It's Christmas

The gifts are all wrapped, the suitcase is packed, and the goodies are ready to go.

We are off for a Christmas in North Carolina with Andrew's family.

May you have a very blessed Christmas and may Christ be the center of all of our gatherings.

"For unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Merry Christmas!

Christmas activities

We have had 2 of the busiest weeks of our year between last week and this week! On Saturday, a lot of my students played in 2 different Christmas recitals, I am so relieved to have that done! Then we went to a special Christmas production on Saturday night and then to Coldstone! (FYI, you can sign up for free birthday clubs at Coldstone, Baskin-Robbins, & Red Robin and get free stuff on your birthday!)

This week is finals week for Andrew and he needs a big prayer! He has a huge hebrew exam, a LOT of reading, and a couple of large papers that are all due this week! But yeahhhh - we're almost done with another semester!

This Sunday we have a special Christmas presentation that Andrew & I have helped put together. It involves our choir, orchestra, children's choir, various other musical groups and readers giving a special presentation of the Christmas story. We are hoping everything comes together well on Sunday morning and will be able to give a deep sigh of relief when it is over!
Then, we actually have a whole week to relax and breathe before Christmas!

My students who performed on Saturday

free Coldstone! Cooke Doughn't You Want Some?!

Birthday

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, either through calls, cards, emails, or facebook! I had a very fun day - it was so great to have a Saturday birthday!

The day started with breakfast in bed!

At lunch, he revealed a cake that he had gotten up at 6:30 to make!

it was very good! (it was even a double-decker)For dinner, we went to one of my favorite restaurants ~ Macaroni Grill

Thank you to my wonderful husband, who always makes celebrations special!

Oh the leftovers...

Mom Hughes sent us home with a million leftovers, which was great! So now I am trying to see how many ways I can disguise the turkey! A magazine I read had 22 ways to use the leftover turkey and they were very simple and look good. So I am going to share them now (though I have not tested them yet), while everyone still has turkey in the fridge, but if the recipes don't work, I will pass the blame :) They also did not have specific oven temps or cooking time, so you'll have to figure that out yourselves!

Day 1
Pizza
toss small turkey chunks with BBQ sauce and layer on a pizza crust along with carmelized onions & small apple slices. Top with provolone cheese.
this looks like it could be very good, I hope it is! I couldn't find shredded provolone, so I am using mozzarella. will probably bake at 400 for about 15-20 minutes.

Day 2
Turkey Tostadas
Heat turkey with cooked rice and black beans. Use to top tostada shells along with lettuce, tomato, salsa, and sour cream.

Day 3
Shepherd's Pie
I am not a big fan of shepherd's pie, but I have a lot of mashed potatoes left over over as well, so we're going to have to eat it just for the sake of being economical!
This is my own recipe because it wasn't in the list and I'm kind of making it up as I go.
I will mix turkey, 1 cup of turkey gravy, & bag of frozen vegatables together and combine in pie plate, then top with a layer of mashed potatoes, put in 400 oven for 30 minutes (roughly!).

So...hopefully my turkey will be gone by this time, but we won't feel like we've eaten turkey dinner for 5 straight days. Happy leftover eating and feel free to share any good leftover meals you have!

And We Eat...

We spent Thanksgiving at Andrew's parents in Whitakers, NC.

It was great to be able to get away even for a short time!

so much good food!
the weather was incredibly warm and it was fun to be able to hang outside
We were at Andrew's parents, 3 uncles, 2 aunts, and & 2 cousins

also shared the day with us

thankful for a fun day with family!

Giving Thanks

I was recently reading in a magazine something that reminded me that Thanksgiving was the one holiday that doesn't involve costumes or gifts or fireworks or candy hunts...

"we simply come together and give thanks."

I pray that this is what we will do as the holiday rush is upon us and we feel the compulsion to get our gift buying finished, arrange travel plans, put up the tree...

May we simply stop and Give Thanks.

I have many things to be thankful for this year...

1. My God and Savior Jesus Christ who has called me, redeemed me, and is continually working for my good and His glory in my life.

2. My husband, Andrew, who continually loves me when I am unloveable, sacrifices for my needs & wants, and continually encourages me to love Christ more.

3. Our families, who we have learned to cherish our time together more as time spent with them is very infrequent because of the miles between us.

4. Our health, though we have both had health struggles this year, God has provided to cover our medical expenses, and He is continually giving us grace to continue in our daily activities.

5. Our church family, who continually works as "iron sharpening iron" to grow us and give us continual encouragement.

6. Our jobs, we are so thankful to have jobs to meet our daily needs.

7. Cars that run! if you know us, enough said. :)

8. Andrew is more than halfway done with school and God has provided infinite grace to him and blessed him for the very long hours of study that he puts in.

9. God has provided for us in so many little ways for us, whether a financial need or a tangible want or a needed encouragement. We bless Him for the ways He continually shows His love to us.

I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Psalm 138:2

The Holiday season begins

The Christmas season has now officially started with the Grand Illumination Parade in Norfolk. We had a great time on Saturday being downtown enjoying the festiveness. They outline most of the downtown buildings in lights and this past Saturday was when they officially lit the lights and then had the parade. Apparently our camera was struggling to take in focus pictures in the dark. So unfortunately we didn't get great pics, but we had a very fun night!

Santa brings up the rear. The best part is that they were blowing snow from his float, so it did almost feel like Christmas for a minute!

Afterward we went to the MacArthur Mall for a nice Caramel Apple Cidar from Starbucks!
This was the traffic leaving the parking ramp and why it took us 25 minutes to get down from the 4th deck!