Christmas Filled Weekend

It's been a busy month, as usual during the holiday season, but oh so fun to celebrate Jesus' birth and all the joy that goes with it!

This past weekend, we had Luke's work Christmas party, as well as a cookies and cocktails party with some new neighborhood friends.  Luke's work party was on Friday evening, and I almost bailed at the last minute.  It had been a rough day with the kids and my sister was coming to watch the both of them- I wasn't worried about the kids, but I felt bad for my sister! Noelle had been super whiny all day, and Jonah had only had one nap and I figured he would lose it any minute.  But I threw on a nice sweater and away we went.

the whiny girl took an hour long nap on me

Thankfully it was only about 20 minutes away in Clarksville, so I figured we could rush home if Heather sent out an SOS.  Luke's company did a game this year where each employee bought a toy that represented them in some way, and as they were unwrapped, the employees had to guess who had brought it.  And then after the party, all the toys were donated to Toys for Tots- fun for us and fun for the kids!  The food was of course yummy and it was fun to catch up with some of his co-workers.

On Saturday I dropped the kids off at my parents and Luke and I headed to a cookies and cocktails party at a new friend's house in our neighborhood.  We brought cookies to exchange and I tried some yummy apple cider sangria.  It was great being able to meet a couple of other neighbors with little kids, and I got to hear more about the pre-school where we are potentially sending Noelle in the fall. I hope we can continue new friendships!

Then on Sunday we had our "baby Bible study" Christmas party (I call it that because everyone in that group has kids), which included a lot of delicious food and a white elephant gift exchange.  For this exchange, the plan was for each family to bring something that was laying around the house that you didn't want anymore.  We brought a tortilla maker and ended up coming home with an ammo box with some stuff in it.  There was definitely some re-gifting from the year before, as well as from the gift exchange we had been a part of with our other Bible study the week before.  Luke and I had a lot of fun, and Noelle always has a blast being surrounded by kids her age.   We are certainly blessed by each person in the group and we really enjoy seeing how our friendships have grown!

It was a busy, but fun-filled weekend.  And now only one more weekend before Christmas is here!