And more!

Traditionally, we spend Christmas evening with my mom and family, enjoying an amazing prime rib dinner that is a truly heartfelt gift from my mom, born out of the hard work and week of preparation to pull it all off! Not surprisingly, it was delicious again! This Christmas celebration was more packed than usual... family from out of town and friends joining us to make this evening something special. Quarters were close, but I wouldn't exchange the time with friends and family for more elbow room.

A new Minnie Mouse suitcase from CaCa and Rachel.

Showing Aggie the craft supplies she bought with her Christmas money!

Silly girl!

Our most honored guest of the evening... Papa's sister, Aunt Ginny, from North Carolina.

A doll high chair- for more imaginative play!

More Christmas...

We were glad to celebrate Christmas on a Sunday this year. We enjoyed some nice family time in the morning- reading the entire Advent Story. Sharing our gifts with one another. And then heading off to church for a really special Christmas service.

Actually the first two pictures are from Christmas Eve Eve, which we celebrated with Jimmy's family here at the house. Grace Louise is sporting her new owl slippers from Uncle Marsh and delivering gifts.

A new baby from Aunt Lindsey! And a fishing pole from Pops and Bebe. More pics of the fishing sure to come... after all fishing is a daily activity around here!

Daddy helping Grace Louise open her "big" gift from mommy and daddy. A cabbage patch baby for the bathtub.

I think

she really

likes it!!!

And a doll house from LaLa and Poppee. We actually waited several days after Christmas for this big gift. It needed a morning all its own! It's been really fun watching her use her imagination with this toy!

Celebrating Advent

So, my blogging during the Christmas season really suffered, but better that than more important things, right?! We had a great and meaningful Christmas, characterized by both great blessing and loss. We incorporated a few new traditions, spent oodles of time with family and friends, and enjoyed some really fun Christmas festivities that Grace Louise wouldn't have enjoyed or appreciated in past years.

We also grieved the imminent loss of Jimmy's Papa Hurst, visiting him at the Sebring Hospice House many times during and after Christmas week. He went to be with Jesus on January 1st of this New Year. I know time does not exist beyond this earth, but I have to imagine it must have been very neat to enter the New Year at the feet of Jesus, with a new mind, a new body and a crown of righteousness to present to the King!

Our newest tradition in helping keep our hearts and minds on Christ Jesus during the Christmas season was adding the celebration of Advent. Advent is a liturgical tradition that hasn't been observed in any church Jimmy and I have ever attended. Our thoughts on including this in our family are very simple... #1 keep in simple #2 no legalism- keep the tradition because you can and want to, not because you have to and #3 let the experience of the tradition draw you closer to Jesus and remember Him more during the Christmas season. I will admit, our first go-round was wobbly. I don't think any of us really understood the meaning of the candles, although at the very end of advent we were given a really helpful handout that gives suggested meaning for each of the candles, scripture readings, stories, etc. Using this new handout will certainly bring more meaning to this tradition next year.

Grace Louise and I made our own version of an advent wreath. Since I had never done this before, I decided to label the candles so we would be reminded of their meanings. Ta-da!

My mom bought Grace Louise and our family The Advent Book as a gift. It is a beautiful hardback book with doors that open for each day (Dec 1-25) telling the story of Christ's birth. Grace Louise really enjoyed this tradition and looked forward to reading the book every evening. Several nights we skipped the book and would catch up later in the week... again, the joy is that we get to enjoy this tradition, not that we have to! I would highly recommend this book for any family looking for another way to point to Jesus during the Christmas season.

Christmas Time

This Christmas season has so far, been very fun and meaningful for our family. Continuing traditions that we started in the previous two years and creating some new ones. Each year is proving to be more exciting as Grace Louise gets older and can be involved more in the Christmas festivities.

christmas parade.

This child is crazy about a sucker! Her all time favorite treat, reserved for parades and trips to the bank :-)

One of the local churches had a band on their float playing worship music. I told Grace Louise they were praising the Lord. So, here she is praising the Lord too. Precious.

This kid next to her was eating an airhead. She was so intrigued, bending over and invading his personal space. He never seemed to notice her.

tree trimming.

Standing proud next to our first handmade ornament as we started decorating the tree for Christmas. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, we've chosen to trim our tree with ornaments that remind us of Jesus. Lots of manger scenes, angels, doves and word ornaments like Joy, Hope, and Peace.

Totally taking a break from tree decorating to get some knee sugar!

downtown christmas party.

Mom and I took Grace Louise to the Frostproof Christmas party at the Methodist Church. ...listening to the story of Jesus' birth.

First time in a bounce house! I think we're hooked!

She was fearless... mostly being bounced.

This was as close as she would get to the ponies, despite the fact that she was most excited about this attraction. Before leaving she decided she would make a 2nd attempt to ride. She even let them put the helmet on. But no riding...

Wiggles and Giggles

I hoped to pair these current pics of Grace Louise at the library with some pictures of her during Wiggles last year. Apparently I never took any... Nevertheless, here she is enjoying some books and time with mama. Something we do (almost) every Tuesday for over a year now. We've just started checking out books to take home, beginning with some seasonal books at Thanksgiving. A few of my favorite Christmas books so far have been The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado and A Counting Christmas by Karen Katz.

Saying, "I want an orange!" We enjoyed a little tangerine snack on the grass before driving home from the library last week.

Reading The Christmas Tree Farm, one of Grace Louise's favorites especially since we read this many times leading up to purchasing and decorating our own tree.

Extreme Gaming with Grace Louise

My brothers and I have a favorite past time, playing at video arcades on weekends with my dad. Air hockey was a personal fave. That and earning as many tickets as I could playing skee-ball. (And then, of course, spending $20 in tickets on a 5 cent plastic ring and wishing I had 5,000 to buy the life size panda bear hanging on the wall). I have memories of my dad dishing out tons of tokens and being right in the mix, playing like a big kid!

Grace Louise is far from extreme gaming, but here are some pics from our recent trip to the arcade at the Lake Wales mall. A fun, Sunday afternoon... totally worth 5 bucks in tokens.

Thanksgiving at the Castle

All holidays of the year for our family are filled with yummy food, lots of quality family time, and sweet traditions. We enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch with Jimmy's family and then headed back home to prepare a turkey for our first ever personally hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Being the delegator that I am...hmm hmm... others brought the side dishes. I've watched my mom do this virtually solo my whole life, so I've learned a few things along the way. That's a lot of work for one person! The food was great, the family time even better.

Our annual Hurst family photo. I love this tradition we keep each year at Thanksgiving! I think we have been consistent four or five years now.

(Check out those two yella heads! We might stand out a bit!)

Back at our house... the Thanksgiving table. My mom and I worked on this together, designing the meal and planning to use family heirloom china, crystal, and silver. Like two girls at a tea party. It was so much fun!

Trying desperately to recreate a Publix commercial, we even insisted on having all of the food adorn the table, the turkey taking center stage at the head. Everyone passed the food around... "potatoes, anyone?" Well, we had good intentions, but the consensus was... buffet style next time!

A little post dinner fun with the family. We played board games... and our little techie, Grace Louise, played the ipad. Jimmy started a fire outside by the lake and the kids were running in and out, chasing each other, playing hide and seek, and contributing lots of laughter and good memories to the night. Thankful for getting to glorify the Savior through a functioning family. For the giving of ourselves to each other in genuine relationship. Looking forward to more at Christmas!

Learning to peddle

My sweet munchkin girl finally learned to peddle her tricycle! We've been biking for a year now- with a push trike and the child's seat on my bike. Grace Louise got a tricycle from my mom for her birthday and is finally able to ride it after weeks of struggling with coordination/strength. We're still working on steering! She is so proud and loves to ride around the circle drive by our house. Here she is... happy to be chasing mommy with her wheels!

Our little mosaic artist!

Our lovely friends, Mebbie and Alfonse, (who also treated us to a rather splendid vacation in North Carolina this summer) entrusted mom and I with the work of making a mosaic art piece out of their fireplace. Mebbie is a master crafter and her hubby, Alfonse, a true saint. We love them! As usual Grace Louise raided Mebbie's endless jewelry supply and tormented Mocha, their cat, while mom and I honed our artistic abilities. Can't wait till next time!