The Christmas Season 2009

The advent season for us this year has been a nice one--very relaxed and restful, unlike some years past. (If you recall, last December, Jeff worked every day of December, except the 4 Sundays and Christmas Day, and we did all the normal December festivities on top of that. We were a bit wiped out by January 1st.)

This is Kate's first Christmas season, so it was fun looking for all the special first time things like stocking and ornaments and first Christmas gifts.


Jeff and I were able to enjoy a Christmas party held by his firm the first weekend in December....and make it home in time to see the final episode of Monk.


Noah, our dear cat, enjoyed another Christmas with us.


The weekend before Christmas, we celebrated with my family. It was Kate's first time opening gifts, so helpful older sister Grace was there to help with the unwrapping....while Kate enjoyed a single piece of wrapping paper for the rest of the evening.


Our nephew Liam, 4 months behind Kate, practiced his unwrapping skills, as well. I think they both enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the gifts--at least initially.


By the end of the celebration, Grace was wiped out from it all.


On Christmas Eve, we were able to attend our church's service--a wonderful time of Christmas hymns and scripture. The choir sung Of the Father's Love Begotten so beautifully. Afterwards, we were able to join my family and extended family for a lovely Christmas Eve celebration at my parents' home.

Christmas morning, it was the five of us in our home. It was a nice morning of exchanging gifts, cinnamon buns and remembering Christ and His coming to earth for our undeserved salvation.

My gift to Jeff was a used canoe. Thankfully, since a canoe is hard to wrap and fit under the tree, I was able to store it with the man who sold it to me and we could surprise Jeff by giving him a small gift of a picture frame with this picture in it.

And then, we were off to Doylestown for a delightful day with Jeff's family. It was wonderful to be all together.

I didn't take any pictures that do the day justice, but we have some shots of the kids opening their gifts. They went from youngest to oldest and so Kate was up first.

By this point, she'd had a lot of practice and seemed to get the hang of unwrapping a gift. Good to know since her birthday is close at hand.

Grace fell 8th in the line up of gift receiving.

And Joost was number 11 (and there were still 2 to come after him.)

It was a wonderful Christmas. We were able to stay in Doylestown for 2 more days following Christmas and spend time with Jeff's family and friends.

There have been times during this season when I would get teary-eyed with joy because of how blessed I was to be able to spend Christmas with all the family that I love so much. God has been most kind to us and given us so many people that love us. What a gift Christmas is--that God Himself would humble Himself and come to live among His creation and die to save them. And, then, on top of that, we are able to share all that with those we love.

cookie baking

I'm a huge fan of traditions. There's nothing like a cherished event to look forward to each year. I grew up with many wonderful traditions, and I've been happy to establish some for my own family, as well. For us, Christmas probably has the most traditions--just as I'm sure it is for most families. One of those that I enjoy is cookie baking. I don't like baking cookies on my own, but when done with others, it's a fun day. Mom and I have been able to do that since our move back to Harrisburg. This past Thursday we baked at our house. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Dad was even able to join in some of the fun after work.

I think if you're 4 or 6 years old, there is true pride in messy, floured hands.

After 8 hours of baking, Mom packed tins and tins of cookies. These are some of the last to be packed up.

phil-a-del-phi-a

We had happy days living in Philadelphia and enjoy every chance we have to go back and visit. We were able to do so, with the whole Bosworth clan, this past Sunday, starting with attendance at Tenth Presbyterian. It was wonderful to see so many faces of friends and acquaintances that we used to see weekly.

After the service, we had lunch at the Reading Terminal Market.

After that, we tried to visit all things Christmas in the city. I'm pretty sure we didn't see everything, but we did get to do a lot.

First, we went to Macy's and watched the light show and walked through Dicken's Christmas Carol.

We also visited City Hall's Christmas village. Then, we went to the new Comcast Building and watched their 3D Christmas videos.

After it was all said and done, Grace was a little more than tired and fell asleep on Jeff's shoulders.

It was a fun day in the city!