January Update: Christmas Celebrations and New Year Resolutions

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Praise God that everyone was healthy (we were fervently praying that we would not have a repeat of last year's stomach virus) and that we could enjoy time with family. For Christmas Eve, we went to church and celebrated with Mike's extended family. Then, on Christmas Day we spent time with Mike's parents, sister's family, grandma and his aunt's family. Then the following weekend (over the New Year), we traveled to Greenville to celebrate with my family. We really were blessed this year and enjoyed that time together very much, although we missed Jason and Kerby being able to be here with us (http://www.todalagentecr.blogspot.com/). We recently purchased a new camera (Nikon Coolpix P100)after our old one continued to need new batteries each time we used it. We were excited to try it out even though we are still learning how to use it. It has some nice features so hopefully we will become more adept at using it and have some professional looking photos eventually. (Since I'm so behind on putting a post up) Mike has already put together a nice video with many of our pictures of Christmas. So, if you haven't seen it yet, you can view it on his blog. I picked a few of my favorites to post:

Aaron with his letter "A" place card

Caleb with his new geeky fun glasses and the old camera that he carried around with him all weekend taking pictures Katelyn working on her "Build a Bear" craft with Mom Josiah (and Caleb in his muscle shirt) after playing the Kinect Us holding up Josiah's magnetic post-its and Katelyn's woven potholder gifts

-----------------------------------------

Mike and I hung stockings over our fireplace this year and had some fun filling them for each other (Mike even received a letter from Santa). We also enjoyed decorating our home this year even though the decorations barely made it up before Christmas. So, we left them up a little later this year to fully enjoy them.

----------------------------------------

One of our Christmas gifts was the xBox Kinect. We feel so "cool" to receive one of this year's hot Christmas gifts (not that we really care). Our primary motive for asking for the Kinect was to be able to do some fun exercise with it. We took a long time to decide between the Nintendo wii and the xBox Kinect, but we are very happy about it. We have been enjoying it and it has been successful in getting us "moving" in the evenings, as you can see.

-----------------------------------------

Mike and I each set our own resolutions earlier this month. We find it refreshing to do this together in the New Year. The Jan. 2 sermon at my parent's church was a very good one on leaving your past behind and pressing on toward what God has called you to do (Phil. 3:12-14). You can listen to the sermon at this link. (It's not to late to set a new year's resolution if you haven't already - there is still 1 more week left in January.)

-----------------------------------------

My family decided to do our own Biggest Loser Competition and we are officially underway. So far it's been lots of fun. We each have our own goal weight to strive for. And, I'm impressed with how well everyone is doing. We are finishing up week 3 on Monday. It's really helped me stay on track knowing there is accountability. Mike and I finally set out to walk the whole way around the lake (it's about 4 1/2 miles but not flat) and we've done it twice now even through the cold and snow. It was quite challenging. We're also playing in a church volleyball league which has been fun and a good way to get to know more people at the church.