the remainder: ho ho ho

i wanted to throw the rest of my christmas pics up here. i wanted to record the rest of our christmas stops.  i wanted to include all the things i got to hear and learn about.  so, even though all our decorations are gone, our vacation days have ended & we all now feel that the season has passed...i'm going to do it anyway.

one of our most special gifts were these:

awesome, pretty, handmade, HOLY PENS.  ben's dad made us these out of wood from olive trees in the holy land.  is that not one of the coolest things you've ever heard?  both of us are basically obsessed with them.  i keep trying to find somewhere to put "special pens" but i've never had a special pen before so i'm not really sure where to keep it where its both used and not stolen {accidentally} or broken {also accidentally}.
it was great to see the brzinski's. i want to go back up and visit now!

on thursday we went to southland's service - we were blessed because ben & i were joined by two girls we love, jenna and katie and we also were surprised to see: my whole family including extended, the raisor's, the iffland's & the stone's.  what a good day!  we were blessed to worship the Lord & to hear about jesus & the one sent to prepare the way for him, john the baptist.  i love to learn/hear about john the baptist.  he was born with the holy spirit {can you imagine?}  he was always connected to God, always.  he truly understood humility; he continually pointed people to Jesus when it would have been so easy to point people to himself.  the most loving thing you could ever do...point someone to Jesus.  i love that.

after visiting with all our fun friends and family, benny & i had the pleasure of having dinner with jenna and katie.  treat.  we love logan's.

i had christmas eve off of work so i got to sleep in.  maybe even a bit too late.  i left too much left undone so i had to spend some "frantic" time preparing to leave town.  we headed to louisville to visit one set of my family.  we went to christmas eve service together which is actually such a gift.  when you haven't always worshipped the Lord with your family, you really appreciate how amazing it is to see God orchestrate that.  the pastor talked about Christmas {of course}.  he talked about how special it was because it was the day we were given a gift no one else could give, a promise no one else could say and a question no one else could ask.

after church we ate dinner all together & then went home all together.  we played romp your neighbor with my siblings, their spouses and benny of course.  and watched my parents open a very special present from my brother & sil.  an ultrasound!  my brother & greta are going to be parents, my parents are going to be grandparents & ben & i will be an aunt and uncle for the first time ever!  holy moly i can't wait for their little one to be running around!

christmas morning - so blessed to read about the birth of Jesus with my husband.  i really cherish times like that.  God's plans & provision are so good.

we all opened presents Christmas morning like little kids.  here's the family...

ben & i in our matching bears pants.  unfortunately it took a few tries to get the shot so neither of us look too happy.  but really we were very happy!

i didn't get a pic of my grandparents but they were there too.  i'm so glad we got to see them before they headed to florida for the winter.

after a good ol' home cooked breakfast we headed back to lexington to finish celebrating the holiday.

we stopped at my dad's to have Christmas with that family.  ben had one very nicely wrapped gift {it's a ladder fyi} and we had a great time being with them.  i'll have to record some really neat things from this house soon too.  maybe i'll do a 'things i love around my house' post.

from there ben and i had our own christmas together.  we filled each other's stockings for Christmas.  its a fun way to get each other something(s) special and not go overboard.  our only pic.  classic with our mt. dew creeping behind us.  at least their packaging is in appropriate colors, right?  i think that time alone in our house on Christmas day is really sweet.  celebrating jesus with your husband?  um...one of the best things ever.  we also got took a little cat nap before we braved the cold again.

our last stop of the day was to my nana banana's.  she was hosting our neighborhood christmas party and then afterward was our family christmas with my dad's side of the family.  it is a really fun time.  i love seeing everyone.  and this year we had a new addition, baby carter.  he was pretty worn out but i didn't get to hold his sweet self for a little bit.  it was awesome.

this is unrelated but i loved these little tags so much that i wanted to share them.  i want to print some more out now, go ahead and cut them and then next year i'll have them waiting for me & i won't have to do it in a frenzy.  you can find these free printables {HERE}.  this unstaged pic doesn't nearly do them justice.