A Mellow Merry Christmas

 

We enjoyed our Christmas at home this year.  It's become more of a tradition.  The Fall is super busy, Les travels almost non-stop, so by the time Christmas rolls around we are ready to be at home.  Most of our gifts were on our Amazon wish lists, but they still felt like surprises!

 

 

Mine included shoes, a sweater, a coffee mug, a purse and a new coffee maker.  

 

Les got some new shoes, a jacket, a mug and a few other surprises.

 

This is a two sided "Food Decision Coin."  One side is Wife's choice and the other is Husband's choice.  If you're like us, you spend way too much time saying, "What do you want to eat?  I don't know, what do you want to eat?"  Hopefully this will help us with our decision making!

 

It was a beautiful, sunny day!

Merry Christmas!

 

Family Time

 

Sandwiched between two very busy church weekends, we made a quick trip to Fresno.  I got to see my entire immediate family with the exception of just one, my nephew Ryan.  The rest of us gathered at Kim and Rodney's for dinner.  The main attraction, of course, is our little darling ~ Bo!

Three generations ~ "great" Aunt Kathy, Bo, and Auntie Krysten

 

I didn't get a single picture of my brother, Rick, and his wife, Diana.  We enjoyed catching up.  They went to Ireland and Scotland in October, so we had a lot of traveling to talk about!  We stayed up way past all of our bedtimes, but enjoyed the time so much.

On Friday, Kim, Les and I went over to Lauren and Jordan's for some more time together.  These two were having quite the conversation:

It's so fun having a little one around again!

December at Victory Tabernacle

It has been a whirlwind month at church and I have very few pictures to show for it!  We kicked it off with our end of the year banquet on December 9th:

Our Sunday school department had their program on Sunday, December 10th and I didn't take a single picture.  We had our Toys for Tots service on Sunday, December 17th and I again didn't take any pictures.   Our music department had our recital that night.  Our youngest musician, at only two years old, was Zach Martinez.  He drummed along to "The Little Drummer Boy" and it was adorable!

 

Les and Jeremiah played a beautiful trumpet duet of "Down from His Glory:"

The flu has been making the rounds, so on Thursday I was asked to join the Youth Choir.  One of these days I'm going to be too old, but as long as I'm able I can't say no to singing!

We're winding down now, with only one service on Sunday, followed by "Family Week," a much needed time to rest and relax with our loved ones.

Thanksgiving 2023

Les and I traveled to Florida for the annual McElhaney family gathering.  Our niece, Leksi, drove down from Tennessee with Pops so we rented a house for the four of us.  I found a great house in Mexico Beach - three bedroom, two bath with full kitchen, living room, dining room and laundry.  It was cheaper than a single hotel room and turned out great!

 

The majority of the family rented RVs and stayed at Dead Lakes Park in Wewahitchka.  This has been a gathering place for our family for many, many, many years!

 

 

I couldn't resist running along the beach.  Mexico Beach sits at the border of the Central and Eastern time zones.  Mexico Beach is in Central, while neighboring Port St. Joe is in Eastern.

 

Just across the time zone line is Gulf County Veterans Memorial Park.  I ran to it on two mornings and Les and I walked to it another time.

 

There were a number of fishing trips.  

 

There was enough food to feed a small army.  But more importantly there was abundant love and laughter!

Still Here!

It's been over three weeks since my last post ~ we have been BUSY!!  We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving, came home and I decorated for Christmas, attended our end of the year banquet, enjoyed our Sunday School Christmas program, did a bunch of baking, went to Fresno for a visit with family, and participated in our music recital!  So not only have I been busy, I'm exhausted!! I plan to post about many of those events in the next few days.

Can you believe we are only two weeks away from 2024??