Christmas time, come and gone. Just wanted to put up a few highlights of my Christmas time this year. Went up to my mom's house on Saturday. Actually I went up Friday night after doing a worship set for a Set Free ministry in Escondido. Spent the day shopping with my mom and helping prepare the dinner. It was so much fun. Kinda miss doing that with her now that I live an 1 1/2 away. Jeff took the boys around to see his side of the family. Their first visit was to their Papa Danny (Jeff's dad). They had a nice time there.

Then onto seeing Uncle David and Auntie Rachael and Morgan. IT was so cute cause my boys got these toys from Mc Donald’s that were for girls and thought that Morgan would just love them and they wrapped them up to give to her. They were right, she loved them. I think cause she knew it was from their hearts as well. Oh, and they wrapped a tooth brush for her as well. I don't know, again, it was just from their heart.

Then Jeff took them over to see Uncle Darren and Aunt Nadyne. However, she was out shopping with her mom (as I was also at the time) :) but they saw their Uncle Darren. It was a nice time there (they got to play with Peanut, their toy poodle).

After all that we all met back at my mom's house for a wonderful dinner. My brother was very late but there none the less. We all exchanged gifts and everyone enjoyed each others presence. My mom got me gift cards to Ulta (hair and makeup Mecca) and to Starbucks (Mmmmm Chai Latte). I was surprised to get anything really cause a few weeks before she paid for me to get my hair done. That was totally awesome cause it was so long over do and, I love the new "do" we created as well. Trying to grow my hair out hasn't been easy. That will be a while another blog. :) It's so good to spend time with my mom and dad. Kinda miss having them near by.

Christmas Eve was spent at church as we had great time of fellowship. Had a candle lighting service where Christy and I led worship and sand Christmas songs. Then we ate tamales with our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters at our church. Then went back to our house and opened gifts from each other. Got some really AWESOME stuff. Jeff got me $100 in spa certificates and Christy got me a watch, a beautiful picture that I wanted for my house (which I went to go get and mysteriously it was already bought...never even thought that Christy got it.) and Pooky. I'll take pictures tonight and upload them tomorrow. Oh, and she also gave my entire family the gift of seeing the Nutcracker Suite. Her mom Ully got me something cool too - a DVD on massage therapy. That's a gift that keeps on giving (to all those around me) :)

Christmas day was awesome as well. It felt so good to bless my kids with gifts. I have never been a real big fan of the whole Santa thing with my boys. Just kinda got started with the first one (family and all) and it was hard to keep it from the second. Jeff and I decided that we are no longer going to be living this Christmas lie and wanted to get the holiday back to it's original purpose - to celebrate Jesus' birth. So, we told our youngest son Garret that there's no such thing as Santa, but that long ago there was a man who would give toys to children but he died many years ago. But, there's one that still lives that we need to celebrate this season...and we shared with him the birth of Jesus and the importance of His sacrifice. He took it well and now we can leave the lie behind us all. :)

I got so many wonderful things and I want to thank everyone. I hope all of you that read this had a wonderful Christmas this year.

Just wanted to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Please remember its not about the gifts given or received, or even about the ham or turkey you left in the oven too long...but this is the time we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus. Without His sacrifice, we all wouldn't have any hope.

Hello to you all! Sorry I've been slacking on writing here. I always wonder who's reading this anyways...maybe I'm just babbling on about nothing to myself...who knows.

Anyhow, I wanted to just share a bit about my last weekend. Totally meant to put this up yesterday. I got a Christmas present early. Don't you love it when you get those! I was just minding my own business this last Sunday, waiting for my best friend Christy to come over and help me wrap presents (I had to hurry and wrap hers up before she got there - wouldn't be too good if I had her help me wrap that one huh). I had boxes, paper, gifts, EVERYTHING laid out all over my bed. Looked like Christmas threw up all over. Then, there's a knock at my bedroom door. I asked who is it (thinking it's my kids and I don't want them to see the presents all over) my friends voice came through "It's me". I got excited cause I really needed help with all the Christmas that threw up all over the bed. So I threw open the bedroom door to see my Christy, standing there all dressed up nice with pretty earrings in her ears and her hair up and pretty and she smelled good too (not that you normally don't my friend). I was surprised by her wrapping attire and asked "Umm, you're dressed really nice to help me wrap". That's when with a big smile she handed me a card and yelled "Merry Christmas!" I opened the card and it told me to get ready NOW cause at 5:30pm (only a few hours away) my whole family was being taken to see the Nutcracker Suite and the San Diego Civic auditorium. YAY!!!!! I jumped for joy and quickly got my dirty little boys all cleaned up and handsome and threw some stuff on my self (got to wear my pearls, it was fun!)

This was such an awesome present on so many levels. I was able to see the Nutcracker (that I haven't seen since Jr High and it's just my most favorite too!) with my family. I had been wanting my boys to see it just forever and give them a great experience. They so enjoyed it which made me enjoy it even more.

Thank you again my dear friend Christy. This early gift was a total surprise and very thoughtfully planned out. You gave from your heart and it will be a memory that I will carry forever, and so will my family. :)

Oh my goodness I had so much fun yesterday. We went to a women's tea thingy that I totally didn't want to go to but my best friend talked me into it. I'm so glad she did. We spend Tuesday night shopping for awful dresses to wear and get all silly fancy. I think we did a good job accomplishing that. :) We had tea and cute little finger foods that were almost too pretty to eat (notice I said almost...they were yummy!)

Here's a few pic's from the event.