Rest and Christmas!

You've been warned. Your about to experience a picture heavy posting! We've had a great break the past couple of weeks, enjoying each other's company and the company of our families (and of course Dakota).

We started saving up for a trip out to Colorado in May of this year, but had to cancel that trip due to financial restrains and redirected our minds and planned a trip to our favorite little city, Asheville! At the last minute we had to cancel THAT trip too.. mainly because I was still pretty sick and because our Subaru's transmission quit so we needed to put funding into that. Instead, we ended up packing our bags last Tuesday and headed out to the lake house. 
Neither one of us were overly excited about having to cancel our much anticipated adventure trips, but it turns out the lake house was JUST what we needed. We spend lots of time relaxing, cooking, adventuring outside, making things, and taking pictures. It was just so nice to turn our minds off, forget about everything going on in the "real world" and spend time with one another, enjoying one another.

God always knows what we will need better than we know ourselves. How quickly I forget this.

We packed up at the lake on Christmas Eve Eve and headed to Nashville to spend some time with David's family, and to celebrate our little nephew's one year anniversary. I kept remembering the excitement of last year's Christmas Even when we were able to tell both of our families that we were expecting our first child. Maybe I will always remember that special time whenever Christmas comes around. The time of anticipation. 

Christmas Eve was spent in Nashville and in Alabama with my family. We had Christmas morning with my family, and spent the rest of the day soaking up time with the people we love most. 

Christmas is always my favorite time of the year because we get to be around our family, and I anticipate it for months. My love language is gifts, so it is particularly exciting for me to be able to show people my love for them through gifts I have made and picked out just for them. My heart is alway so full when I receive gifts as well.. because I feel the love wrapped inside of each package..knowing that friends and family took the time to think about me is just so humbling. 

Just up until about five years ago we did not celebrate the birth of Christ at Christmas, but now we do which has made Christmas so much more special. To be able to remember and anticipate and celebrate the season of advent makes this season so much more special and magical.. the magic in the birth of our Savior always takes my breath away. 

What about you? How have you been? Has your season been wonderful? What were some of your favorite gifts given and received?