2013: It's A Wrap, Basically

I know there are still a couple days left in the year, but those are bound to be busy days, so I decided to jump on this today in case I don't have another opportunity before 2014 happens.

This year!  There is so much that comes to mind from this year.  Perhaps because I'm a photographer, I remember 2013 in snapshots of time, like squares of memory in a quilt that has been slowly coming together over time.

Some of those squares have bright colors and fancy patterns and others are dull, worn and gray.  But together, they are stitched together into a warm and beautiful cover, large enough to protect each of us in this family from the cold.

I'm not a quilter.  I barely know how to replace a button when it falls off something.  But the image of memories bound together is a striking picture in my mind.  Besides, how many times this year did I want to hide under my covers until a tough day had passed this year?  Quilts, blankets, woven cloth... clothes.

The Christmas Season

My most favorite time of year.  Things have been super busy over here lately, so my blog is getting a little neglected again.  However, I've been doing some daily writing on Instagram if you want to come check that out.  You can find many of these (that I'm referring to) under the hashtag #praycember.

The whole Praycember idea was the genius of one of our pastors who asked us to pray every day this month for our church and for the whole Church (body of believers, bride of Christ).  This has been a great challenge for me and I feel myself being stretched in new ways through the course of this AND Advent Bible readings I'm doing sort of alongside Praycember.

This month has been a real blessing to my heart and soul and I can't wait to hopefully share some specifics with you soon.  But, I shall wait for now.

Thanks for continuing to check back to see if I've posted.  I apologize for the irregularity, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to dedicate more of my time this month to time with the Lord and celebrating the Christmas spirit.

I hope all is going well for you this merry season.

A Stranger in Santa's Clothing

(Source)

While we were out running errands today, we stopped by the mall.  We've had O's keepsake ornament to commemorate his adoption (it matches those that the other kids have) for years now and still had not made the time to get it engraved for him.  His six year adoptaversary is coming up and so I figured it was high time.  Anyway, the ornament came from Things Remembered, a keepsake store that pops up in most normal American malls.  So we were headed there.

We were given a pickup time of 11:30am, which was perfect, because I needed to run to the nearby Target for prescriptions and then we'd be back to the mall just in time.  However, at 11:27am, we checked at the store and it was nowhere near done, nor was it at the front of the line to be completed.

We decided to do some mall walking while we gave them an extra fifteen minutes or so.  We were not shopping, mind you, because A) I really do not enjoy shopping at the mall and B) I had two of my gift recipients right there with me and they're too old to stick things in the cart that they do not notice.

You moms of younger kids know what I'm talking about.  Embrace and enjoy this time when you can Christmas shop with your kids right there with you and still surprise them on Christmas morning.

While mall walking, besides the shoe shine guys who asked me three times if I wanted my old tennis shoes cleaned up (no, I did not), we kept passing by the Santa booth.  You know the one where kids in pretty clothing line up with their parents to get the official Christmas picture for the year?  Well, we were actually on the second floor and the Santa booth was on the first, but we could see it down below every time we passed that section of the mall.

Finally, I was convinced that I wanted our kids to get a picture with Santa!  They agreed that this sounded like fun.