My Christmas Favorites

Is there anything more wondrous than the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords being born in a manger?  I don't think anything or any one moment can quite compare to the birth of our Savior aside from His death and resurrection.  The Christmas season reminds of us the peace, hope, joy, and love that we have through Christ, and I pray that all of you will be renewed and refreshed for a new year of serving and living for Christ's glory.  I believe that 2011 will bring all of us new and unique ways to serve Him everyday!


I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite ways to prepare for the celebration of Christ's birth, and I would LOVE to hear all of yours as well.


1.  Christmas music!  I love Christmas music...I can't help but purchase 1 or 2 new Christmas albums each year, but my all time favorite album is The Carpenters: Christmas Portrait.  I know every word of every song on that much loved CD, and it is the first one I listen to every year.  My favorite Christmas song is "Little Drummer Boy."  Here is one of my favorite versions of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2sZFL3Y6Do
2.  Christmas movies!  My favorite is "White Christmas."  My aunt Kathy and I used to act out a scene in the movie with the help of my brother (forced help I should add).  What can I say, he was smaller that us at the time...
Of course we both wanted to be Mandy, so Travis had his work cut out for him.  We would pin blankets to our butts and everything...here is the real thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MMJmK2V_hQ&playnext=1&list=PL5C6EEDF8A51EE435&index=42
3.  Reading Christmas stories!  The real Christmas story in the Bible is a must, but I have a couple others that I read every year as well.  The book "Skipping Christmas," by John Grisham.  If you haven't read it than you should.  It is both funny and heart warming.  other Christmas books that we love to read are "One Wintry Night," by Ruth Bell Graham, and of course "The Night Before Christmas."
4.  Baking goodies!  My absolute favorite is homemade gingerbread cookies, but as I have stated in previous posts, Kristi's sugar cookies are hard to resist, and she was right, they cannot be duplicated.
5.  Christmas Eve candle light service.  It just isn't Christmas without it!!!


I hope that all of you are taking a moment or two to enjoy the wonders of this holiday season.  Please share your Christmas traditions with us as well!

2010 Reed Family Progressive Dinner

It just isn't Christmas until the Reed Family Progressive Dinner and Cookie Exchange has taken place!  There is just something about making last minute cards and treats to pass out the next day that screams...CHRISTMAS is HERE!!!  This year I decided to make a Chex mix that my best friend Vanessa's mom makes all the time...I just love it (maybe it is because everything tastes better covered in white chocolate).

Oh, and here is the card I decided to make this year...someone remind me next year how time consuming glitter can be...

This year we started out at Ada and Mason's house (aka...Grandma Reed's house).  The spaghetti was great! Even my kiddos ate it (and we all know how picky they are...thanks Jeff).  Brenna LOVED the Christmas scenes that were set up...she kept pulling Jacob or myself over to it to check it out with her.

 
I guess I better get a couple gingerbread houses ready to make...or maybe a train too. 

With my crazy school schedule I don't get to see all of my cousins very much, I really miss them!  Here are some of my favorite pictures...

Aunt Kristi and Little Matthew

Emily and Jacob being silly

And a Brenna and Dylan, second generation "kissin cousins"

Our second stop was Greta's house where we were served pumpkin soup...it was GOOD! 
Then we were off to Juanita and Martin's house for Autumn Salad (my favorite)!
Our last stop was to see Ben and Kim's new house...which is supper cute, and to eat dessert.  I tried the red velvet cake with cherries...yummo!

Here are my two favorites from the cookie exchange...
1.  My Aunt Theresa made these beautiful towels for each of us to wrap up her goodies...

2.  Kristi's sugar cookies...I always hide them from my kiddos so that I can eat them all...shhh...don't tell on me!

Thank you to all the Reed's for such a great day...I love you all!!!



To cap off our Oak Harbor visit we stopped off at my Grandma and Grandpa Verburg's house.  The kids had so much fun climbing on Grandpa and feasting on tortilla chips and ice cream and watching movies.

Brenna and Grandpa Verburg

Grandma and Grandpa (a photo by Jacob)

I hope all of you are enjoying these days before Christmas as much as we are...happy Sunday!

Thankful for SNOW!!!

"Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:19b-20

I haven't felt very thankful lately. Every bump along my path has felt like a mountain, and to tell you the truth, I haven't felt much like scaling them, no matter how small they really are. In fact, there have been quite a few days the past month or so that I have wanted to plain ol' give up. To tell you all the truth, I think that God has used the snow this week to restore my hope in Him. The past three days I have been given the gift of time with my precious kids. We have snuggled, played board games, played in the snow, gone sledding, taken walks together, made brownies, and colored. I have even remembered my camera on a few of our outdoor adventures! I miss being a stay-at-home mom!!!

So, while the snow may not have fixed all of my problems or allowed me to live out my dream job on a permanent basis, it has reminded me to be thankful to God for everything, trusting that all things work together for the the glory of God's purpose.

Many blessings to all of you this Thanksgiving day!

Chandra

PS...here is my challenge/focus for the remainder of the year:

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

Football season....

...is in full swing at the Marrs household! Jacob has been practicing 4x per week for the last 3 weeks, and has been LOVING it! I remember that last year I was afraid that he would not be able to make it through the first 2 hour turn-out, but I have to say that my little man Jacob never complains about gearing up for another long and hot afternoon of practice.

A couple of weekends ago, the football team participated in the Stanwood Parade. Our league decided that they wanted the boys to sport black mo-hawks with their number on one side of their head, and the Spartan logo on the other. Here are some great shots of Jacob showing off his do...





I must admit that mo-hawks are NOT my favorite look, but it was funny to see for a day. Jeff shaved off the mo-hawk later that day.:-)

Here are a few more pictures from the first week of practice (full gear practices began a week after this one)...









I hope everyone is having a great August!!!

CJ

Slide Waters @ Lake Chelan

On the last day of our camping trip in Chelan we went to the water park. Most of you know I am a water baby...I love the water, and cannot get enough of water slides!!! My kids are exactly the same way...thank goodness! Jacob went down every slide in the park...liking the "purple haze" slide the best. Brenna went down all of the little kid slides and down all of the slides she could ride with me on, laughing down every one of them! Enjoy the pictures!


Brenna coming down the slide.





My mom beating Vanessa down the race track.


Janice coming down slide #2.


Jacob coming down a baby water slide just so I could take a picture of him.


Jacob hanging in the pool.


Here is a video of Brenna on one of the slides...she LOVED them!!! She is so cute!!!



Chandra

Camping @ Lake Chelan

Whew...we just got back from our camping trip @ Lake Chelan, and I am swamped with laundry and the putting away of all of the many camping things that go along with such a trip, but I thought I would share with you our experience.

This was my kiddos first experience tent camping...100% tent camping. We have always gone in our 5th wheel before this trip...and can I just add that the kiddos never complained about our living conditions during our trip at all! The TV was NOT missed!!! As for myself, I missed the convenience of my 5th wheel kitchen, and a clean and close bathroom in middle of the night, as well as a real bed!:-)

We had a great time with my brother Travis, his girlfriend Natalie, my mom, my dad, my Aunt Janice, and my best friend Vanessa.

We swam, sun-bathed, played games, roasted marshmallows, and hung out at camp reading books and spending time together. Here are a few of my favorite pictures...along with a few lessons learned during the trip.

#1: Just when you think you will completely smoke another team at pictionary...they take the lead and win. We think they may have cheated...just kidding guys!!!


Natalie, Travis, and Mom after their win @ Pictionary.

#2: Camping makes kids tired!


Brenna crashed one day after swimming...

Jacob...caught taking a nap!

#3: The more adults along on a trip the better!!! Thank you to everyone for helping entertain the kids during our trip. I even got to relax and play some too!


Natalie, Travis, and Brenna playing in the sand.

#4: You can never begin to teach your young daughters the importance of sunbathing too early! Okay, so this only lasted about 2 minutes, and then she was off to explore the lake shore again...


Sunbathing beauty!!!

#5: My best friend ROCKS!!! Thanks for talking me into a camping trip with the kids...AND, thanks for helping me chase after them all weekend!


Vanessa hanging out @ camp.

#6: Dogs need sitters too! Janice had a great time bonding with Louie this weekend...I think she just might need a dog...

Janice and Louie

#7: Keeping kids clean when camping is tough...

Brenna...a ball of dirt!


Brenna and Boss playing in the dirt.

All in all it was a great weekend...thank you to Vanessa, Travis, Natalie, Janice & my Mom and Dad for taking time out of your busy schedules to spend time with us. We love you all!!!

Chandra & the kids

PS...water slide pictures to come!

Let the Planting Begin!!!

This year my mom and I decided to start a vegetable garden with my kids. We spent a couple hours one afternoon tearing out weeds and preparing the soil for planting...funny thing is, Jacob spent most of the gardening time ridding his bike, and Brenna was too busy singing into her microphone (aka garden hose) to help us at all...

Jacob did help his grandma one evening, but like normal, refused to let me take pictures...silly kid!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the actual planting (Jacob was fishing with Papa), but I got some pretty cute pictures of Brenna and her Grandma Jo. Enjoy!