Scrapping Weekend

Last weekend I was able to go to a camp I worked at during college and scrapbook the whole weekend. There were 8 of us there, 4 of us who worked at NeSoDak way back when. Here are some of the pages I got done:

The Christmas pictures are from Christmas 2007.

Happy New Year......a little late

So........I haven't posted to my blog like.........in..........forever! I skipped over Christmas and New Year's and am now coming up on the end of January. Time flies!

Let's talk a little about Christmas........

I love the whole Christmas season. Here are a few of the things I really love about it........

1. Jesus - Think about it...........an imaculate conception. I often think of what Mary must have went through when she was pregnant. I would guess that people were not nice to her when they found out she was pregnant. I wonder how many people really believed that Mary's unborn child was truly the son of God. If we would have been one of her peers, would we have believed? Unfortunately, I think not.

It's amazing to think that God would send his son to the earth. Especially when he knew that the ultimate plan was that son dying a very painful death. I guess what I'm saying is that it's impossible for me to celebrate a little baby lying in a manger without thinking of the whole plan. And thinking of the whole plan makes the babe in the manger all the more meaningful.

2. Tradition - I absolutely love all of the traditions that are woven into celebrating Christmas! Growing up my family had many traditions and they became very meaningful to me. I remember sobbing at my sister's wedding when I had the thought that my family's Christmas morning traditions would forever be changed. Now that I am the mom I enjoy seeing my children looking forward to and asking about the traditions we have; our advent calendar (which after about the first week and a half is driving me crazy because I'm not good at remembering to do it every night), picking out and decorating the Christmas tree, going through stocking on Christmas morning (which has always, always been one of my favorite traditions), and, of course, opening presents on Christmas morning. I love Christmas traditions!

3. Gift giving - I am pretty pathetic at remembering Birthdays and Anniversarys. But when it comes to Christmas, I love to give gifts! When my mom was alive she gave Christmas gifts to everybody........us girls (of course!), Dad, every family member, people who worked with her or my dad, the ladies in her Bible Study group, the pastor at church, Sunday School teachers......the list goes on and on. Her gifts were not elaborate or expensive and I know that she shopped the sales and gathered things all year. But they were from her heart. I don't give gifts to everybody like she did, but I try to hit the important ones.

So.......there you have it.........my top three reasons on why I love Christmas! Below are some of my favorite pictures from this past Christmas.

This was the boys' "big" present this year. A fuseball table! They were excited when they opened it. The screech that Jacob let out hurt my ears!

Here is the girls' "big" present......a doll house. It was kind of funny to see my 7 year old boys playing in it with their rescue heros and transformers.

Jacob looks a little too excited here and Debra looks a little too terrified.

Here is our tree. It always has a little bit of everything on it. I love it!

This was taken with the timer on my camera right before we left the house on Christmas eve. We were running behind and I didn't look at the picture until everybody was 1/2 way out the door. It's too bad Jacob and Chris are lost in the back. Next year's picture will be better. =)

This is the picture we used on our non-professional Christmas cards. Five kids and a horse...........I felt lucky to get this one that was "good enough".

This is my favorite picture from Christas 08! Here the kids are showing off some of their stocking goodies.