1st Christmas Together

our niece Kyla

My Favorite Christmas Song

Wanted to share my favorite Christmas song. I heard it a lot last year on the radio, but our station doesn't seem to play it up here (or maybe I just drive less).
"How Many Kings" by Downhere



How many kings step down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that is torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Bringing our gifts for the newborn Savior
All that we have, whether costly or meek
Because we believe.
Gold for his honor, and frankincense for his pleasure
And myrrh for the cross he will suffer
Do you believe?
Is this who we've waited for?

All for me.
All for you.

I could play around all night on this YouTube station
http://www.youtube.com/user/SPIRIT1053
Check it out if you need some new music

White Out

snow plow mountain

The snow in front of our apartments was as high as our waists from the wind

Our deck- 2 ft deep in snow

It's Blizzarding!

I've been looking forward to my first big snow living in Iowa and it has finally arrived! It began Sunday evening and picked up today accumulating around 4 inches. The weatherman is calling for 7 inches of new accumulation tonight!

Snow doesn't slow Iowans down like it does in Texas and even compared to Maryland. Life carries on, cars plow down the roads, people go to work as if nothing is the matter. Most schools went for a half day today even though the ground was covered in the a.m. with snow still falling. Jeremy wisely decided to stay in our warm apartment and spend the day studying in his office. Knowing it would be nearly impossible to talk him into building a snowman or sledding with me the day before a test, I was siked to have a day of babysitting on the calendar. I knew they would be up for the task!

Our day was spent sledding, making snow angels (mine was a lot bigger than I remember it), building Frosty, and plowing around in the enormous fluff. Exhaustion was a familiar feeling that set in once we were chilled to the bone and ready for a warm break inside... and hunger! Speaking of exhaustion and hunger, there's nothing I want more right now than a hot meal, warm shower, and my bed.

Early goodnight from the land of snow and corn,

Leanne

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love the feeling of Christmas! This year feels especially peaceful, warm, and joyous because of the husband I get to share it with. It's an interesting experiment to combine our two separate sets of Christmas decorations and see which survive.

To start, Jeremy's parents handed down to us the perfect size tree for our little apartment. Just one glitch, the tree stand was lost somewhere between Jeremy's last apartment, his parents basement, and our garage. Not to worry, I have a "real tree" stand handed down to me three years ago from my parents. A stack of magazines, half a roll of duck tape, and 1 frustrated Jeremy later we have a slightly unstable tree that is going to have to hold up to the new year! Moving on.

Themed or memory tree? Jeremy is from a strictly themed, white light, gorgeous tree family, while I am from a colored light, memory ornament, not so matching tree family. Both beautiful in their own way. The ironic thing was that while we both wanted to stick to our family way of theme vs. memory, we each preferred the opposite type of lights that our families had. Jeremy bought a whole set of colored lights last year, but luckily I had some white on hand from Texas decorations. I do believe that we succeeded in this area with minimal tears shed to create "our tree", what the child of our two family trees would most likely look like. Ornaments with special value collected over the years that mostly have red in them, tied together with red balls, matching ribbons, and white lights. It somehow pulled itself together.

On the other hand, our front door looks as if it is having an identity crisis: the TCU wreath we made this year is above our Hawkeye doormat and to the right of it a very country looking snowman! I have to admit, part of me does wish that everything from the front door forward was tied together in one look, but I easily let that idea go. Some day our house will blend perfectly, but for now I am happy to leave it be. It's us right now: 2 becoming 1. Our first Christmas.