Christmas time!

We are back and we had a wonderful time with our family. It was our niece and Ryder's first Christmas and it was so fun to watch them take it all in. It was very relaxed, which it really hasn't been in years passed. The way that Christmas fell this year, we had church services on Friday and Sunday so traveling anywhere was pretty challenging. So we took advantage of being home on Christmas Eve morning and really enjoyed some family time. We made waffles and opened our gifts to each other and did our stockings and drank our coffee and just sat and enjoyed the quiet moments together as a family. It was such a precious time and I will always remeber the first Christmas that we had Ryder with us.

These were my favorites of our Christmas Eve:

Our little tree with our favorite ornaments...

Ryder enjoying his Aunt Mallory and Uncle Andrew's wrapping job and present:

(That hat is just waiting for a photo shoot...)

(Ps: how do you like that shiner from our little man learning to crawl... We know that will not be his last. He is fearless!)

And these were the favorites of our time with my family:

We got to spend a little bit of time with my grandma on Christmas. That was a really special time too. Ryder was just full of big smiles and giggles for her...

I hope that this was a holiday that you were able to enjoy traditions, old and new, and that you were surrounded with people that you love along the way...

We are spending the next few days at our home with Kit's parents. We are really looking forward to it...

See you in a couple of days!

Merry Christmas!

"For today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah who is Christ the Lord."

~Luke 2:11~

From our family to yours, may you have a Christmas filled with joy and laughter...

See you next week!

something fun...

skype...

I have a love/hate relationship with SKYPE. Sometimes the audio isn't working or the screen freezes and you can only hear their voices (when the audio finally does start to work) or there is a significant delay and the conversation is really broken up because of it...

It can be so great to connect with people far away and get some face time that you wouldn't get with just a phone call.

Well the other night we skyped with my sister and our baby girl and it was logged away as a "gina loves skype" moment...

Ryder loves his cousin so much!

So for those who have told me to give skype another chance,

thank you, thank you, thank you! It was well worth it...

family team...

Kit's staff Christmas party was monday night and we had so much fun! That night, as I was looking around at the group of people at the party, I was so overwhelmed with how thankful I am for Kit's job and the incredible people that make up the family team at our church. It's not just a staff of people, it has become our friends and our community and for that I am so grateful!

nativity...

Last week we set up our nativity scene with Ryder, while reading the Christmas story to him from the book of Luke. It was really exciting to think of making this a part of our Christmas traditions each year. It made the focus of Christmas come together for me, in a very specific way.

It also had a special nostalgic value as well because the nativity scene belonged to my Dad's parents and had been in the family for many years so to get to set it up and share it with Ryder was really special.

A family tradition...

The weekend before Christmas is always spent with my mom's side of the family. We calculated it and we realized that we have been doing it since I was about 4 years old. So needless to say, this has been a time honored tradition, since this marks about the 26th year we have gotten together...

So I wanted to share some of my favorite photos of our time together:

Our yearly family picture by the tree... now including Ryder.

Our little man is moving more and more and I just know that he will be walking before we know it.

All the girls... (Heather, we missed you so much!)

Next year, my cousin Melissa and her husband will be adding a little girl, Olivia!

The head of the table. These two just love each other so much!

Ryder opening his first Christmas present: a very fun truck that moves with the push of a button. He loves watching it go.

Ryder sporting his Christmas jammies:

The weekend was a special time to hear about my Grandma Marie's stories of being little and her favorite Christmas traditions and memories... I will always cherish those moments. I just love how our family has grown over the years. First with spouses and now with our kids. I just can't tell you how incredible this weekend is for us. We just love our family!

We look forward to many more years of this tradition together!