{Where Did Christmas Go?}

It seems that Christmas has come and gone and in a blink of an eye all the festivities are over! Christmas reminds me a lot like a wedding. All the planning, buying, preparing and POOF! But just as with a wedding the memories sure are sweet.

 Remember my corner chair in my kitchen? I sure have enjoyed decorating it. 

I realized that with all the Christmas activities that I had not shared with my blogging friends my Christmas decor. Just a word of WARNING...lots of pictures but some sweetness happened at Christmas for our family.

 I found this sweet picture of a red truck on line and bought the file so I could add my own wording. I made an 8x10 picture and framed it for my kitchen.

 Don't you just love my new salad/dessert plate? Simple tablescape but oh so fun. 

It was fun creating this fun tablescape this year and the red truck was actually a cookie jar.

 This cute dish sure held a lot of goodies over the holidays. 

First Yule Log I've ever made. Not too shabby. 

YEP, love me some Santa's. 

 This is the 2nd year I have used my skinny Christmas tree. I do love it because it takes up less space. I am thinking maybe next year I will use my larger tree and put my skinny tree in my kitchen. I inquired several larger ornaments this year and it calls for a bigger tree.

Beautiful ornament with all six of my grandbabies names on it. 

The hubs wasn't too happy that I put bows around their necks. He's lucky I didn't put Santa hats on them!

I won't show you any more pictures of my Santa's because then you will truly know I have ISSUES! And I won't show you the laundry room or the bathrooms. LOL! Love Christmas! 

Our sweet grandbabies has truly got to be the best thing EVER! Why didn't we have them first? 

I get them matching PJ's every year. I am finding that the older they get the harder it is especially when my one and only grandson doesn't care for some of the same kind of PJ's that the girls would love. So this year I found the bottoms at Target and then just bought them regular tops. Ordered the babies PJ outfit from Etsy but it matched great. Hers said, "I'm so cute that even the Grinch would steel me". 

This picture was taken Christmas Eve of my husband's side the of the family. IMMEDIATE FAMILY! Yep, it started out with two people that had four children and went from there. 

The scripture that says, "Be fruitful and multiply" was taken seriously. And...we have two more babies on the way. Two of our nephews and their wives are expecting next year.

This is my sweet family. God surely has blessed us. 

 These beautiful ladies are my daughter's. I surprised them GOOD this year with a special Christmas gift. I have one of those armoire jewelry cabinet's that sits in the floor and then a smaller jewelry box that sits on my dresser. I decided one day back in September to clean out and go through it all. I LOVE costume jewelry but it was time to do some cleaning. As I began to clean and go through I started gathering up the real gold and diamonds that I have had through the years. It is amazing at how much we confiscate and do not even realize it until we start cleaning. Long story short, I decided that I wanted to have each of my girls a necklace made or something. I mean some of my STUFF from the late 80's was so gaughty (not sure if that is a word, Ha!) that none of my girls would wear it! LOL! I truly did not realize how much I had and did not wear until the cleaning was done. A plan went into motion and right before Christmas the project was completed.

I was able to have each girl a white gold heart necklace with diamonds made. I could not have been more happier. 

 After viewing about 8-10 different designs I choose this one and I loved it and they loved it. I told my girls that I did not want to wait til I was DEAD for them to enjoy something that was mine. I want to see them enjoy it while I am living. Needless to say no dry eyes and y'all, I UGLY CRY! 

A sweet friend sent me a message after seeing this picture on facebook. She said, "This is the way we should live daily. Open hands and open hearts". MELTED MY HEART! 

I started a new tradition this year. I had this small Christmas tree and decided to take some of the Christmas cards I had gotten and cut around some of the designs. I cut out nine total. On the back of each one I listed one of the fruits of the spirit.

I then placed the one on top that said "Christmas" most to me.

When my family had opened all of their gifts and we had cleaned up all the trash I took a few minutes and gathered up my grandbabies in a circle. I asked my oldest granddaughter to recite Galatians 5:22-23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I then explained to them what the Fruit of the Spirit meant. I asked them each to pick an ornament off the tree without looking at the back. Once they did I then explained to them how that fruit could be manifested in their life for 2019. Of course our 2 1/2 and 7 month old doesn't understand but all the same I wanted to do this with them. With three being left on the tree my three daughter's each picked one as well. Not only was this a time to reflect on living the fruit of the spirit for 2019 but also to tell the children that these are the fruits that Christians should be producing in their lives. 

And yes, I am all about the fun. I love Christmas. I love to decorate, to bake, to cook, to buy gifts, to wrap presents, and I do love me some Santa's. I love sharing the old family traditions and making new ones. I love my family and my friends. But I love Jesus more! If not for HIM there would be no CHRISTmas. 

And to make a happy ending to our Christmas, our family received the best and sweetest gift that we could ever receive. Our sweet granddaughter asked Jesus to come into her heart!  Our Kyleigh received the best and sweetest gift that she could ever receive. His Name is Jesus! The Name Above All Names". 

I do hope that you and yours had a Merry Christmas and that you felt the love of Jesus. Happy New Year to you all. 

Hugs and blessings, Cindy