Christmas Day 2010

I love this picture...Grace's face is lit up with that childlike
Christmas joy that is so precious!

'Tis The Season...

I love the season of Christmas. Not the crazy rush in the grocery store or Target leading up to Christmas, or the commercialization of the holiday that makes us think we need the newest gadgets. What I love about the season is what I'm experiencing right now. I'm sitting in front of a cozy, crackling fire watching the blizzard that's going on outside. On the mantle hangs six stockings, and the newly decorated Christmas tree sits in the corner, adorned with memories of childhood Christmas crafts past (Ian's strategy for decorating the tree; "I put the breakable things on the bottom so that when we knock them off, they don't have so far to fall!). The flickering candles makes up for our lack of a real Christmas tree by giving off a wonderful pine smell. The speakers are piping out one of my favorite Christmas CDs.  There's just something about the togetherness of the holiday that is special. The traditions of families and friends coming together to celebrate the holiday.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is our Ladies' Christmas Tea at church. The event is looked forward to by all, from the little girls all the way to the grandmas of the church.

Lizzie!!!

Yummy finger food :)

Joy Shupe and Grace

I took Lizzie's picture...

...and then she took mine :)

Some of the young girls :)

This pretty much sums up my relationship with Hope and Joy...
whenever I give them a hug or they give me one, tickling ensues <3

Hehe...not really sure what this was about :P

the girls at my table; Lizzie, me, Lizzie, and Jessie

ELISE!!!

She's such a cutie!!!

And in other news, when we got home from church today I set up my tripod and we took our Christmas picture. We usually take it on the hearth in our family room, but I wanted to expand my family's- Christmas-picture-taking-horizons, so I moved it outside :D It was chilly (ok, FREEZING!) so I set up the camera, took 2 continuous sets of 10 pictures each, and then we all high-tailed it back inside to a warm fire. For as quick as it was, I'm pretty happy with the turnout.

And since this rather non-specific post, the last Christmas related item of the evening is a really neat project that we're doing with our church this year. This evening after the service, we gathered around the tables in the kitchen and packed up 500 Christmas kits to distribute to the neighborhoods around the church. The kits contained a tract with the Christmas story, an invitation to our church's Christmas Eve service, and a New Testament. We're distributing them next Saturday and it's neat to think that there could be 500 homes that have Bibles in them that may not have had them before. The Gospel transforms lives, and our prayer is that these Bibles will be a blessing in these homes, and will bring people to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

Blessing #9- Family Game Nights

Everyone came over tonight for an easy dinner of subs, chips, and cookies. After we ate the boys (from the 20 year olds down the the 6 year olds) broke out the nerf swords and nerf guns and proceeded to chase each other around the house for an hour. It was quite amusing to watch and it looked like a dozen tornadoes went through the house by the time they were finished. The rest of us played a lively game of Buzz Word. Thrown in there were also countless games of ping-pong and air hockey. T'was great family bonding time spent laughing, yelling, and goofing off. I cannot begin to tell you all how much I love my family =D The memories I have of our family reunions are some of the best!

there were also some video games going on most of the night.

Luke laughing at Uncle Gerald doing something funny.

Livi loved playing air hockey.

Uncle Joe intent on answering in Buzz Word.

hehe...don't ask...our family's a bit strange :P

it was amusing to see the older boys
having so much fun with the little guys.

Coley taking cover from enemy fire.

Cole and Ian a little sweaty.

A-splishin' and a-splashin'

The last weekend of August was my mom's birthday. Her birthday request was that we take a picnic lunch and head to Brandywine falls to hike and play in the water.

Way to cool... ;)

Ian collecting rocks

Dad and the boys were building towers of rocks
and then standing at a distance and trying to knock
them down with other rocks...
quite amusing to watch :)

The 2 best brothers a girl
could ever ask for!

These next 3 are my favorites... 

... especially this one

We spotted a mother deer nursing her fawn

The little kids had a blast sliding
down the natural waterslides