Christmas Cheer!

Hey, friends!  What a weekend it's been... including trick-or-treating with Rach and the kids, Christmas decorating with Mom and the Wilsons, celebrating Jon's birthday, driving home in a torrential downpour, taking shelter through a random 2am November tornado warning, buying a new Apple watch, submitting a video reflection for CCU, and catching up with my oldest nephew!!  Stephanie's caption about "the changing of all seasons at once" still feels very on point.

Fun fact:  One week from today, I'll be in Disney World!!

Anyway, here are a few photos from this weekend's Christmas decorating festivities! =)  Starting with our fun Christmas shirts!

The many faces of Parker Elizabeth! lol  She's started asking me to take her picture occasionally, and I'm hoping that mood strikes her during the Disney trip. lol

Mom has been planning and preparing for this since Chet first mentioned it last fall.  We brought six car loads of boxes containing fragile ornament jars, wreaths, garlands, ribbon, glittery reindeer, trees, styrofoam lifts, etc. from MWC to Tulsa, and we finally got to put it all together this weekend!  Here are a few pics of the process and the finished product...

Parker Elizabeth spreading the glittery red Christmas balls everywhere and thinking it was a hilarious joke! lol

Melissa made potato soup + ham and cheese sliders + Christmas cookies for us Friday night, then she made blueberry muffins, breakfast casserole, and fruit salad for breakfast, and Karli made an impressive sourdough cinnamon bread... all delicious!!  And it was fun to sit by Miss Parker and eat at their dining room table!

Parker introducing her new polar bear friend to the nutcracker. ❤  She was all cuddly and cute and cozy while we watched the Muppets Christmas movie together as Mom and Chet finished up some things on Friday night!

An afternoon break on Saturday for Jonathan Matthew's 42nd birthday party at the new Elam Park in Broken Arrow (it had a pretty cool playground and nice safety features for parents).

Group pic! =)

So it's been a busy weekend with loads of glitter and styrofoam snow and the relief of finishing a long-awaited project.  It had some intense weather drama, some pre-election anxiety, some good conversations, some quality framily time, feeling the changing of all seasons in a very tangible and a very metaphorical sense, and a tiny bit of extra rest.  There was a weird haze in the air tonight along with these pretty-but-ominous clouds.  And it's all making me think about the previous time change weekend in March of this year, which also held some extra emotion for me.

I'm grateful for what I'm learning.  Grateful for God's faithfulness through every season.  Trusting Him with all the unknowns (trying to).  And praying for wisdom, grace, and peace through the week ahead!

Happy Sunday.
❤ ❤ ❤