rolling up our sleeves for Christmas...

With Thanksgiving under our belts, we welcome the Advent season into our home. I especially love this time of year because Target puts out all their really cool merchandise-wait no! I TRULY love Advent because we get to celebrate Jesus' birth and realize what it means to be in relationship with the Living God all year long. Oh, what peace I have from Him!

Joe and I are discovering what the holidays mean for our little family of two. We have Joe's family in Fargo, ND, and Minnesota, and my family in the Northwest, California, Florida, and Minnesota. So, needless to say, sometimes the holidays are a bittersweet time of loving the ones we're with if we can't be with the ones we love. We have been fortunate to fly out from Seattle to the Upper Midwest for the past 4 Christmases plus spend some time with my parents in Oregon; this year will mark number 5. We savor these blessings.

Although we are seasoned (haha get it?) holiday travelers, we do not have a track record of decorating in our own home because we were gone so much of the time during the season and we simply didn't have the money! This year marks the first year that we actually have a real Christmas tree!! My parents brought an extra tree they had in storage up for us and they helped us decorate it. My sister Chelsea and brother in law Rob came down from Renton and we all watched Uncle Buck while we decorated. I think my red, gold, and silver theme came together quite cohesively.