Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! And that you and your families will have a wonderful new year! I really love this holiday season after the crazy busyness and rushing around the weeks before Christmas. Now it is a time to slow down and reflect, savor and enjoy the wonder and peace and joy of Christmas! Our Christmas celebration is always spread out beginnng with two familiy parties earlier in the month. Then there were two Chrismtas Eve services at our church. What a beautiful night that was!

Joel and Ivy were involved in the Christmas Tableaux during the first Christmas Eve service. Joel was a shepherd boy and Ivy was a townsperson. Ivy also sang in the combined children's choir. Mark sang in the Matins choir. It was a beautiful service! Then we all went back to church for the late night Christmas Eve service, a beautiful candle-lit formal service with lots of music. Mark sang in the Senior choir for that service. Jaden went to church in his pajamas because the service didn't end until 11:30 PM.

Christmas was a nice relaxing day here at our house. My mom came over and we took our time opening presents, laughing together, eating a big dinner and just enjoying the day.

The day after Christmas, we all went out to eat at the Olive Garden for dinner and then to Sight and Sound's Millennium Theatre to see Joel in "Miracle of Christmas." That was a spectacular production and we were so proud of Joel! It is always such a joy to see him perform and of course, the shows are wonderful. Later this week, we'll all be going to the Living Waters theatre to see "Voices of Christmas" and hopefully I'll get to see Joel perform "Miracle" one more time this week before the show closes.

That night was the earthquake, which I already mentioned. Thankfully we've had no aftershocks that could be felt! Yikes! We drove by the epicenter yesterday which is 2 miles down the road from us.

Mark has off work all week so we are enjoying the week off, catching up on sleep, having fun and looking forward to celebrating New Years Eve. Next Monday, we'll start school again and ease back into the daily routine and rythyms of school days! I love homeschooling, but I also really love the breaks!