Christmas Wrap-up!

Merry Christmas!

I pray you have enjoyed a beautiful holiday season...so much to be thankful for~

We sure have (mostly*) enjoyed our first Christmas season in Texas...it's been a bit more relaxed than last year ;)  Last year we were in the middle of moving and selling our home during the holidays...it was C.R.A.Z.Y!  

First, I'll address the mostly part...I always choose the bad news first when someone says, "What do you want first, the good news or the bad news?"

We were all pretty sick for half of December.  4 out of 5 Gonzales' came down with strep throat.  I started it a full two weeks before Christmas...the worst, most painful case of strep I've ever had.  Then both big girls began running fevers a couple days after my diagnosis (the day before they were to be in the Christmas special at church...both of them had to miss it).  They endured a miserable-how-many-movies-is-it-possible-to-watch weekend and were diagnosed with strep the following Monday.  Meanwhile, Gracia came down with croup and was treated with some steroids while Steve continued to fight a sinus infection and then began to present with strep symptoms as well.  So Steve, both big girls, and myself were on meds.  Steve and I missed out on our small group's Christmas party as well...bummer :(  The strep symptoms improved and then Bella began running a high fever, developed a croupy cough, lost her voice, and also developed a rash like I've never seen before, so I took her to urgent care 2 days before Christmas.  Thankfully, it was not a recurrence of strep...she "simply" had a strep rash (Scarlet fever) and had caught Gracia's croup.  Sadly, we weren't able to go to our church's Christmas Eve service either.  Thankfully, her fever finally went away on Christmas day and her rash is improving :)  I ran a low fever the day after Christmas and have recovered from my own mild bout with croup.  So here it is, near the end of December, and I think we are all almost healthy again :)

And now we return to our regularly scheduled, shiny, happy Christmas post :)

It was such a treat to put up our Christmas trees this year, to bake and share batches of toffee, and to make a few Christmas ornaments too.

So, here are some of our Christmas 2012 highlights...

We braved the crowds and enjoyed our first Merry Main Street here in Frisco...complete with Christmas fireworks!  It was crazy warm that night...seriously, it was still in the 70's at night on December 1st and the number of people who came out to enjoy the event was unbelievable...the most crowded anyone could ever remember it being :)  Our church had a booth that sold items to support orphan care...it was great!  There were different groups performing various Christmas songs and yummy treats to enjoy...it was fun and festive!

Historic church in Frisco~

The Gonzales Gang enjoying Merry Main Street, Frisco, TX~

Early in December, we hosted our first Gonzales Tree Decorating Party in Texas...the tradition continues :)  Steve and I began inviting people over to help us decorate our tree when we were first married and it has become a favorite family tradition of ours.  We've done it almost every year...we were only able to host friends three times in PA due to different schedules and circumstances, but now that our lives are more calmed down, we expect we'll be able to continue the tradition regularly :)  We invite one or two families to the "event" each year and, so far, have never invited the same people twice...granted, that could be because we can't seem to stay in one place for much longer than 5 or 6 years.  But since we have no plans of being on the move again, maybe we'll eventually get to where we've cycled through our friends and start enjoying "repeats" :) 

Anyhoo, back to the party.  Steve loves to cook and our party used to have a pretty elaborate Mexican menu...courses even.  As our family has grown and as our friend's families have grown, the party has become much more casual and kid friendly.  Now we usually do much simpler menus, hors d'oeuvres one year, and I think we even ordered pizza once...the fellowship is always more important than the food anyway...this year we enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs :) 

This year we invited our friends, the Hallmarks...and had 9 children in our home for the party...Bella, at 10, was the oldest :)  Yes, 9 young kiddos...and you all know that only 3 of them belong to us :)  Two of them are pretty young and weren't much help at decorating the tree...but the other 7 were super excited.  I think the trees were decorated in record time...less than 10 minutes probably :)   It was a fun time...we are thankful for our new friends here in Texas!

The decorators...yes, it was warm enough for shorts :)

The girls decorated these ornaments.  I had high hopes of doing lots of ornament projects, but our various illnesses prevented that...hopefully we'll be able to make more next year.  These are simple wooden ornaments I found at JoAnn's.  The girls painted them and then filled in the recessed areas with beads and glitter.  Well done Bella and Sophia :)  We also enjoyed our Christmas puzzle~

  We baked toffee and got it shipped in time for Christmas and made Uncle Chris his own batch when he arrived to enjoy Christmas with us in Texas.  The toffee is always a hit :)  The big girls decorated some buildings from a mini gingerbread village...gooey fun!  We also baked some of our sugar cookies, but we didn't actually do them until after we began feeling better after Christmas...still yummy, though!  Christmas baking was another activity I had high hopes for that was sidelined by all the sickness...all those pretty cookies on Pinterest will have to wait til next year.

My brother joined us for Christmas this year...thanks, Chris for coming to visit!  He gave Steve and I a Keurig...we all enjoyed hot coffee, hot chocolate, and hot cider! 

A stroke of genius that Steve and I decided on this year was to cook our Christmas meal on Christmas Eve.  We enjoyed turkey and all the fixins along with Steve's homemade pecan pie a day early...delish!  Christmas Eve is also my Mom's birthday, so we enjoyed a little Facetime with her and my dad...so thankful for how technology lets us stay in touch!  We wrapped up our Christmas Eve with Steve reading the Christmas story from Luke and devotionals with our girls...a special way to prepare for Christmas :)

Stockings made by my Mom!

Steve and I got the stockings all "hung with care" and the presents all "just so" under the tree and settled down "for a long winter's nap"...except we didn't really get to enjoy a long nap.  We awoke to INTENSE thunder and lightning in the middle of the night.  I checked on the kids...everyone was awake except Gracia.  Finally, it calmed down and then a few hours later it started up again...more intense storms...and then hail.  We all got back to sleep after 5 am...so we didn't get up for Christmas until almost 8...everyone was tired :)

We shared gifts and had fun watching the kids open presents.  I cooked sausage while Steve made the yummiest french toast out of my homemade cinnamon-cranberry-raisin bread...breakfast was so delicious!  We relaxed the rest of the day, ate appetizers and left overs, and simply enjoyed a beautiful, blessed, snowy Christmas!  Yes, it SNOWED in Frisco...on Christmas!  We ended up getting a couple inches...wow!  I would never have thought that we'd ever see a white Christmas in Texas...it was so special!  

Winter wonderland~

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas.  Steve is still off from work...what a blessing to have and enjoy vacation.  I think this is the most relaxed Christmas we've had since he began grad school...it may even be the most relaxed time off he's had since grad school :)

Kudos to you if you hung in long enough to make it to the end :)  I pray you enjoyed a blessed Christmas~

Much Love, 
Rach

Christmas Greetings!

Hello dear friends and family!

I hope you are enjoying a blessed Christmas...we sure are enjoying our first Christmas in Texas :)

I pray you are enjoying a day with loved ones...and as I reflect on this Christmas, I pray you are enjoying the One who loves you the most.

This is from an online devotional I subscribe to called Of First Importance.  This particular one is from John Piper:

“Be sure you see this most wonderful and astonishing of all truths: God took the record of all your sins that made you a debtor to wrath, and instead of holding them up in front of your face and using them as the warrant to send you to hell, God put them in the palm of his Son’s hand and drove a spike through them into the cross. It is a bold and graphic statement: He canceled the record of our debt, nailing it to the cross." (Col. 2:14).

Thank you, Jesus, for choosing to come and rescue...for choosing to be The Redeemer.  Thank you for choosing to step out of glory and into the world.

A lyric from "While You Were Sleeping" by Casting Crowns, says

"...for the King has left His throne and is sleeping in a manger tonight..."  


And He left glory and chose the humble stable because He loves so deeply, so dearly, so humbly, so completely...because He loves you and He loves me.

Thank you, Lord Jesus~

Here's a favorite Christmas song of mine (Future of Forestry, O Come Emmanuel)... please enjoy~

God bless~
Rach

Thanksgiving!

I hope this finds you enjoying lots of Christmas cheer!  And I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We sure did!  We packed up our kiddos and headed to Albuquerque to spend the holiday with Steve's family.  It was a long overdue trip...we hadn't been home to ABQ in 2 1/2 years. 

The trip from Frisco to Albuquerque is rather long, but it's an easy drive.  It actually felt like a breeze compared to the drive we used to "enjoy" from Philadelphia to Raleigh...no Philly, Baltimore, or Washington DC traffic to deal with...the biggest town between us and ABQ is Amarillo, with a population just a bit more than 250,000 :)

We enjoyed the drive, although this part of Texas doesn't offer much as far as natural scenery.  Driving through all the little towns gave an interesting glimpse of "small town Americana", though...I love road trips :)  We all got excited when we saw the first butte and the terrain began to change.  It was so refreshing to see mesas and buttes and eventually mountains!  

Here are some pics from our drive...we even saw antelope, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera :)

We learned a bit about wind energy~

The beautiful mountains of New Mexico~

Our time in Albuquerque was really great...it was wonderful to see Steve's parents and family and the change of scenery was refreshing.  This was the first time Steve's parents got to meet their newest granddaughter...she was a hit :)    

On Thanksgiving day, we all (Brandon, Kathy, John, Jarrod, Annesa, Haliegh, Lauren, and Tanner) gathered at Steve's parents house and shared a fabulous meal...turkey, ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce...all the delicious fixins!  And Kathy brought two of her amazing homemade pies...yes, we were stuffed!

Gracia and Granddaddy :)

Hungry cousins!

 

Kathy's pies...yep, they were AMAZING!

Our girls don't get to see their cousins often, so it was really a treat for them...the weather was nice and the kids had fun playing outside.  It was sweet to introduce Gracia to Aunt Kathy...who inspired Gracia's middle name.  We got to spend time with Uncle John too...the girls and I had not seen him since we left Colorado...far too long.  It was a nice time of catching up, eating, hanging out, and eating.

The kids had fun pulling each other around in this garden cart :)

Gracia loved getting pushed by her cousin, Tanner...even though she can't seem to smile for the camera :)

And more swinging...yep, she was spoiled :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We visited Kathy the next morning and got to see her new place and her horses.  Last time we were there, we got to meet baby Chance, Kathy's 1 month old colt.  Now he's a two year old...we were all amazed at how much he has grown!  We also hung out at Uncle John's new place for a bit.  Uncle John is a "rock hound" and the big girls had fun polishing rocks with him...thanks Kathy and John for a great visit :)

Kathy and Chance~

Sophia "riding" Buford, the roping bull...at Aunt Kathy's

Girls and mares~

Bella with Chief~

Sophia with Chance~

Gracia liked his soft ears~

Gracia Kathryn with her Aunt Kathryn :)

Giggles with Uncle John~

John polished rocks with Sophia and Bella...Sophia, the rock hound, was thrilled!

We also enjoyed a visit to the book store where Brandon works...anyone in the ABQ area needs to visit Alamosa Books...a fabulous book store...one of the best I've been in!  We picked up a few Christmas gifts and tried to keep Gracia under control...she may be banned until she's a bit older...but, she didn't rip anything, so I kind of consider our visit a success :)

We spent our last morning in ABQ hiking in the foothills.  One thing the girls really wanted to do was spend some time on/in/around the mountains...they are a bit uninspired by our local, very flat scenery in our part of Texas.  The weather was near perfect, the sky was brilliant blue, and we all had a wonderful time hiking.  Steve took the big girls up to some rock outcroppings near the top of the ridge...I stayed down with Gracia...everyone had a great time.  It was refreshing for all of us to enjoy some time out in God's creation.  

Both big girls were delighted to be hiking in the mountains~

Steve and the big girls were heading to the rocks at the top~

And they made it!

I saw this roadrunner right in front of me when I rounded a corner coming down a path...beep, beep~

Self portrait~

Gracia did some rock climbing too~

Our last afternoon in town was spent hanging out with Brandon and Steve's parents...and then we were off to Albuquerque's River of Lights...a special treat was to hear our niece's choir sing at the festivities.  We met up with Kathy and John again and enjoyed hearing sweet voices singing and all the pretty lights...it was a nice way to end our visit :)

Goofing around with Uncle Brandon~

I hope you enjoyed a blessed Thanksgiving~

Rach