Many Christmasy Things

Just a bit of a warning, this post contains many Christmasy things, starting with yesterday, when we played our annual Jingle Bowl.

It was a chilly morning, but we had a great time getting together with some great friends.

Christian had a blast and helped out in quite a few plays.

The games were fun

yet focused.

Everyone had a pretty awesome morning playing

and we had a great group of fans as well.

The games were going well for most of the morning, when suddenly, in a very unfortunate turn of events, our buddy Will went to kick off the ball and severely injured his knee.  It was pretty bad, and for what I think is the first time at any event in our ministry, we had to call an ambulance in.  Will ended up having knee surgery yesterday and thankfully was able to come home today.  We'll be praying for renewed strength and healing over these next few weeks. 

After our eventful morning, we went over to help out at our church's annual live nativity.  My brave husband and son volunteered to go up in a huge lift, solely to have a fun experience and capture a few arial shots.  

I took a few shots of them and Jer in turn took this shot of me.  I then distracted myself from worrying about them being up so high and was incredibly thankful when the returned safe and sound back to the ground.

The nativity was absolutely beautiful.

Many people stopped by.

They enjoyed seeing the cute kids

and the animals.

I think that many people enjoyed seeing the Nativity and being reminded of the pure simplicity of Christmas.

Quick shout out to "Joseph" helping out with "Baby Jesus" 

And to this amazing guy and his sweet son.

In the evening, we celebrated at our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service.

It's certainly one of my most favorite services of the year.

We come and are surrounded by our dearest friends.

And the candles are super cool too.

It was a pretty awesome night.

And it was so good being reminded of the reasons that we celebrate with such joy and hope during Christmas time.

Since there are two services, we had a little hang out time in between, to catch up with friends and enjoy refreshments.

I also took the time to make a few special friends pose for a nice Christmas picture or two.

Ellee delivered a few presents to special friends as well.

She also took the time to enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate.  

During the second service, she carefully drew out all of our friends in the choir.  Our girl's quite the artist.

This morning we celebrated a nice Christmas with our sweet little family.  In years past, we've traveled to be with our extended families in Seattle and in Michigan.  It's always been so special to have such great memories of those trips and to see our loved ones from home.  However, in the past few years, we've really loved enjoying Christmas in New York, with our little family.  Our awesome kids slept in till about 10:00am (bless their hearts) at which point we got up and opened "socking" gifts as Ellee so lovingly referred to them as.  

We then enjoyed a traditional breakfast of Swedish pancakes.

We took time to read the Christmas story, straight from Luke 2.  Christian read for us this year and did a great job.

Afterwards, Christian did a little present dance and we opened our gifts.

Our kids received many gifts including special ones from our friends here and their grandparents.

Christian enjoyed a very Science-y Christmas and was excited to have fun while learning too.

All in all, it was a beautiful day.  I received a few well thought out Holiday Boutique gifts, handpicked by my precious kids.  And one of my favorite gifts was this... Instant Happiness.  Partly because it was a gift card to my absolute favorite restaurant, and part because it was a morning full of joy.  Joy for Jesus' birthday.  Joy for God being with us.  Joy for hope and promises kept.  Joy for my family.  Joy for their joy.  And Joy for another wonderful Christmas.

Merry, merry Christmas to you!  I hope that you are enjoying a wonderful joy filled day as well!