A retrospective . . . December

Please don’t get confused (or laugh too hard) by seeing a Christmas tree at the end of February. I’m still catching up. Here are a few of the highlights from December. I will have a dedicated Christmas & New Year’s Eve post. So – fair warning not to get confused. Again . . . please ignore these if you are “so over” Christmas & looking forward to spring.
**I promise . . . these “delayed” posts will be completed by Alexa’s 3rd birthday in March!

MICHAEL W. SMITH CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Even in February, you don’t think I would forget our time with Michael!? This was the first year for Rylen & Chris to join us. (My selfless Dad volunteered to watch Alexa so Chris & I could both go.) I look forward to this concert every year. As always, an unforgettable evening.





TBC WOMEN’S CHRISTMAS TEA
Every year our church’s women’s ministry puts on a Christmas tea, and I always enjoy hosting a table. It’s a perfect excuse to get more use out of the Christmas dishes given to us by Chris’ Aunt Kay & Uncle Jim. I especially love the chance to get to know the women at our church more intimately.




DECKING THE HALLS
Decorating is one of my favorite things to do during the holidays. Alexa put the crowing achievement, a Simpich angel, on our little Christmas tree. I have aspirations of making an angel someday but this charming little angel definitely does the trick.
 

--Alexa looked forward to counting down the days to Christmas. It was so fun to watch her write the numbers.

SPREADING CHEER
We always enjoy making something sweet for our neighbors. However, the joy really comes in delivering the goodies. This year, we made peppermint fudge. We are always praying for that open door to establish trust & share the Gospel.

THE SINGING CHRISTMAS TREE

Gotta end with Alexa working her “cheesy” face with the cousins at Edmond First Baptist’s Singing Christmas Tree. I go for the music. Alexa goes for the “dancing” lights.

Caramel cream cheese dip

So, I must admit I’ve probably made five recipes of this decadent dip since New Year’s. Thank goodness my New Year’s resolution wasn’t losing weight! I justify making the dip because I eat more fruits that way. That’s a good reason, right!? This dip is delicious with apples, strawberries, bananas or simply on a spoon.

CARAMEL CREAM CHEESE DIP
2-8 oz cream cheese blocks (softened)
1 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
12.25 oz jar Smuckers caramel topping

Beat cream cheese w/ sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add caramel topping (I usually microwave it a bit to get all of the caramel out of the jar). Beat together and serve! Refrigerate until serving.
--My thanks to Sandra Hedrick for sharing this recipe with me. I love it!!

A retrospective . . . November

Please forgive me. You know how I said I had some “making up” to do when it came to the blog. Well . . . here it is. What I’ve discovered since we’ve established this blog is that this serves as a digital scrapbook of our lives. Unfortunately, all of November, December and a good chunk of January are missing, and well, some pretty big things happened those months. So, I am going to attempt and cover those months in a few posts that will be picture heavy, which means at least when I look back, it will be laden with memories too. I don’t blame you if you’d rather bypass the next couple of posts if watching slideshows of other people’s lives doesn’t interest you too much. I selfishly admit, this is for me so I have some sort of documentation of what happened when I make that elusive scrapbook for Alexa Hope. I no longer rely on my own memory – it’s faulty & needs defragmenting.

MY PRECIOUS FAMILY

My sis’ family - Mark, Holly, Rylen & Layton, Mimi and Pop & our crew.

** You’ll hopefully be seeing more of our little family’s session by Shannon Ho in the weeks to come (hint: you’ll need to check-out the blog’s banner)

RYLEN’S 12TH & KELS’ 34TH BIRTHDAYS (We share the same day!!)

CELEBRATING BEDLAM VICTORY (51-48 – it was a thing of beauty)
--We’re only sharing pics from this game as it was the only game we attended & actually won this year! We were beginning to wonder if we were the bad luck.

JDRF Walk in Tulsa (Our cousin, Connor, was the lil’ man of honor)

LAST PIC OF ALEXA WITH PACIFIER (sniff, sniff)
--I have to admit she looks pretty silly with it in her mouth . . . now.

THANKSGIVING – We celebrated in Edmond at my sister’s home. She was the hostess with the mostest.

Our Thanksgiving wreath. Everyone was given three leaves to share their greatest reasons to give thanks. Can’t wait to do this again next year.

These were my grandmother, Nonie’s, everyday salt & pepper shakers. Make no mistake, she was an incredibly classy lady – incredibly. I love, however, that she used nail polish to distinguish them from one another. There must’ve been magic in those shakers because she was a brilliant cook – legendary actually. How precious to have a little piece of her on the Thanksgiving table with us. I can only remember three Thanksgiving we didn’t spend in her home growing up. I treasure those memories. Eight years later and it still doesn’t feel right without her.

I’m not even going to ask – a Thanksgiving unicorn, perhaps.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD
--This year my sweet friend, Candelon & her son, Jagur, joined us in the festivities. Unfortunately, we were so serious about packing & sorting, I didn’t take anymore pictures!

For the beauty of the earth . . .

I love that children are fascinated with God’s creation – even if it’s a weed. Their eyes and minds aren’t yet distracted with the demands and complexities of life. They see creation in its purest form . . . simple, undisturbed, unhurried.


When Alexa and I ended up spending a week in Dallas due to the first round of work being done on our stained concrete, we would often take walks with Pop (my dad) down to the duck pond. Let’s face it, there isn’t much scenic in this country at this time of the year. However, the dandelions were blooming and Alexa was immediately drawn to them. On two separate occasions, we spent an hour picking these blooms (which bring terror to most home owners) and throwing them into the pond. Then, we’d walk around the pond to see where the current took them. Alexa also enjoyed “pretend” sniffing them. She said they smelled “so good,” and she also liked pretending they were her balloons.

Waiting patiently to see where the dandelions drifted. Here they come!!

Try explaining to an almost three-year-old how that yellow flower turns into this.

Alexa enjoyed walking along the rocks with Pop. They’re pretty tight buddies.

Here’s to slowing down and being fascinated, once more, by the simple things.