God & Sinners Reconciled!

Oh blogging. How I go through seasons where you are such a joy to do, and others where I can't seem to muster a single interesting thought to write. Trust me, it's not for a lack of interesting stuff going on, I seem to always have plenty of that. Maybe I can blame it on being pregnant, or as my birth instructor would say,"placenta brain."

Let's start with a Christmas update. There are plenty of other things to write about, but they will have to wait for another post.

 We got our tree about a week before Christmas. He was a tiny little guy, but just right for us. Jake always has a fun time decorating the tree with all his childhood ornaments and we both love to sit with the lights off and enjoy the colorful lights.

 I had a fun time decorating our gifts this year with all the left over bits and pieces of yarn that I never know what to do with.

 Our homemade stockings my mom whipped up last year for us.

 This was our second year of making homemade donuts on Christmas eve. This picture makes them look absolutely disgusting, but trust me, they were delicious. Pumpkin donuts with maple glaze. Yum!

 We went on a Christmas eve hike and it was so lovely. Right at the very end it started snowing and it was gorgeous. It snowed the rest of the day and we had a white Christmas. Jake's little Minnesotan heart was overjoyed!

 We opened our presents to each other on Christmas eve. We both bought each other tank tops from the same store, 50% off woo hoo! Jake did such a good job of getting me just the right presents. He bought me a pair of sweat pants that I've probably worn every day since because they're just sooo comfortable. He also got me Darling magazine. It's similar to kinfolk in it's style, photography, and layout, but it's all about the "art of being a woman." Most, if not all, of the writers are Christians so it comes from a really Biblical perspective. I love part of their mission statement; "Beauty apart from vanity, influence apart from manipulation, style apart from materialism, sweetness apart from passivity, womanhood without degradation." I'm loving it.

We've had more snow here and it's wonderful. I feel like a grandma though because I hate driving in it. My hands hurt from gripping the steering wheel so hard. I've got plenty to do indoors to keep me busy because in 3 days we will be moving into that house you can see across the parking lot in this picture. But that is another story for another time.

Delight!

Jake and I and some friends had a wonderful time on Saturday doing a few of my favorite things. We ventured to Philly for a Josh Garrels' concert and on the way made some pit stops at Ikea and Trader Joes. This is country livin' folks. Every time you take the journey to the "big city" you pack in as many stops as humanly possible. But seriously, who can beat nan bread, rosemary asiago cheese, and dark chocolate cashew clusters from Trader Joes, cute and inexpensive baby things along with a free meal at Ikea, and then the melodious tunes of Josh Garrels. Really, I was one very happy pregnant lady. I took zero pictures, but luckily, our friend Rod has a tendency to document everything and made a little video. Enjoy!

Giving Thanks

Jake and I started our Thanksgiving by hanging out in the prayer room till about 3 a.m, giving thanks to God for all that He's done. Instantly I thought of Ephesians 2 and the awesome reminder it is to me about where I've come from. I was dead and He made me alive! I was, by nature, a child of wrath, but God showed me mercy! I was a slave to sin and obsessed with gratifying my fleshly desires, but He raised me up and sat me in heavenly places with Christ! Woohoo!! So much to be thankful for.

After sleeping for a bit, we headed to my parents house for our thanksgiving feast. And feast we did! This year I made the sweet potatoes and was terrified that it wouldn't taste as good as my mom's. How in the world do you live up to your mom's cooking?! 

It's still such an amazing blessing to me that I get to be around my family right now. After 6 years of being a little nomadic, it feels nice to have some roots put down and to be apart of my family. Watching my nephews and niece learn and grow is so incredible.

I got to take some Christmas card photos for my lovely sister and her fam. Those nephews of mine have grown so fast!
Since we were already out and about taking photos, Jake got inspired to do a photo shoot of me and the little guy. You should have seen him, crawling around on the ground, climbing up hills, all to get just the right angle.

I'm 31 weeks and 5 days in these photos. Tomorrow I'll be 33 weeks! Time is flying by!

Our Thanksgiving festivities didn't end there. The next day, Jake's sister Val and her husband Taka came for a visit. They stayed with us for the weekend while we puppy-sat at my mentor's house. We had a lot of fun exploring Lancaster, visiting Green Dragon, and wrangling puppies.

It was a delightful Thanksgiving indeed! I don't have any pictures of this, but we did get to go to a Thanksgiving meal put on by some friends of ours from Gateway. There ended up being over 50 people all packed into a tiny bachelor pad. It was great! We are so grateful for the community we have here. We are truly blessed.