wonderful Christmas.... number 1

this Christmas, just like last year, we are getting to spread it out for a few weeks with multiple different families!

Our first one was spent in Albuquerque with my mom's family! We had a WONDERFUL time. We ate lots of really good food (including smothered green chile burritos!), saw old friends, went to church, opened presents (I got a new camera- which I am loving!), went to an afternoon tea served by Aubrey (more on this later), played games, relaxed, and saw Andy's family. I had so much fun with my whole family and was reminded how blessed I am to have them in my life. Our time went by way too fast, as always... but it just makes me look forward to the next time we are all together!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and had time to reflect on our great King that was born to us!

next year's Christmas card...

what do you all think??

Chase and I went to Tech campus this week to look at the lights and took Paige with us... and of course I wanted to take pictures of us. I found a perfect corner that had great lighting in the night and so I set up the camera to take a "timed" picture of us. While the timer was counting down Chase was trying to get Paige to join the picture and I kept saying, "don't worry about it... she is not gonna stay" and then all of a sudden the camera flashed and took this picture! haha... I really wasn't mad, just had this face. Priceless....

Merry Christmas Eve!

25 years...

a few weekends ago I went to Albuquerque to see the 25th anniversary show of Christmas Joy! For those of you that do not know what Christmas Joy is... I will tell you! It is one of the greatest dance shows out there that is very near and dear to my heart. It is the true meaning of Christmas (Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection) in dance. It truly is a God glorifying show and makes me want to worship and praise Jesus every time I see it. I was in this show from my 6th grade year until I graduated high school, so I have lots of memories related to this show and the girls I danced in it with.

For the anniversary over 60 alumni came in for the show! We had a little reception with desserts and mingling before the show- which was great to see everyone. Karen Alwin's, the owner of the dance studio I grew up in and the former Artistic director of Christmas Joy, dream was to have her alumni come in for the 25th anniversary and go up on stage again.. so that is exactly what happened. We all went up on stage and took a bow after the finale! Karen retired from Christmas Joy and so it was a really special time!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and felt the true "joy" of the season through our Savior and King!

here are a few pictures from the night/weekend...

its been a while...

wow! time has flown by! I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a month! we have been pretty busy over the past few weeks....

one, I resigned from my job two weeks ago. Which I know some of you are thinking- what, in this economy?! It was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make in the process of moving overseas so far. However, I feel confident about it and know that God is going to use this time without a "full time" job to strengthen my relationship with Him, help Chase & I to prepare to "go", and allow us to focus more on where God is leading us. It has been a bittersweet time at work, because I have been blessed with my job, with the people I work with and with what I have learned since being there. I will miss everyone and hope to stay in touch. I am planning on nannying the Hubik (a couple from our church) boys (one is 2 and one is about 9 months old) starting in the middle of January. I may end up substitute teaching as well-- who knows! I know I will be doing a lot of reading with our RMP (more on that later) program with Redeemer- which I am excited about... my "bold" prayer this year for myself is that I will finish every book we are assigned to read! (not something I have always done in the past!)

two, chase and I finally finished our applications with an organization!! It was a long drawn out process for us, but we finally mailed them in and are headed for Florida for a conference on January 2nd!! We are super excited and can't wait to see what this is all about and to finally get this process started. We will be sure to update you on it when we return.

three, we have had lots of Christmas festivities... my work/client dinner at Cagle's Steak house, Chase's work/client party at the Overton Hotel & again at Double Nickel Steak house, I went home for Christmas Joy last weekend (separate post on this), our small group Christmas party, office Christmas parties, a December church-wide prayer gathering, Christmas with my dad and Linda this weekend and Christmas shopping in-between all of it!

four, we have both been sick! I got sick last Saturday with a cold/sinus stuff and got Chase sick on Thursday! We are both on the mend, but still stuffed up...

I think that is all that has been up with us. We are ready for Christmas (which we will spend in Albuquerque this year), for rest, and to reflect on all the blessings of 2009. We pray that you all find your hope in Christ this season and enjoy your time with family and friends!