Christmas Memories...

Christmas.

For some, it is stress of buying the perfect gifts. For me, it's a day of Thankfulness and memories.

If Christmas, for me, gets to a point of stress, I know I am not in it for the right reasons. So, I work at getting things done ahead of time, then I can sit and reflect on memories and the wonderful gift given by Jesus...

Christmas cookies can be fun to make, especially with 4 little boys! Here, we were making Christmas cut-out cookies and homemade hot cocoa that we are giving as gifts, for teachers, mailman, etc. They LOVE to "help" in the kitchen. You can tell by the MESS!:

One of my favorite things about having a Christmas tree, is the memories on every bough... Here is an ornament we made one year. Austin was 3 and he made Buzz Lightyear:

To the right are some ornaments that I made for the boys. On the left is a sand dollar. This reminds me of the MANY Christmas's that I spent with my family in Florida at Christmas. There weren't many gifts those years, BUT we were together, we had TONS of fun, and made lots of memories that I will never forget:

Here is one item in our house that make the cold a little more tolerable! Our corn/ pellet burner. I love to plant myself right in the front of it, or in the big chair right next to it... I don't fall asleep very easily anywhere that is not my own bed, but I HAVE fallen asleep in this chair, by the fire:

This is one thing that I feel SO blessed to have. A manger. This is our first year with this. If you remember, in July, my mom and I went to Florida to move my grandpa's things home and to sell his place there. Well, this is one thing I got from their place down there. It was my grandma's. I loved my grandma and miss her so much. I remember Christmas's at her house. All the delicious food, grandpa's crabbing (yes, he's still a crabby old man!), grandma's love... I miss those days like CRAZY... I miss my grandma like crazy. But I just have to remember that she gets to celebrate Christmas with JESUS! How awesome...

What blessings. I hope to, for many more years, make the same great memories for my family.

Thank you Jesus, for humbling yourself, by being born into a human body on this Earth, in a manger. Thank you for being the ultimate sacrifice, so that we can spent eternity with you, if we choose to accept it! Thank you for the BEST GIFT EVER!