A Blessed Christmas Vacation

I'll try and sum up my Christmas vacation pretty quickly. :)

The Saturday before Christmas, I believe I finished my gift shopping and wrapped the gifts, made Buck Eye Balls, and then I worked that night.

The Sunday before Christmas, we went to church and had a lovely church service. :) After church, we went home and got the ham dinner ready and I finished making the Buck Eye Balls. Aunt Debbie arrived around 2:30pm. We ate the ham dinner around 3:30pm. It was SUPER yummy. After the ham dinner, Tim, Angie, Gabe, and Addie arrived. :) They ate some of the ham dinner and once they had finished eating, we sorted the gifts out. We went in age order and opened our gifts. I got a necklace, chocolate and body scrub, from Shannon, fuzzy socks and sparkly nail polish from the Leach family, nail stickers and bath set from Aunt Debbie, a fedora from Billy, an iPad mini from my parents, a journal also from my parents, a target gift card and a cozy blue scarf from the my Aunt Sue and Uncle Jim, a TJ Maxx gift card from Abbey, and another Target gift card from the Reagan family. It was a very good Christmas. I really enjoyed hanging out with my family. <3 They are so wonderful. But gifts are the most exciting part of Christmas, it's the birth of Jesus Christ. I am so incredibly thankful and amazed that God sent his only son to take the form of a human to die on the cross for our sins. I can't imagine the struggles and temptations He went through.

On Christmas Eve night, we went to our church's Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols service. I had to do slides for the service. Billy and I both had to read some scripture for the service as well. It was a beautiful night! :)

Billy, Abbey, Catherine, Diana, Mom, and Dad. Shannon took this picture as we sang Silent Night.

After the service we had some snacks and talked with the Estes and our Free Grace family for awhile. It was lovely!

On Christmas day, we wrote a few Thank You cards and just relaxed for the day. The reason we opened out gifts on the Sunday before Christmas was because my Mom was working Christmas Eve and Shannon was working on Christmas day.

The day after Christmas, my family, Casey, and I went to go see Les Miserables. It was really good! The music was pretty incredible! After the movie, we cleaned the church and then Mom, Casey, Abbey, and I drove to Tim and Angie's house. Mom and Abbey into the house to drop off some soup. They were recovering from a flu bug so Casey and I didn't want to go inside. After that, we drove to my friend Allison's house so I could spend the night.

Allison and I couldn't do too much because she had hurt her back and it was basically a blizzard outside. We still had fun though! We hung out in her hot tub, watched movies, and talked a lot! :) It was fantastic! I had to spend an extra night at their house because the roads were bad. Thursday night, I ended up getting sick. I must have caught the flu from some one. We aren't sure it was from Tim and Angie because I hadn't seen them since Sunday. I threw up about 4 times that night. The next morning, Dad came and picked me up. I was feeling mostly better. On the way home Dad bought me some gatorade. I relaxed for the rest of the day. My Uncle Steve and cousin Katie came to visit. Uncle Steve, Shannon, and Katie made a delicious supper. I barely ate mine because my stomach wasn't quite ready for a regular meal. After supper, Uncle Steve taught us two new card games.

The next day, Uncle Steve and Katie made Eggs Benedict for breakfast. It was very yummy! After breakfast, we hung out and talked for awhile. Just before lunch, Sean showed up. For lunch we had a delicious chicken type meal. It was basically a chicken breast with cream cheese and spices stuffed inside, breaded, then wrapped in bacon. It was DIVINE! After lunch Katie left to visit some friends in Waterville. Uncle Steve, Billy, Abbey, and I taught Sean how to play the game Uncle Steve taught us. After awhile, Uncle Steve packed up, said good bye, and left. We had a good time!

After Uncle Steve left, Sean, Billy, Abbey, Mom, Dad, and I went to the Richards' Christmas party. That was loads of fun! It was so nice to see some many of my wonderful friends. I'm super blessed. I basically caught up with whole bunch of my friends.

On Sunday, we had yet another lovely church service. Pastor Per preached on Christmas as Great Joy. After church, the Vandykes came over for lunch. :) After lunch, Sean, Billy, Abbey, and I met Dan at Panera Bread. We taught Dan how to play Dutch Blitz. After we finished our game of Dutch Blitz, Dan, Sean, Billy, and I played Hearts. Strangely enough, Billy lost! Dan came in first, Sean came in third, and I came in second! I'm used to Billy winning hearts. After we finished the game, we left because Panera Bread was closing early.

On New Years Eve, I cleaned our living room floor. I had to go into work at Sedgley Place at 3:45pm. Corrie and I worked until 12:30am. We started the new year working :) When we got back to my house, we took some pain medicine, ate some cheerios, and relaxed on the couch each with a glass of sparkling grape juice. We listened to a few One Direction and Celtic Thunder songs until Billy, Sean, Abbey, and Shannon got home from the Estes around 2:30am.

The next day, Corrie, Billy, and I went to Sarah's house for a little party with some friends. I met Sarah's cousins Aaron and Adam, and got to know her friends Mac and David better. We all laughed so much! We played some hilarious games called Telestrations, Egyptions Rats Stew/Screw, CatchPhrase, and Mafia.

I started school again the next day (last Wednesday).

Thursday evening, Mom dropped Abbey, Billy, and I off at Central Maine Christian Academy. Garrett drove us to his basketball game in New Gloucester. We watched Dan and Garrett's basketball team beat Grace Christian with a score of 57-18, I think. Afterwards, we watched the girls beat Grace Christian with a score of 40 or 30 something with like 15 points. It was fun! After the games, we invited Dan and Garrett over for supper. Garrett drove us to Little Caesars while Dan followed us in his car. After we got the pizza at Little Caesars, we drove home. Shannon and Abbey were a little overtired so we had a rather hilarious and interesting supper! After supper, Dan, Billy, Garrett, and I played Hearts. Dan won again, and I believe Garrett came in second, Billy in third, and me in last. It was rather disappointing game for me. :P Dan and Garrett left soon after the game was finished.

Last Saturday morning, Billy and I went sledding with a bunch of teens and youth from Free Grace. Tim and Gabie baby went sledding with us as well! After we were finished with sledding, we went to the Almquist's house for hot chocolate and soup. SO good!

That night, as research for my Wedding Planning business, Dad, Joanna, Mrs. Vandyke, and I went to a .Bridal Show in Portland. It was a lot of fun! Although, it was a tad awkward because most of the Vendors thought I or Joanna was a bride. After the Bridal show, we went to Five Guys Burgers. Good food!