Florida

After Christmas, Elianna and I stayed in Florida to help Dad and Mom. May I just comment on the beautiful weather that has been going on down here. It is sure easy to get used to! Our winter coats remain hung up even when the Floridians bring theirs out.

Elianna has been a trooper about sleeping in a Pack-N-Play and not being at home. We Oovoo with my Chris and sometimes Harley every night. She gets so excited to see Chris and kisses the screen where he is and even tickles him. It has been a joy to watch her laugh and play with my Mom and make my Dad laugh with her silly antics!

I've been busy trying to help Mom maintain the house and keep everything in order. Between Dad and Elianna we get worn out but keep on remembering "the steadfast love of the Lord." Boy that phrase has been coming up alot in my personal Bible study making me realize I must need that reminder over and over again!

That all being said, I am so glad I have been able to stay here and help Mom. I may miss my Chris and Harley - notice I didn't mention missing the snow they have piling up there! I do look forward to getting back to my own computer, my own bed, my own shower, etc. However, I have been so blessed to see the outpouring of love shown towards my parents. It makes me want to get home and show the same love towards others who are sick or just in need of some encouragement.

Public Service Announcement

We will now return to our regularly scheduled posting.

Whew! We made it through the 25 days both on here with the Advent Calendar as well as on the 'Tis the Season blog with the 25 Days of Christmas Cookies. Boy it was a hard month of December eating cookies and cookies and more cookies. Truth be told though I made the cookies all Fall - there is no way we could have eaten them all in just the month of December! We did have probably a batch or two too many though and so it is back to the tough regime of counting calories and working out!

Since I'm being so truthful about the cookies, I have something else to tell you all. The cookie for Day 25?... I never actually made them. All other 24 cookies as well as some additional cookies that didn't make the cut, but I simply never got around to making that one. I hope it was a good one!

So what does the new year bring for us Promersbergers? We have no idea. Ok goodbye. Just kidding. We may not know what the new year will bring for us, but we know that God is faithful and will give us exactly what we need exactly when we need it. So who knows what you will read on here someday. For now, we are taking it one day at a time.

Advent Calendar (December 25, 2010)

Day 25 - Happy Birthday Jesus!

The multitude of things we would like to do for this day on our Advent Calendar will have to be postponed until next year. The airlines would not have approved our Advent Wreath nor our candles for the Happy Birthday cake we wanted to make. Next year Elianna will be able to understand better anyway so we will make a big deal of it then next year. But for now, we will discuss this year.

Because I forgot my camera at Eric & Syndey's house, Elianna couldn't look in her stocking until everyone got here and brought my camera. She got her favorite - snacks! That girl could snack all day if I let her! We figured what better stocking stuffer to give her than snacks along with a little baby doll which she has no interest in.

She received many gifts: Paddington Bear book & stuffed bear, monkey plate, books, a small sock monkey, dishes & pan for her kitchen, and doll. But probably the most special gift she received this year was a recordable book that Papa and Grammy gave her. Papa read the dedication page and then he and Grammy took turns reading the pages. It is a very special gift that I know I will treasure for years to come and hope to instill in Elianna that same treasure.

Chris and I got some cool gifts too: gift card, Tervis mugs, picture books and other things I can't remember right now.

We ate a big Christmas dinner at my parents house and then headed over to Chris' mom's house for dinner and to open presents there. (I added the presents we got there in the list above - in case anyone was wondering. If you weren't then please disregard this sentence and the one before this one. All other sentences theretofore and hereafter can be regarded.)

One of my personal highlights of the day was listening to C (he is 8) read the Christmas story from Luke 2. Not only did he do great on the big words (ie: Quirinius, lineage), but it was so sweet to hear him read the story of our Savior's birth.

"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger..."

Luke 2:7a

Caleb reading the Christmas story from Luke 2

Elianna texting all her friends "Merry Christmas"

It was a FSU filled Christmas!

Dad and Mom recorded a storybook for all 3 grandchildren

Dad bought Mom a beautiful ring

After gifts, some got a make-over courtesy of K with her new "makeup"

And then it was off to stuff ourselves ...

... eat Christmas dinner

And for some, take a nap

Christmas at Chris' Mom's house

Advent Calendar (December 24, 2010)

Day 24 - Christmas Eve

It is a tradition with my family that every Christmas Eve we have "Snacky Meal." Snacky meal is just what you would imagine it would be - small appetizer foods in a casual setting. This year we headed over to Eric and Syndey's house. We had all kinds of things - little quiche, spanakopita, dried fruit tray, pepper jelly with cream cheese, little smokies, some other stuff I can't remember and lots of desserts. While there we also took family pictures courtesy of my brother-in-law, Ben who takes great pictures. It was quite the adventure to get everyone positioned in the right spot so that we all looked our skinniest while contending with 3 children the smallest of which was cranky (whose kid is that?). All in all the pictures turned out great and I even got to throw in some of my smooooth dance moves. Oh yeah baby!

**Update: Because this is my blog and I can ... I am going to add in a separate post for our family pictures ... and one for out-takes from family pictures ... and one for a couple of things that happened while in Florida ... and ... well, that should be all the "extra" posts.**

This is probably one of the weirdest pictures I have seen. Eric and Chris look like ghosts - weird!