I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! It's been a rollercoaster of a month so far! Crazy, crazy, crazy! I did get my Christmas cards addressed, stuffed, and mailed all by Monday!! Yee haw!! I was actually shocked at how many I ended up sending out. A whopping 100 cards. Yep, sounds crazy, but I was actually short a few. Still trying to figure out what to do about that. I have almost all the shopping done too! I am on a roll. House is decorated, most of the presents wrapped, shopping done, cards done, update letters done, and we will finish the gingerbread house tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Be blessed! This is my new favorite scripture: "May mercy, peace and love be lavished on you." (Jude 1:2)  I pray this for all of our friends and family this holiday season! We miss you and love you more than we can express!!

Zayin had his Christmas program this week. It was so stinking cute! He picked his pink button up shirt to wear with a pink tie he borrowed from Caleb, and dark jeans with his black shoes. He looked so handsome! The kids did great! They all sang the words, did the motions, and nobody really goofed off or anything. What a great group of kids. Then Caleb and Aren came over to play for a while. He has really been into writing and coloring lately. And is getting really good. Usually he has me write something and then he copies it under my writing. It's weird how they just pick that stuff up.

Eli started work last night. He got a call around 4pm, and they needed him to work 12 hours last night, tonight, and possibly Monday too. That's a bunch of hours in a short amount of time. It's good though, we are getting to a point where we could use the money. He was nervous, but excited at the same time. I hope he has a good night. He said he did pretty good last night, besides being dog tired anyways.

Zoe is as crazy as usual. She cracks us up! Everywhere all the time, and she is faster than any kid I have ever seen. It's amazing what she gets into. Zayin has now taught her how to unlock the dead bolt on the door, way to go big brother! That's ok though, at least my life is never boring!

I am busy, busy, busy! Like I said at the beginning...Christmas decorations, Christmas tree, presents, wrapping, cards, letters, gingerbread house, cookies, stockings, dinners, etc... Just being a mom is enough for me, but when you add all the other stuff it seems to get exhausting! But I love it anyways. The next few days calls for serious cleaning and organizing! I'm kinda excited, I think I might ask Kelly to watch the kids for an afternoon so I can clean, organize, and maybe take Eli shopping for the last couple things for the kids. She is such a huge help!!

I guess the only other thing I can think of right now is sad. Our dear friend, Phil Hoberecht passed away last night. He was Todd's dad. It was not a shock, but still heartbreaking. Eli and I are having a hard time with the fact that we won't be able to be there for the funeral and just for them in general. I think it's the hardest thing we have had to deal with since we have been here. It's so sad, and it's...I don't have any words. Please pray for his family, and for all who knew him. He was a vibrant, caring, adventurous, loving, kind, joyful, sweet man. And we will miss him dearly. Very dearly. Merry Christmas Daddy Hoberecht.

'Tis the Season!

I can't believe it's December already! It doesn't help that there is no snow here. I never really thought I would miss the snow, but I guess I was wrong. I don't miss the cold, but Christmas just doesn't seem the same without the snow.  I even got sappy hearing the "Dreaming of a White Christmas" song. We did get our tree put up and decorated. It's a little lopsided because we had to put breakable ornaments up out of Zoe's reach, but it still looks nice. The important thing is the kids had a blast doing it! I am going a little overboard with the decorations this year. I think I'm trying to make up for the no snow thing, I'm having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. I will try and take some pictures tomorrow and post them, just  so everyone at home can see.  Zayin has a school program for Christmas this year. How stinkin' cute is that?! He is practicing his 2 songs and loves it! And Zoe loves to sing along! That girl idolizes her brother and follows him and copies him to the best of her ability. She loves him terribly!

Things have been going pretty good. We got a huge surprise in the mail the other day. A huge blessing! Some friends decided to send us a check, and it was such a shock, I totally sucked in air when I opened the card! I was excited enough as it was just to get a card from them, let alone a gift like that. I cried, and cried, and tried to tell Eli over the phone, but just couldn't spit it out. He did finally translate my gibberish. Then I couldn't even call them to say thank you, because I was so overwhelmed by it all. And the timing was all God. That topped it off. Plus Eli finished his training for the new job, and it seems pretty intense, but I think it will be good. Now we are just waiting for his record to come through. They needed to check that he had a clean record.  Then he will start ASAP.  No more news on the condo just yet, but we are still excited for whatever happens, as long as it sells that is.

Our friend Dan came over the other night for dinner. Let me say that differently...he came over to MAKE us dinner! That's right! Sorry ladies , he is taken. Hehehehehehe. But anyways, he made spaghetti for us with delicious sauce with wild meat from home (Montana), and amazing garlic cheesy bread! So good! Then to top it all off, he had brought another bag of noodles, and another loaf of bread and told us all the leftovers were ours! Seriously, you should have seen the amount of food left over! So sweet of him. He is a great friend.

Friday night we went to watch the town Christmas tree lighting. We got lost, but found it just in time. It was perfect! We walked around afterwords and looked at all the decorations and just had a good time. Came home, had some cocoa and put the kiddos to bed. Then yesterday we went to the Farmers Market for the last time before it's over for "winter". Zayin got some cookies, Eli got his tamales, and Zoe and I shared a toffee cookie. Then we went home, had some lunch and the kids took a nap. Later that night, we decided to go to Despicable Me at the dollar movie theater. We called Dan and asked if he wanted to come over for dinner and then go to the movie with us. It was a blast! It was also Zoe's first movie, and she did great! She lasted in her own seat until about the last 10 to 15 mins, but I think she was getting tired. It was a great weekend all in all.

Now tomorrow I get to pick up the Christmas cards and start addressing them all. I hope I have everyone's currant addresses! Have a wonderful week!

Crystal