What was our Advent like?

Our celebration of our Lord's birth was wonderful. It was full of love, life and family!

There are so many ways that we can look at this time of year. I tend to get stressed about the cost of everything and have to work at enjoying the time. Last year we spent our time ill with the flu. After one trip to St. Louis for a wedding at the end of October we were preparing for another trip for another wedding at the end of December. During that crazy time Cowboy entered our lives even though we didn't yet know about him. What a wonderful gift he would turn out to be. We were planning on a peaceful, calm and relaxing December, A joyous Advent season in which we would prepare for Jesus birth. God had other plans for our family.

At the beginning of December we had the exciting visit from dad's family. We really did have a blast. Nanny and Gramps brought Aunt Erica and Beaner with them. The Texas's Ts loved every second with their family. They felt so loved and enjoyed every conversation, each meal, the toast for Uncle Michael and Beaner's family journey to Japan for the next baseball season, the Christmas cookie making, the visit with St. Nicholas and the early arrival of gifts. Dad is still in shock that his own Dad, a.k.a. Gramps, would make an early morning trip to the stores during the post-thanksgiving rush to find and purchase the Wii system for the grandchildren.

My dear husband and God had another adventure crammed into this very busy month. Mom got to fly out to Fresno to see her family and have them meet Cowboy. Mimi and KeeKee joined Cowboy and mom in San Jose and we drove to Fresno to visit with Aunt Katie and her gorgeous daughters. There Cowboy and Mom got to have another Christmas feast, more gifts, game night, pizza night, and lots of hugs from all those girls.

We spent hours trying to get a good shot of the kiddos for the Christmas cards that never went out. We had a blast this Advent. We spent tons of time together trying to get a good picture. They are getting so good at setting up the shot. One of our favorite new traditions will be our Christmas lights adventure. Thanks to another blogger for the idea we headed out with Thank you notes in hand. When we came across a house with great lights we gave them a thank you note. We went with some friends in two cars, 2 gallons of hot chocolate, and 30 thank you notes. We lasted as long as our bladders could hold. It was GREAT FUN and we counted 34 outside nativity sets.