Forward We Roll: Catch Up On Christmas Season

I am really behind on posting here. Sorry. Here are the highlights from December and our Christmas Festivities.

This year we decided to cut our own Christmas Tree. Ronny went up sometime in November to Soldier Hollow to get a permit. He waited in line for hours but brought home the "golden ticket/permit". We along with two other families loaded up one Saturday morning thinking we would only be gone a few hours and that the weather was not so bad. Little did we know our experience would include digging our van out twice, the SUV of our friends out once, wondering if our van would topple over the side of the cliff, waiting in the van with 7 kids watching Elf while the Dads cut the trees down, and almost 12 hours of adventures; we finally had our tree and were headed home. On the way home Joseph asked, "Can we do this again next year?"

The kids decided to surprise us Sunday morning by decorating for Christmas themselves. Ron and I came downstairs to find the tree lights on, the banisters decorated, and the stockings hung.

This is the mess that was left after the decorating frenzy.

I'm not sure why Sam didn't have a picutre infront of the tree but these were so cute I had to add them.

Joseph surprised us with writing a Christmas Newsletter. Ron and I opted to forgo the letter this year with our busy schedules. We emailed this out to our family and called it good! You can certainly see where Joseph's priorities are.....

From the clippings off our tree I decided to try my hand at making Aaron's Christmas wreath. It turned out well and looked so nice with all the snow at the cemetery. Hiking through the snow to his headstone made me grateful that we decided to go with the wedge style so we didn't have to hunt for his stone in the snow.

We had my family over for Christmas Eve dinner, of course I forgot to take a picture. We decided on soup and rolls. I tried my hand at making homemade noodles. They were a hit! Ronny planned a nice devotional around the Christmas Story. It was a great night and we hope to repeat it next year!