Christmas in Texas

There were so many wonderful things that we did together in Texas. But I thought I'd begin with my favorite and most memorable. My Aunt Beth arranged for an extraordinary chance to serve the homeless of Dallas, Texas. We put together 200 boxes of items: socks, coke bottle, candies, tooth brush/paste and wrapped each box and also put together a baggy of homemade cookies. On Christmas Eve all 14 of us packed a rented truck with the boxes and picked up buckets full of hot hot chocolate and headed down town. It was so fun handing out the packages and goodies. The people receiving them were so appreciative and nice. We were able to stop and talk to some for a while. Each group we came across saved their present for the next Christmas morning. I thought that was just the coolest thing. I'm very thankful my Aunt Beth thought of this wonderful experience to do as a family; to work hard together to help provide a special Christmas for complete strangers. It was amazing.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends! Hope you are with family and loved ones and are remembering the true meaning of today... Emmanuel was born... Redeeming Love is ours! Merry Christmas!

been a while.

It's Christmas time! We are down in Dallas spending some time with the family at my Aunt Beth and Uncle Dan's house. It is always an enormous treat when we get to come and stay with them. They are an amazing couple of people. I have not updated my blog in... a while! Sorry. I don't have Dallas pics uploaded to the computer just yet either so those will be along soon. Just thought I'd say I'm having a blast in Dallas.. We will be off to Mattoon for the other side of the family Friday! Christmas time is my favorite! P.S. The picture is of my two girls: my cousins Lyndsey and Courtenay. Unfortunately they couldn't make it out to Texas and I'm missing them. I'll defintely be blogging like crazy soon! Until then...

our tree.

Mom and Dad being cute.

Dad and his new, free mug from the tree place.

Caleb standing next to "his" size tree.

The tree.. still naked.

It didn't take much time today, but we had a lot of fun picking out our Christmas tree together. We never can all agree on which tree to pick. The standard is just tall and skinny. One tradition Caleb has every year is to find a tiny tree for him and me. A tiny tree really means a small broken off tree branch. We bring it home and claim it for our own. Today was a lot of fun. Reminding me just how close Christmas is!

The Joe Show.

Today, we continued our annual family tradition of picking out the Christmas tree together. Here to talk about it is my little brother, Caleb or as he is known in this interview : Joe on The Joe Show. Enjoy!

babysitting adventure #2.

Last night was so much fun! These kids were wonderful and loved to cuddle! Plus they were incredibly cute, as you can tell from the pictures. I traveled out to Alton, IL yesterday and arrived at their house around 5:30 p.m. We played all sorts of games from "Elefun" to "Operation: Spongebob Edition". However, "Thomas the Train Memory Game" was my personal favorite. We also ate pizza and chocolate sticks and towards the end of the night we popped in A Mickey Mouse Christmas Movie. After the movie, I battled with these kiddos for an hour and a half, asking them to please go to bed. Finally around 10:30 they all quieted down. I was told the parents would get home around 11:30 but it wasn't until 1:00a.m. that they came through the door. By this point it didn't matter and they definitely made it worth my while! They were very generous. Even with out their generosity, these kids are definitely in the top five of my favorites to babysit!

baby brother.

The past two days for some reason my brother has been especially special to me. Maybe it's the thought of having to leave him next year or maybe its just how I've recognized how much he is growing up; either way, I've just been really proud of him. Today I found something that he wrote about God. Can't believe he is even old enough to be thinking "maturely" in a sense but it's so cool and comforting to know that God is working in my brother's life.. even now. Like I said, leaving him is a very tear-jerking, hard thought for me, but it's days like today that I realize my God is going to take care of my baby brother. Caleb truly is one amazing kid. It's cool to see the young man he is becoming. And it's nice to have a brother that helps me want to be a better big sister. I love him very dearly.