI just finished packing everything away for another year; I too love the decorations and the lights but am always ready to clean everything and start fresh for the new year... so once I start I just don't stop until it's done. I always kick myself for taking so few photos during family gatherings but find that even when I promise myself I will I just get too caught up in what we're doing and with visiting that I never do it justice. I too think it's probably a good thing since that means I'm not on my phone or behind my camera but still wish I could have those memories captured all the same. It sounds like you had a wonderful holiday celebration.
ReplyDeleteOh your Christmas services look absolutely beautiful as do you Jennifer- hope you enjoy every last second of this week!
ReplyDeleteJoanne, it doesn't surprise me that you feel the same way about the Christmas decorations as I do! I did that today; I just started this morning and didn't stop until it was all packed away, loaded back up into the attic thanks to my sons Graham and Noah, and the house was cleaned and back in order with things I'd put away for Fall and Christmas. It feels so good to start fresh after all the clutter and chaos of Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI also don't mind too terribly that I didn't think to take pictures. With my dad being the age he is, every moment is a gift, even if I didn't pause to take the picture. I'm going to try to remember to do this from now on every Friday for that same reason! It's good to document the daily routines.
Thank you, Holly! It was such a beautiful service. It's always my favorite!
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