HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I can't believe how much I love the holiday season. Everything seems so different than other times of the year. There's a bit of magic in it all! Quite a few people in our neighborhood went all out on decorating their houses for the Christmas season. They have lights ALL over their houses! Every time I drive by, it makes me happy. It also makes me wish my womanly powers could have convinced Taylor to put up Christmas lights on our house:). I will really have to work on those powers for next year! The holiday season tends to bring out the best in people. The company that I work for has something called the Angel Fund. People donate to it year round and especially during the holidays. There is so much poverty and so many people who need help that they picked 6 families in need and decided to use the Angel Fund to give them a Christmas. The families had written down Christmas wishes to give us ideas on what to get them. The family my group was in charge of had 4 small children whose only request for presents was to get them coats to wear in the cold weather. We had a budget to stay within to get them presents and a Christmas dinner. I couldn't believe how generous people were with donations. We were able to get them so much due to generous business owners and donations from people. We were able to buy them coats as well as other clothes and toys for the kids. On Friday, we went to deliver a whole truck full of gifts and food to this family. It was so amazing to see the wide eyes on the kids as they saw all of the wrapped gifts. What a way to feel the true holiday spirit!
Our Christmas season has consisted of work, school and a little bit of shopping. We won't be able to go home for Christmas this year and that has been harder to accept than I thought it might be. The best part of the holidays is to be with family. We are actually going to spend Christmas with Jared and Marianne and their kids. It is so nice to have some family close to spend the holiday with! We are so excited to go!
Taylor just finished his semester. He might kill me for announcing this, but HE GOT STRAIGHT A's!! I'm so proud of him! His classes were pretty time consuming, but he did really well.
Here are some random pictures. We did our best to decorate our house up a little bit for Christmas. Our tree is real and I LOVE IT!! It smells soooo good and it is so beautiful. We put it up the week after Thanksgiving and I have wanted to have it lit up every minute of the day. The pictures don't do it justice, but we love it!

Tay did a good job getting all the lights on the tree. That's my least favorite part of decorating the tree, but he handled it like a pro!

I love this little snowman. Taylors mom gave us this Nativity scene and it is sooo pretty! I don't have one of those fancy backdrops for this, so I just put it on the table. Kind of ghetto, but I still love it!

I spent my afternoon yesterday wrapping presents. I really love wrapping and making the presents look pretty!

Here's a couple of pictures from the drive to Spokane to go shopping. I was so proud of myself for remembering the camera and wanted to take a bunch of pictures. Apparently, I forgot how easily distracted I am because I got 2 pictures from the car, but that was as far as it got. The mall there was really huge and cool. We also ate at this great little Italian restaurant called Tomato Street. It was really good. Fun trip overall.

Taylor and I read a book together this month called "The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck. As most of you know, my husband is so obsessed with Glenn Beck that I wouldn't be surprised if he got arrested for stalking charges. Whether you are a fan of the man or not, I would highly suggest this book! It is so inspirational and has a really great message. Perfect for the Christmas season and a great way to keep the true spirit of Christmas in mind.

Anyway, we hope that everybody has a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!