The Lancaster Journey: Tis the season!

Getting ready for Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving for our family

This year Ayden came to work with me the day after Thanksgiving and he, myself and one of my co-worker's little boy, Shane, put up the two trees in the office and decked the halls.

When we got home we started on our house. Joey, his dad, and the boys went and picked our fresh cut tree that came from the mountains and brought it home. We started unpacking all the decorations and putting up what we could. This year I was smarter and decided to let the tree actually settle for a day and wait to put the lights on. I always get so excited and I'm a pretty impatient person so this was very hard for me to wait those 24 hours before we started trimming the tree.

We did go ahead and put up the nativity scene and the boys went through their animals and found the perfect horse and cows that would go good with the stable. It blessed my heart to hear Brock hold up the little baby again this year and say "mom, it's Jesus!"

Saturday we decorated our tree.

Every year Joey's mom gets special ornaments for the kids and one for the whole family. This year Bethany got a princess and the boys got construction trucks. The whole family ornament was five little reindeer. **************************** The next tasks was our family Christmas card. The family photo is very important to me, time goes by so fast and all you really have is the memories you keep in your heart and photos. This year I let the kids get involved. I told the kids that their Christmas present to others would be their photos so they had to take an awesome photo or get jobs to purchase presents :) They chose to smile.

Ayden took the photo of Joey and I and he also set up our pose for the family photo and here's our Christmas card!

Next was our first annual Christmas bazaar at church. It was called "Once Upon a Christmas" and was a huge success! You can't see it, but the tree that Kirsten and I are standing in front of is like 12 feet tall and we put it up.... with a little help from some innocent bystanders.

We had some really neat items at the bazaar that included wreaths, bows, jewelry,

Santa made a visit and the Kentucky Missions Team fed us with homemade soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

We even had a beautiful snow fall to end the show!

Then the kids made their lists out of what they wanted from Santa. They cut out tons of stuff out but it always comes down to baby dolls, trucks, trucks, and more trucks!

We had a breakfast with Santa at Andy's so we could tell Santa everything we wanted! Ayden was the only brave one to relay his list :)

Next was Christmas Parties...... Our Mpact women had a little get together before Wednesday night class

We had our Leaders Banquet at Church, it was a "Night with the Stars" This was a real treat for Joey and I. They served awesome food from Bishops, had great entertainment (Joey and I even got to walk down the red carpet :) and great fellowship.

Then we had one for the Andy's owed by the Bond's. We played dirty santa and I won a back massager... nice!

Then one for Andy's Home Office (my day job). We had a great meal and played dirty santa and I won a skillet... real nice!

A week before Christmas, December 17th Joey's grandfather went to be with the Lord so we celebrated his life at a beautiful service on Tuesday, December 21st

Then we had Joey's family get together with his aunt, cousins and grandparents on his dad's side. We had a great meal and cake and cupcakes for dessert (my kids really loved that).

This photo is so cute because Ayden is learning from his great grandpapa how to work a wooden yo yo: out of all the flashy electronic toys, kids are still drawn to the simple things in life, I love it.

We stopped by my grandma's house to see her little tree and all the light up nic nacs around the house. My kids had to turn everyone of them on before they left.

Christmas Eve was celebrated at my mom and dad's house. We had our traditional chili and salad

This photo is so bitter sweet because Ayden isn't supposed to eat alot of bread so this was a huge temptation piled up infront of him :(

We opened all the gifts from my grandma (the kids' itshugrandma) Again this year, she knew exactly what to get the kids and they loved their gifts.

Everyone enjoying their gifts

This was my nephew, Logan's,first Christmas It brought back memories of my first born's first Christmas because Ayden and Logan's birthday is only a few weeks apart so Ayden was about the same size on his first Christmas.

At Christmas time for the last four years our family has had some kind of major blessing. Two years in a row we received a check in the mail and last year at about 11:00 Christmas Eve night we received $500 in cash on our door step. This year we were blessed in a different way..... we were blessed with heat. Back in July on one of the hottest days of the year our air conditioner went out. We got through the summer with window units and fans but the winter was a little different. My dad graciously installed a gas heater that we put in the kitchen (central room of the house) but we could only run it when we were home. Our blessing this year was somone sponsored us with a heating/air unit. An anoymous person took care of having a unit installed and allowed us to pay it back a little at a time. A few days after it was installed we had one of the coldest days of the year followed with several snow days. What a wonderful blessing it was for someone to "pay it forward" for us and we were and continue to be so thankful for that wonderful person! ***********************

Christmas day was really special this year; Ayden is four, Brock, three, and Bethany is two so they really get it this year! The night before we set out milk and cookies for "Santa" Ayden debated on whether Santa would like almond milk or whole milk, he went with whole milk. Christmas morning when I woke up all the kids were actually still asleep, which never happens! Bethany and I woke the boys up and piled into the living room.