Setting up Christmas

Dan and I got a Christmas tree on Sunday and started the task of setting up all our decorations. This is exciting for a couple reasons, first we LOVE Christmas and second we are taking our house off the market for the season which means we finally get to feel like we live in our house. It really is stressful and tiring to have your house look perfect all the time and seeing as we have been living this way since March...we are both really excited. Here are pictures of what we set up and some of our new additions this year:

Our Tree

Making space for our Angel

New Ornament from Dan's parents

Decorating the tree

New Lighting Bug Ornament from Bronner's

Dan and his new Nutcracker

Dining Room

Close up of the top

Fireplace room

We had a lot of fun this year setting up. Last year Dan was really sick so it was nice that he was feeling well and we also watched old clay-mation Christmas movies :) The fireplace room turned out amazing and it is my favorite room this year.

Prayer

As Thanksgiving is approaching I have been reflecting back on a commitment I was challenged to make at my parents church last year. We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan and on Sunday the pastor talked about prayer and being committed to prayer. He challenged us to pray for a year and see what God would do. When Dan and I got home I sat down with my journal and thought about what was on my heart, what was close to my heart, and what I would love to see God's movement in. I had three categories family, friends, and personal issues that I wanted to commit to God during my devotional time...

...and then I began to pray.

I won't say it was easy...there have been some really hard days this year, busy times when I haven't been able to be as diligent as I would like. I have fought with God over wanting to do my devotions and other days when I can't spend enough time with Him. I have adding things to my list and crossed other things off; because things have changed.

As I looked over my journal this morning I felt sad at how some of my hopes for my community have not come to pass, how things I wished for still seem distant, and than I realized something.

Something I was confronted with, the simplest and yet most profound part...the things I have been praying for personally are now true or are coming true in my life! Things I have wept over and cried out to God for peace and understanding, things I have prayed for freedom from. The simple truth is that nothing in my community or personal relationships can change unless I am changing. I am the only one that can choose how I am going to act and what I am going to say "no" to. I am the only one who can think through how I want to respond and then act on it. If I want change to happen it has to start with me.

And yes, there are things I wish were different in some of my relationships and things I wish I could wave a magic wand and make things perfect but that doesn't allow God to work in me or in the other person. So pray....pray for the things you desire and wish to be true and invite God to show you how He is working in all the small details of your life. Take the challenge to be changed.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend Dan and I had a wedding we were both involved in. Our friends Jason and Angie got married. Dan was asked to be an usher and I was asked to play the piano, read a poem a friend wrote who couldn't attend, and be the Bride's assistant. So as this past weekend approached I started to realize all the things I was going to be doing and helping Angie handle. In hindsight I would have done better with simply doing one or two of the things but not all three. In my role as assistant I was helping to coordinate and keep things running smoothly, answer questions, and make sure things got to where they needed to be.

So as much as I loved being with everyone this weekend I was also on high alert mode and didn't have a chance to really unwind until Dan and I were headed home. I loved being able to do what I did for Jason and Angie and felt very privileged to be asked to be a part of their special day. They had some really cool elements to their ceremony including mixing sand, but not just them but they included their families, bridal party, and small group. They also had everyone from this community pray over them as a couple. Unfortunately because of my involvement during the wedding I didn't get a chance to get any pictures :( I was able to get some pictures once we got to the reception, which was fun being in a barn, but cold seeing as it is November :) They had heaters going but my feet had no feeling in them for quite a few hours.

The Barn

Pictures of their Parents and Grandparents Wedding Photo's

All the cakes

Walk way up to the Barn

Me and Angie

The Wedding Party

Dan and me with Alex and Ben getting into the picture

Dan and Me

Dinner was two different kinds of Chili

Jason and Angie dancing together

Dan and I are so excited for them and can't wait for them to get back from their Honeymoon so we can hang out :)

Anniversary Dinner

Dan and I went out on our anniversary for dinner. We were hoping to go to our favorite Thai place and realized they are closed on Monday. So we chose the place we went to for our second date :) It was fun getting dressed up and going out for dinner.

Weekend Getaway

For our anniversary Dan and I decided to listen to the advice of others and plan something simple and fun for our anniversary instead of trying to do something big. We choose to go to Frankenmuth, Michigan for the weekend which was a lot of fun. We arrived later on Friday night and after checking into the hotel crashed for the night (after watching a show about a white collar criminal...we kind of got sucked in). On Saturday we wanted to start the day with Christmas, which meant going to Bronner's.

A Nativity scene

One of the displays

 After leaving Bronner's we went to Zhender's for their all you can eat lunch buffet. We ate till we were stuffed and then tried to walk around town, which is hard when you are really full. We finally had to sit down for a while in a coffee shop before finishing up our shopping. We decided we wanted to see a movie so we found a theatre and saw Cloud Atlas...which was kind of disappointing. We grabbed a pizza and headed back to our hotel for dinner. We also exchanged presents...I made a Cincinnati Red's fleece blanket for Dan and he gave me another charm for my charm bracelet and an engraved jewelry box.

The next morning we drove a little over an hour to my brother-in-law's church and got to spend the day with them. Sadly my nephew and niece weren't there but we had so much fun hanging out with my sister and her husband. We even went to a really fun orchard that has a huge, free, small zoo. Here are some of the pictures from our afternoon outing:

The goats

Reindeer

Peacocks

Artic fox pups

Lemur's

Kangaroo's

Little monkey's

Tons of Parrots

In their open bird room

Michelle and Stephen

Bunnies to hold

Camels (which you can ride)

 After we could no longer feel our fingers and toes we went inside to see what they were selling. We bought homemade doughnuts, apple cider, and pop-corn kernels. We then headed back to Stephen and Michelle's for homemade guacamole and popcorn before heading home.

Trying on hats

We had so much fun and was a great way to celebrate our anniversary. Here is a video from inside the bird house: