Coffee Date ~ Christmas Week ~ 12/29/12

Won't you come meet Alissa (above), me and the girls for a coffee date,

or in my case, hot chocolate with whipped cream or maybe a chai tea?

Hello, everyone!  I hope you're having a good week.

~I'm having very hot tea today.  My sinuses have been so congested and it is making me miserable.  Yesterday was once of my worst days for sinus pain, so I had to reschedule our Coffee Date for today.  Hope you don't mind!

~The snow is falling again here in the North East.  Right now the snowflakes are big and fluffy.  A bit earlier it was pelting it down pretty good though.  Thankfully we stocked up on bread and milk before the store ran out.  hehe

~We had a GREAT Christmas!  Friday marked the end of school for the kids and work for Doug.  We had already shut down the shop to get all the order finished, so we were free and clear for fun!  We got up bright and early Saturday morning to travel to my cousin's house in VA.  His wife, Michele, is expecting twins in March and wasn't allowed to travel to PA.  So we all went down there!  I was worried it would be too much on her but she was SO excited for us all to come.  We had a fabulous day spending quality time with family.  We cooked, we laughed, we caught up, we played with baby Dex.

Dex on his "Batmobile" from Uncle Eric and Aunt Michele.

We ate and then we went to Bull Run State Park and drove through an AMAZING light show.  The girls love it!  I did too :)

It was an emotional good-bye.  Hopefully we'll be able to make it back down for the big event.  I can't wait!  Twins!  They still won't tell us the sexes though....  We have to have until January 26th for the big reveal.  I think they are both boys.  But I could be wrong.

~Sunday we had our Christmas program in Church.  The kids did an excellent job with their skit.  The Praise Team had practiced some special songs and we sang them instead of the normal praise songs.  Chad had a great sermon.  If you want to see the outline, you can find it on the new blog I'm creating for our Church.  It was called "Do You Have Room for Jesus?"  The outline doesn't do it justice though.  Chad is such a great speaker and spends so much time studying for his messages.  I can't wait until we can link up either audio or video of his sermons.  In the evening we went caroling and had a ball even though our nose and toes were froze!

~Monday we spent the day together at home getting the house ready for Christmas Eve.  It was odd this Christmas.  Things have changed but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  As I said, Eric and Michele couldn't travel; Mike, Steph and Dex went to Philadelphia to visit Mike's family, and then Aunt Donna and Uncle Charlie couldn't make it down because Uncle Charlie was sick in bed.  It ended up being my immediate family which was kinda nice.  My Mom and Dad and my brother Dan came and we ate and watched a Christmas movie.  It was low-key but relaxing.

~Christmas Day was the best.  My Mom and Dad always stay over night on Christmas Eve so that they are here for present opening in the morning.  We always start with reading the account of Jesus' birth in Luke before any presents are opened.  I love how patient our kids are.  Everyone was very pleased with the gifts they received.  We had a nice, quiet, relaxing afternoon and headed to Mom and Dad's for Christmas Dinner.  Thankfully, Uncle Charlie was feeling better so he and Aunt Donna made it down for some quality time together.

~The rest of the week has been fairly quiet.  The kids are spending their time playing new Wii games and watching new movies.  When I haven't been fighting sinus headaches, I've been working on getting my calendar situated for next year and doing some housework.

~We opened the etsy shop back up.  That was exciting.  I didn't realize how much I would miss it until we had a break!

~I've also spent a bit of time online.  Let's call this my "Challenge Sign-up Week".  I've joined a few reading challenges.  I've also joined a fitness challenge to walk/run "365 miles in 365 Days".  That is only 1 mile a day.  I can do at least that.  Right?

~I hope you've all had a great Christmas and have taken some time to recuperate and get ready for 2013.  I have lots of exciting things going on this coming year and am really looking forward to it.  Did I mention TWINS!?!  I love being and Auntie :)

So, how was your week?