Christmas Part Two.

You want to know one of my favorite things about this Christmas season, as far as social media goes anyway? It was all the warm and cozy scenes on Instagram!  I am a huge fan of Instagram and share glimpses of our everyday life on a regular basis.  You can follow me or just browse my pictures here.

I just loved getting to see what everyone else did for the holidays.  All that delicious food and close family time-wonderful! 

And so to me, by all means, please photograph your Christmas!  Even keeping within a traditional Christmas, my family will look much different than yours.  There are unique moments tucked into each home and little scenes waiting to tell a story. Like this one.  All of the sweet grandkids patiently waiting a turn to open a present at my parent's house. 

I love the difference from the photo above, which looks picturesquely sweet and calm to this photo.  The real life side of having to wait your turn! One even down on the floor-oh my! :)  I feel like this about waiting too kids. 

I love this picture of my mom with my Anna Ruth opening her new set of Lincoln Logs!

And these two make me do a double take almost every time!  This is my niece, next to my Betsy.  They really resemble each other and both have deep chocolate eyes.  

We have different gift-giving traditions at each house.  At my parents house they give each grandkid (there are 10!) one present and then my mom usually gives each family a basket of goodies.  This isn't expected and surely must take her so much time! Look how cute that basket is!  We have gobbled up those peanut butter pretzels FAST.  I'm especially excited about the two envelopes-one is for a lane rental for bowling and the other is a membership to our local children's museum that is set to open this June!  You can also use it for admission to other museums across the country as well!  We are really anticipating spring and summer and getting our fun on! 

Did you know I'm a twin?  Clearly I look like the more awkward one here. :)  I always find it so very odd when people don't know I'm a twin because it's just exactly who I am.  But a lot of people in my adult life meet just me and don't know about my better-half (besides Brett that is, I suppose I have two better halves!)  Meet Jana, my twin!  

Even though I do look desperately awkward in this photo it's a favorite one of my sister so I had to post it anyway.  When she laughs hard her nose crinkles and it's the most beautiful, cute thing I've ever seen.  Hopefully she's not mad I posted this pic!

As our college friend stated, we were "womb mates" and have been best friends ever since.  We talk or text daily.  She is my nurse, doctor, organizer, and advice-giver.  When I have a question about the girls relating to anything really, or about running a household-I ask Jana.  Someday my girls will thank their Aunt Jana for helping raise them!  

And then there's this funny little moment!  Allow me to explain….

My parents had some fun games for the adults to play and this was one of them.  You had to stack your whole tower of red cups into a pyramid WITH ONLY ONE HAND and then slide the cups back into a tall tower again….all done quickly and again, with only one hand!

I was holding Betsy Grace (what's new) and said I most definitely didn't want to play.  Like at all.  I figured I would get so frazzled I wouldn't be able to stack a single thing! I never was any good at games involving speed or quick thinking, unless it was a game on how to set a table pretty quickly-ha!  But then I stood off to the side and watched Brett play the game (who kept winning by the way, before I came along).  I counted how many cups he was putting in each layer and decided I'd give the game a try after all.  

And I won!! I beat my brother-in-law Seth who you see here AND Brett, all while holding Betsy Grace on my hip with one arm and playing the game with the other arm! 

I let out the loudest hoop and holler when I successfully beat both guys.  Mama has some talent from all that baby carrying after all! Does your family do anything that's both fun and friendly competition?  

And that, my friends, was our Christmas.  It was both loud and quiet, busy but calm.  Anchored by the peace and love of Christ.  As for the new year, I'm looking at a huge blank slate and a lot of "I don't knows".  Some of those, regarding Rosy Retreats and my upcoming schedule, I've been mulling over (but not too much where it turns into worry) and praying about them.  I'll talk things over with Brett and get back to you in my next post with a schedule for Retreats this year!  I hope you'll plan to attend. 

Happy New Year's Eve!  Let's ring the new year in with some rosy, however that may look in your life!