Tis the Season

I love this time of year! I love how the holiday season commences with Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on God, and show gratitude to our provider and giver of all life. Immediately after Thanksgiving, we Barons begin preparations for Christmas. This blog post is being specifically written for our family and friends in MI. I wanted to include you all in our holiday festivities and introduce you to the events that have made our holiday season joyful thus far.

Some of the events that have taken place this Advent season are traditions for our family that we return to each year, and some of the things we've done this year are new to us. Josh and I wanted to be sure our first major holiday here in Fonda, NY would be celebrated with joy, rather than seeing us Barons moping around the house on Thanksgiving missing our families in MI. In order to avert this disaster, we came up with a fool proof plan....to spend Thanksgiving at an indoor water park! Who could be sad and mopey while splashing in a lazy river or being whisked down a twisty, tunnel slide in the dark on an inner tube? So, after a small scale Thanksgiving lunch here at home we hopped in the car and drove for an hour on the country roads, through upstate NY, to reach Six Flags Great Escape. Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration.

 On our way home from Six Flags we scoped out a new Christmas tree farm to which we could return the next morning to cut down our own tree. We were excited as our house here in Fonda has 9 ft ceilings, so we could hunt for a much larger tree than ever before. And we were thrilled to find Avery's Tree Farm, where they have beautiful Christmas trees as far as the eye can see (or so it seemed).

As soon as we got home we turned up the Christmas tunes and started decorating. We have a certain way that we always trim our tree...that involves Josh unwrapping all the ornaments and setting them out on the table (boring job). The kids and I get the job of actually hanging the ornaments on the branches. And then I get to go around and move all the ornaments in order to put my favorites in front. Thus, you will see that most of the pictures of trimming the tree include the kids and I. Sorry Josh! However, the most important job, topping the tree with the star, was saved for the man of the house. The final result may just be the best looking Christmas tree to ever grace our living room.

Throughout the month of December we've been invited to some really fun holiday parties and performances at Solomon and Lydia's schools. Here are some pictures captured at those events.

(It appears that only Lydia has been invited to Christmas parties, but Solomon's school party is this week coming up. And for the Christmas party at the library, Solomon was at home with the same stomach bug that the rest of the country has suffered)

Since we moved here at the beginning of November the kids have worked really hard practicing for the Christmas musical at church, "It's a Wonder-Full Life". The performance was last night, 12.18.2010. It was spectacular! All the children did so great and had tons of fun. I wish our camera would have been able to capture a little better quality pictures during the performance. But hopefully you all can see the joy on the kids' faces despite the poor photography skills.

We miss you all! Hope you enjoyed sharing our holiday season thus far. May the peace of Christ be with each one of you during this Advent season.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!