'Tis the season to be busy...

We've certainly kept busy over the last couple of weeks. I have this quirk about doing things chronologically, so I wanted to finish my posts about Disney before I wrote about anything that's happened since. We spent Thanksgiving weekend unpacking, doing laundry, and decorating for Christmas. As much as I love having my house decorated for the holidays, I don't really enjoy the process. I do enjoy hanging the ornaments on the tree; we try to purchase an ornament on every trip we take, so decorating the tree always brings back good memories.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Even Dixie got "decorated" for the holidays - doesn't she look cute?

On Wednesday of last week I had two root canals. I have this irrational anxiety about dental work. I know no one really likes going to the dentist, but with me it goes way beyond that. I get really worked up over just a cleaning. In fact, when I went this past June, it was the first time in six years that I had been (I'm actually embarrassed to admit that!). Imagine my joy when the dentist informed me that in addition to a couple of regular fillings, I needed two root canals and I should get them by the end of the year, or I might lose those two teeth. Obviously, I put them off for awhile, but last Wednesday the dreaded day arrived. Knowing about my anxiety, my wonderful periodontist prescribed me a sedative, which worked great. Only catch was that I couldn't drive for 24 hours. So, my mom came to my rescue - she was my hero that day. She drove me to and from the appointment that morning and picked the kids up from school while I napped that afternoon. She even drove us to church that night. The kids had choir practice and it was the last one before their Christmas program, so I didn't want them to miss it. While the kids were at practice, Mom helped me decorate the table I was hosting at our women's banquet the next night. Thanks, Mom, for all your help. I actually haven't had too much pain from the root canals and, thanks to the sedative, I don't remember much about the actual appointment - I love modern medicine!

Thursday night was our annual women's banquet at church. I had considered skipping it this year because of my root canals, but I'm so glad I didn't. It was really a blessing. Here are the ladies at my table:

Saturday we had our Sunday School class over to our house for a Christmas party. We forgot to get the camera out that night.

Sunday night the kids had their Children's Choir Christmas Program. None of the pictures in the sanctuary turned out great because of the lighting, but here's one of them in the foyer of the church:

I finally started my Christmas shopping this week, and I'm actually almost finished. Yea!

As busy and crazy and sometimes stressful as it can be, this is still my favorite time of year. I love that we take time to be with family and friends and hopefully focus some of our attention on what we're actually celebrating - God's perfect, holy gift, given to us out of His abundant love and grace.