December Adventures!

"The season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart." -Washington Irving

December has been quite the whirlwind of activity this year!  But, thankfully, we've managed to keep enough "white space" in the calendar to really enjoy the true meaning of the season.  Here is some of what our family has done...

I made a Christmas Planning Binder!  This is something I'd been wanting to do for a while!  I don't think, at this point, it will do me much good for THIS Christmas, but I have everything in place for NEXT Christmas.  It's a place to keep the menu/recipes for various Christmas meals (I cannot WAIT to NOT have to dig around for my Christmas recipes next year!), gift ideas/buying logs, Christmas card lists, our Christmas budget, lists of various Christmas events we enjoy, etc etc.  I have really started focusing on keeping Christmas as organized and stress-free as possible, and I know this is going to be a huge help.  The true meaning of Christmas (the birth of our Lord and Savior) is too important to be lost in a sea of stress.  Can't wait to put this into practice next year!!!

We bought our Christmas tree!  We always go to the same tree lot near Guilford College.  Joseph loved looking at the giant blow-up Santa Claus while we shopped!

***Side note here...FOR ADULTS ONLY!!!!!!!  We really struggled with the idea of how to "Do" Santa Claus with Joseph and any other future children.  We discussed all possibilities including both extremes - full blown, traditional Santa to not doing Santa at all.)  We finally settled on a modified, "low-emphasis" version of Santa...grace-based Santa (versus bringing toys to "good" instead of "bad" boys and girls), and a radical overemphasis on Jesus as the true reason for Christmas.  I add all of this here because I've had tons of discussions with friends recently about doing or not doing Santa, and this is what we finally decided on for us.  I feel pretty good about it all so far.  Joseph enjoys Santa, but isn't obsessed with him.  And when asked what Christmas is all about, he can and does immediately answer with "JESUS!!!" :-)***

 We put up our tree and decorations at home.  Joseph loves them!!!

My mom has been having some back problems this December, so one Saturday we went to my parents house and decorated their tree for them.  Joseph had fun "helping!"

We went to the Festival of Lights in Downtown Greensboro, one of our favorite traditions!  It was cold but the lights were beautiful!

We decided to eat dinner from street vendors downtown.  David got roasted corn.  Delicious!

Even at 2, Joseph still prefers being "worn" to a stroller.  He always has this sort of miserable look in the stroller, lol.

He was a little happier on Daddy's shoulders (yes, he had shoes, they just fell off while we were standing there)

We went to the live nativity at the Lutheran Church of Our Father on Groometown Rd. here in Greensboro.  This is our 2nd year going and we love it!  You can even go inside the church and drink hot chocolate and eat cookies and other delicious goodies (which, of course, we always do!).  This year was a little unique, in that a car accident happened right down the road the night of the nativity.  No one was hurt, but it took out some power lines and thus only emergency lights and flashlights were there to illumine the nativity.  But the guests and the church members made the best of it and, truthfully, I think I enjoyed it more that way!  Electricity (or lack thereof) in no way changes the beauty that is Jesus' birth.  After all, our humble savior was born long before electricity was discovered.  We had just enough light to get out and see the camel! :-)

As we do every year, we went to the Paschal Farm Christmas Lights in Casville, NC.  Casville is about 40 minutes away from us, way out in the country.  But this family puts up 1 million lights on their farm each year and opens it to the public (along with numerous small, decorated cabins on their property).  And many, many of the light displays declare the glory of Jesus.  They even provide free Bibles to those that have none.  It is awesome.  :-)  My parents went along with us...my mom sat in the car (because of her back issues), but my dad walked around with us.

Again...the stroller is not his favorite way to travel...

Joseph LOVED the "train cabin!"

We went to Old Salem in neighboring Winston-Salem to see the Christmas Decor and to eat lunch at Salem Tavern...

Little man is so much happier on my back!!!

Daddy and his boy at Salem Tavern

We had a wonderful evening with our friends, the Locks!  We went to eat ice cream, got Cajun food for dinner, and then went to the lighted trail at Grey Gables in Summerfield!  So much fun!!!

Joseph and his sweet friend Addison.  Joseph's mouth says "Dairy free sorbet is pretty good!" ;-)

All of us at the lighted trail!!!

Finally, all of the Christmas activity has, on multiple occasions, worn Joseph out...

 One thing that I'm so sad about is that I haven't gotten any pictures of Joseph putting change into the Salvation Army red kettles this season.  He has gotten really good at it, and he LOVES doing it at every opportunity.  I'm so happy to see a spirit of cheerful giving growing in his sweet little heart!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Next blog post coming on the main event! :-)