Monday, December 19, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Great, now I have that song stuck in my head! : )

Hope everyone's enjoying a great start to their week and that you're ready for a very Merry Christmas. But ready or not, here it comes, huh? 

I just finished wrapping some last minute gifts and tucked them under the tree so, in that regard, I'm almost ready. More than anything though, I'm looking forward to the Christmas Eve service on Saturday and to sitting with other believers and adoring a Savior who loves us enough to have taken on our fleshly, fragile form and live among us. God with us. Emmanuel.

I've been thinking a lot about Elizabeth (from Luke 1) and her part in the coming of Christ. I posted about her on Friday, if you'd like to read those thoughts.

We attended a family wedding this weekend in Kennett, Missouri (where my husband's sister, Beverly Burcham, lives with her sweet family), and we got my niece, Brook Burcham, and her handsome fiancee, Jeremy Hughes, married in a beautiful ceremony with a fabulous reception afterward. Truly was a great family time.

Here's a glimpse of Brook and Jeremy at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. So in love!

Pretty happy lookin' couple! And get this: they've known each other since they were around eight years old, and have been "together" for over ten years (liking each other and then eventually dating). So cool!

I wrote in the car on the way there and then back again, and even stayed in the hotel room on Saturday night and managed to get a few more pages in then too. I...am...LOVING this story and am eager to share it with you, which will be next fall.  It's great because I actually know more about this story (as I'm writing it) than I've ever known about a story I'm writing before. And it's a good thing because there's lots to keep up with!

Before I duck back to Nashville 1866 again, I'll share some quick glimpses of Christmas around the Alexander home...




I know, I know... But the lions near our front door get ornery 
if you don't dress them up 
(Naila, this one's for you, babe, in memory of Colorado days)









Sweet blessings on your week and remember to take time to breathe and enjoy the time with family and friends. Who really cares if the house is perfectly neat or if that cake comes out "Southern Living worthy." The most important thing is being with family and friends and treasuring those moments, and lifting up our Emmanuel. God with us.

Tammy