We just got home from a fantastic trip visiting Jon’s side of the family in California. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful in-law family! There was lots of laughing, lots of eating, lots of dishes and disciplining, lots of toys and lots of talking.
And not a lot of sleep. 😉
SO… I will recap our Christmas tomorrow! I hope you had a blessed day filled with family, good friends and great food (like pecan pie!).
Love to you all,
…is Alicia! 🙂
Congrats! Send me the email address you’d like me to send the link to and I’ll will get that your way! 🙂
Merry Christmas!!!
Merry Christmas!! The presents are opened, the fire is crackling, Michael Buble is crooning – how about a new Christmas e-novella to read while you’re relaxing this afternoon?? 🙂
Introducing my newest novella – My Revised Christmas List!
Leave a comment letting me know the best moment you had today and I’ll pick a winner tonight to get a free copy!
Have a wonderful day!
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever!” – 2 Peter 3:18
I know that many of you will be enjoying today with your dear friends and family. And I know that some of you are just hoping to make it through today without breaking down. May Christ Jesus show us the riches of His love, the sweetness of His mercy and the miracle of His incarnation today – no matter what our Christmas is looking like. Praying for you all!
Blessings to you this Christmas Day!
Jon, Nathan and I celebrated our own little Christmas last weekend and we had so much fun. Santa brought Nathan a kitchen and he LOVES it. 🙂
Our house on Christmas morning! I was so excited – I woke up like an hour before Nathan did and just laid there waiting for him to wake up. That was the LONGEST hour… 😉
I don’t think he really knew what to do at first. Love his face: “Hey, how did this get here?”
Warming up… 😉
Okay, this is a fun day.
This is a GREAT day!!
We spent the majority of the morning playing with the kitchen and the little trinkets from his stocking.
Showing off his present to Kody. 🙂
Someone is very, very, very, very loved in this house. Just in case anyone was wondering. 😉
Then it was time to unwrap presents. Nathan got a lot of fun new things for the kitchen and Jon and I exchanged gifts. I love my little family!
What blessings this Christmas! Questions of the day: what are you planning to give for Christmas and what are you hoping to receive??
Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve! 😉
We had such a wonderful “Christmas Eve”! We celebrated early just the three of us and it was so much fun. So many dear, precious memories were made! We made cookies, we watched Frosty while eating a picnic of pizza in the living room and Santa even came to our house.
We started by making cookies and Nathan was very adamant that he get to help with every stage of it. 😉
Me and the little chef 🙂
I’m pretty sure our entire kitchen got flour on it.
I love the concentration going into the cookie cutting process here. Ha!
Just a little messy. And a little wound up. 😉
We gave him a little bowl of icing, a little knife and two cookies to decorate for himself. Half of the cookie somehow “disappeared” while he was icing it. 😉
This is where most of the icing went.
Success tastes great! 🙂
Love this picture – Jon is working so hard making beautiful cookies and Nathan has moved on to decorating his arm with icing and sprinkles.
Gammy and Pops stopped by for a few minutes and got treated to an icing covered hug. 😉
Why stop at cookies, Mom??
I pretty much had to scrub my entire kitchen down that night.
It was worth it. 😉
The aftermath. Oh my goodness, he was COVERED. I think we found sprinkles in the boy’s ears.
Told you Santa came to our house. 😉
We had to pick out cookies for Santa after a much-needed bath.
Cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. Rudolph “LOVES” carrots, apparently. 😉 Then we read the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible (I adore that book – if you know or have little kids, get it for them for Christmas!).
My sweet family on our Christmas Eve! I am so blessed with my boys – God has given me so very much.
Now that we’ve totally disgusted you with our cookie making pictures, I hope you have a wonderful night! Ha! 🙂
December is always such a ridiculously crazy month and this year has been no exception. I think we’ve had something every single day for the past three weeks. Oy! I have so much catching up to do on here!
We’ve been doing a lot of baking around here lately. A certain little man who lives here has not seemed to mind so much – especially when he is allowed to “help” and it involves “smarshmellows”. 😉
Cutie.
Last week, we went to the River of Lights with Clint, Leigh Ann and Hayley Grace. It’s a big Christmas lights display that our town puts on in the botanical gardens. It was so fun but SO cold.
The kids had so much fun running around the lights but I think everyone in the entire park knew Nathan’s name by the time we left because I felt like I was constantly saying, “Nathan, stop. Nathan, come back. Nathan, watch where you are going!”
My dear friend! What a blessing this girl is to me!!
What have you been up to in your home to welcome Christmas??
I have so much catching up to do on this blog. We have been having a completely wonderful Christmastime. Santa came to our house early this year, so I will do another post soon about Nathan’s third Christmas (THIRD. How is this possible??).
Also, this morning I read the best blog I’ve read yet on the tragedy that occurred on Friday. It’s here if you would like to read it and I very much encourage you to do so.
Still continuing to pray for those families who lost their sweet babies. My heart just aches for them. I am so reminded in times like these that we were not created for this and this world is not our home. May we never forget how fragile this life is and live every moment treasuring the time we have with our loved ones. And oh, may Jesus come very soon.
I really loved this advent calendar that we followed. Most everything was easy enough and short enough that even when we missed a day or two here and there, it was fairly simple to catch back up. 🙂
Day 15 – we read Luke 2:12-14 and walked around the mall and looked at Christmas decorations.
Day 16 – we read Luke 2:15-18 and sang Christmas songs.
Away in the Manger from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.
Day 17 – we read Psalm 95:6 and read a Christmas book.
Day 18 – we read Luke 2:19-20, 33-35 and made snowmen out of cotton balls.
Day 19 – we read Luke 2:21 and drove around to look at Christmas lights.
Day 20 – we read Luke 2:22-24 and met Santa.
Day 21 – we read Luke 2:25-32 and took pictures by the Christmas tree.
Day 22 – we read Matthew 2:1 and read a Christmas book.
Day 23 – we read Matthew 2:1-2 and went to the River of Lights.
Day 24 – we read Matthew 2:9-10 and made cookies for Santa.
Day 25 – we read Matthew 2:11 and celebrated Christmas!!
And what a wonderful Christmas we had!
Praying for you and yours,
Friends, I had planned on posting a blog about all that we have been up to preparing for Christmas today but my heart is so heavy right now that I am not able to do so.
Please pray for the families involved in the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting. I have spent much of the morning crying, praying and hugging my son tight as more and more news comes in about this senseless act.
I do not understand why these things happen. In times like these, we have to cling to what we know: God is good. He is not cruel, He is not unloving. How His father’s heart must be breaking right now for these parents in grief for their babies. May He comfort them with the peace that only He can give.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
I loved reading all of your favorite Christmas gifts!! The winner of the autographed Sketchy Behavior is…
Abby! Email me at erynnmangum@gmail.com and I’ll be sure to put that in the mail ASAP. 🙂
I am so far behind on this blog. We have been having SO much fun this Christmas! I’ll write a post tomorrow about everything we’ve been doing.
Someone has been loving all the Christmas movies we’ve been watching! Yesterday, Nathan told me that there was a “little boy with a stick” (Tiny Tim) who always said, “Happy birthday, everyone!” (ala Frosty the Snowman).
Well, almost. 😉