MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas!! Hope everyone had a wonderful day spent with the ones you love!!

The kids always get so excited when the packages come from their Mimi & Paw Paw and Grandpa & Grandma Carol..although sometimes the boxes are as much fun as the gifts! Christmas morning...ready to open presents!
Our new puppy Princess was very excited about the presents too!

We would like to call this photo "Peace on Earth"....not bad for only living together for 3 days... we think they'll be best buddies in no time!
Nathan was very excited to get a brand new bike from his Grandma and Paw Paw!
Ready for Christmas dinner...
It's one of our family traditions to make a cake and sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus" each year..the kids get to decide what kind of cake we'll make ...this year we made Him a Sour Cream Pound Cake.
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Meet "Princess"

Well, Christmas came a few days early for Nathan and Emily! Meet our new puppy "Princess", she is a 3 month old Beagle/??? (we think maybe Daschund)Mix, she weighs 6 pounds. We adopted her from the shelter this morning. It's like having a new baby in the house!

Weekend in Maryland

We had a whirlwind 2 day trip up to Maryland this weekend to visit some friends and family for the holidays! We started our trip on Friday afternoon with a visit to one of my closest friends, Michelle and her girls. Here is my Emily and her Emiley..these girls have been friends since they were 3 years old and even thought they live so far away, they still keep in touch and remember each other. Me and Michelle....
We stayed with our good friends the Hunt's and had a ball...on Saturday night we all decided to put on our PJ's and drive around to look at Christmas lights...such a fun memory!
We even stopped at Wawa for coffee and hot cocoa! The funny thing was that no one seemed to notice the crazy people in pajamas?!?!
We ended our trip with a family Christmas party on Sunday. Here are the kids with their Great Grandmother Boyer..it's hard to believe she'll be 85 next month...still quite a beauty.

Tinseltown

The kids had a sleepover at their Grandma and Paw Paw's house last night, which meant a date night for Dave and I. We decided to try something new and go Ice Skating at Tinseltown at the Koka Booth Ampitheatre. Considering it was the first time in my life to ever put on a pair of ice skates, and Dave had tried it once when we he was 8 or 9 years old, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into...

After a few laps around hanging onto the wall we were actually not doing too bad....still pretty shaky though! We still don't know how people make it look so easy????

Okay, here is something I never thought I would post...a picture of someone famous!! After our Ice Skating Adventure we headed to Barnes & Noble to get coffee and peruse some books, we noticed the store was packed with people and wanted to see why.... Rachel Ray was there signing copies of her new cookbook! While we weren't able to get in line to get a book signed I did manage to get close enough to snap this pic of her...what a night....ice skating and a celebrity sighting!!

"Journey to Bethlehem"

A family from our church put on a Christmas event called a "Journey to Bethlehem" right in their own backyard. They have been doing this for the past 7 years and this was our first time to go, we were amazed and so blessed how a family could transform their ordinary wooded backyard into a walk to Bethlehem. Complete with a shepherd for our guide and live sheep and donkeys, we visited the marketplace, saw the angel Gabriel, visited with the Magi, stopped at the crowded Inn, and ended at the stable....

The journey ends with a walkway of scripture verses that remind us not to still think of Him as a baby in that manger, but as the one who payed the ultimate sacrifice so that we may have eternal life.