Christmas Eve and Adventuring

For Christmas this year we're just going to be our family (most of our extended family lives on the other side of the country), but yesterday we took a trip into San Francisco with some of our "family" from church. We took the ferry down, then we walked to the Hyatt Regency which is all decked out for Christmas and admired the beautiful lights and hitched rides on the elevators with people who had the required keycards that went to the 17th floor. Then we just walked the embarcadero and ate clam chowder and took lots of pictures, browsed boutiques, and got our free square of Ghirardelli's Peppermint Bark chocolate. 

We were entertained by the street performers and our goofy friends, and finally made it back to the ferry and played around on the deck.

It was a joy-filled day, and as i enjoyed all the things above and hearing the many accents, languages, and voices in the city (one of my favorite parts) i was reminded that Jesus came to bring His glory to all nations, and that "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." (Isaiah 40:5)

And Christmas is about seeing that glory of the Lord come to earth, setting aside His place in heaven for a time, to bring us reconciliation to God and being humbled in the form of a baby to die for us and save us. 

Christmas is about this love that came down, reaching into our hearts to change us and make us His own.

Enjoy the pictures and remember why there is Christmas.

(me and the little brother)


















































(this sign is worthy to be followed)

Christmas Break

This morning i turned in a take home final, which marked the end of my 7th semester of college and a week of critiques, baking for potlucks at said critiques, an in class final where we could google answers if the open book and open note policy didn't supply the answers we needed. Gotta love community college. :D

I really love the month of December, because ever since i was 4 or so and started school it has brought breaks from school, a jump in social interaction (homeschoolers need all the socialization we can get ;)), lots of good food and sweet food, rain and lovely cold weather, a sudden influx of mail from people near and far with pictures to show how they've grown, and of course there are beautiful colorful lights all over peoples houses. 

Last night Ali came and stood by my computer and begged me to go outside and take pictures in front of the lights. Being the wonderful older sister that I am, i of course obliged. ;) 

Enjoy your cold months while they last, and stop and look at the pretty lights











and of course, what would Christmas break be without a little graphics fun? ;)

Mekayla

I love babies, and this one is especially cute. :)You've seen her on here a few times before, as a newborn and before she was born, but now she's grown and she's all alert and excitable. :) She's discovering the world even more, and she's quite the happy baby. 

Billy, Jean, and Andre

Photoshoots in and out of rain in quaint little wine country towns like Yountville are lovely. And that's intensified when you have great people to take pictures of.