Happy 2021❤️
My devotion this morning spoke of joy & how it is something that happens when we dwell on our blessings and giving thanks. Despite the state of our world or anything else, it is a happy 2021 because God is with us, he will never leave us or forsake us! And HE is our peace😊
Thanksgiving 2020
It's been a long time since I've posted. It's super hard to work completely online & then desire to find more time to spend in front of a screen. I thought I'd hope on and do a photo dump of sorts to share/document a little of life since I last posted.
Thanksgiving was my brothers 31st birthday. It was a bittersweet day & my mom didn't want to spend it at home. It just brought back too many memories. So we had a small gathering at our house. It was so nice & fitting for this year. I know most people had a different kind of Thanksgiving this year.
Matchy matchy🤗
My cheesecake tradition on Thanksgiving Eve failed this year. But I still tried!
My baked brie however turned out to be a hit!
Christmas 2021 may have been one of my favorite Christmases with the kids. It was sad without my brother. Lots of memories flooded back to me of Christmases in our childhood past. All I knew to do was celebrate the fact that he was celebrating this year WITH Jesus. We cannot imagine what a Christmas Day like that would be like can we? Thankful.
Throughout December, we had elf shenanigans all month long (this may be the last one with both believing-I'm just trying to prepare myself-Cam will be EIGHT going on NINE next year...
Something about this Christmas felt magical. Christmas Eve morning was slow (which NEVER happens). So slow in fact, that I got to make coffee, whip up our Cinnamon Rolls to have ready to go for Christmas morning. We got everyone ready & got the most last minute pictures with Santa appointment ever. Idk how we did it, but we managed to squeeze all of that in before we went to North Carolina to begin Christmas Eve gatherings.
As we made our final stop at Target on the way home, we passed a salt truck hard at work in the 55 degree weather. Cade & I poked fun of the Southern ways with "a chance" of snow & made our way across the Dragon to the mountains we call home.
First stop, my nana & papa's house. We were late, everyone had already eaten -BUT just in time for White Elephant (yet we still somehow controversially I'm sure call it "Chinese Christmas"). We ate, we laughed, we opened gifts, and ate some more. It wasn't too long after that we began to see snow beginning to fall. Excitement all around. We ran outside & jumped up and down-a snow on Christmas in the South is RARE. Pretty soon, we noticed it had covered the porch. Cade looked at me & proposed we head on to his mom & dad's "just in case." By the time we got on the road we KNEW things weren't good. We ended up hurrying in & hugging everyone and postponing that gathering in an effort to make it home before things got worse.
You know how it is when kids are little...Santa was coming tonight!
We wanted to make it home if at all possible-and snow was typically not dangerous in our parts-only ice.
We started home the TN mountain way, which is typically the quickest. We were doing pretty good until we lost our momentum after a tree had fallen in the road (the third one we ran in to). Thankfully, God had sent two guys back to back who not only knew each other, but who had all the equipment needed to attempt to pass. Cade lifted the tree for them to get through, and when it came time for us...our car started spinning and we went in to a ditch (and got a nice dent in the bumper of our car too!)
The guy helloing us had a rope to pull us out, and Cade backed backwards down the mountain. The snow was falling heavy, the trees were cracking, and we were praying we wouldn't slide off the mountain.
It was pretty scary!
Thankfully, there was another, safer way without big mountains to slide off of.
It wasn't easy, but we made it home-gosh, I can't even remember what time now. Midnight-ish?!
Truly, once we made it to TN things were much better road condition wise.
It wasn't hard to get the kiddos bedded down for the night & I was desperate to get everything finished so I could go to sleep myself.
Christmas morning came quickly. The boys ran in to our room (or maybe just Cam) I can't remember if Conley snuck in our room that night or not. It's more often than not! Haha:)
There was so much excitement! The kind I had hoped we could sit & soak up😊 I heard one person say, they had asked their mom what her favorite memory was of them growing up & she had responded with "Christmas mornings." I concur. At least 8 years in to "mammon'", I do! And this one was special in that we didn't have anywhere to rush off to, we had a cozy breakfast with hot coffee & homemade cinnamon rolls (Where Conley lost his first tooth!), the kids just got to enjoy their new toys in their pj's all day and the snow never ceased. It was truly a Christmas miracle snow & I couldn't get over it, or the thought that I may never see a Christmas like this again!
It was even better, because Christmas actually got extended since we had to postpone our Christmas with our families. We got to make a much safer drive two days later & it was such a great time together.
For New Years, our friends we never see came from NC and brought their kids. On NYE, we went to have breakfast together before they came(which I claim has become a little tradition-Cade doesn't remember anything...lol. But we have the past couple of years & I love it). And to end it, went grocery shopping with our circus. I get some sick pleasure of watching Cade sweat it out as they go nuts while we are trying to cross off everything off our list. Any other moms? Haha:)
I know I am going to have my belly hurting from laughter and good food when these guys show up, and it did NOT disappoint. They are a HOOT. AND we had crab legs, prime rib, pasta, Red Velvet Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. It was seriously too much food and Idk why we always do that to ourselves🤪
Wait, yes I do. It's delicious.
We made it until Midnight, but didn't turn on the tv until like one minute before the ball dropping. Did you make it??!
For the first year of my life, I could have cared less what was going on in NYC on NYE. It's always been a tradition to watch, but I think 2020 has changed me with the culture we live in. I just don't watch the news or anything related to live TV if I can help it.
I can't believe the holidays are over & here we are trudging in to January of 2021. Despite it's shaky beginnings, (I heard someone refer to it as 2020 with bangs😂🙈) I'm determined to think of it in terms of my family, friends, and God's placement of us in to this crazy place time. We will make it through with his guiding hand, friends!
Much love 💕
