Christmas 2008

So the last week or so has been a lovely whirlwind of festivities and fun!  It started out on December 18th when I graduated from my first semester at Horizon School of Evangelism!  My mom, Jim, roommates Jamie and Rachel, and many others came to cheer us on and enjoy a dessert reception afterwards!  Absolutely lovely: what a wonderful semester full of learning, challenges, growing, and now on to the applying!

Straight after graduation, I headed home to pack and drive up to LA.  I rolled into Acosta’s after 1 in the morning and woke up to head to Gompers the next morning.  Sweet reunion!  I absolutely love seeing former students, co-workers, and employees!  It is always bittersweet, but a good assurance that I am where I need to be 🙂

That afternoon, my mom, Jim, and I made our merry way up to San Francisco to enjoy an early Christmas celebration with my sister.  It was full of laughter, fun, food, wine, cookie eating, delicious food, plenty of presents, decorating gingerbread houses, etc.  Jim headed home Sunday and my mom and I got some girl time in with Becca – including doing her laundry and enjoying massages – seriously the best one I’ve ever had!

On Tuesday, it was back down to SoCal where my mom and I met J-Jax for dinner and she treated us to the Belmont Shores Christmas decorating contest – a tradition she’s had for years and one we were blessed to be a part of this year!  It was chilly but beautiful as we walked along the water gawking at all of the beautifully decorated homes (and their respective awards, displayed with pride!)

Early the next morning, I was thankful the rain had subsided and, although I was an hour late than anticipated, I was off to Scottsdale!  Five hours later, I arrived here and have been here ever since (planned departure was today, but it got too late, so now I’ll be driving home in the morning!) 🙂  I have enjoyed shopping, helping my dad move warehouses, daily time with Jesus (please continue to pray for my consistency), time with great friends (including Wii Fit, Sushi, Barnes & Noble coffee conversations, Saturn Specialties, etc.), and just lounging around.

Some AZ stats:
~106 Christmas Cards sent
~31 degrees in the morning (WAY too cold)
~361 hula hoop rotations on the Wii Fit (good for 2nd place; Wayne correct my number here)
~27 trips to and from the different warehouses (at least…I really haven’t been counting the exact number here!)
~42 Christmas texts sent and/or received (another approximate)
~7 movies watched on the Hallmark channel with dad

Upcoming Travels:
12/29 – 1/2 San Diego
1/3 – 1/6 Los Angeles
1/6 – 1/11 Detroit
1/11 – 1/19 Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin
1/19 – 1/22 Orange County
1/22 – 1/28 Costa Rica
1/28 – 2/6 Phoenix
2/6 – 2/10 El Paso
2/11 – 2/17 Potential West Coast Travels (Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco are the destinations)
2/24 – HSE 2 BEGINS!! (and so does my attempt to stay put other than the three weddings I have on the schedule in March and June!)

Christmas Greetings!

Well, folks-I know it’s been awhile and I have yet to update you on the Love Out Loud Tour (coming shortly), but I wanted to post a few pics to put you in the Christmas Spirit!  So, ENJOY!

 

This one is going to be our Casa Schneple Christmas Card (send me your address if you want one at your home!):

And here is one of the front of the home after three trips to the store in order to purchase Christmas decorations.  Please note this started as a simple desire to wrap our front door. See the monster we have created!

And below you will find a photo of our wrapped garage door…a fabulous idea from Jojo as well, implemented by Karolyn and Rachel.  Only to have the windstorm the following day tear it all down.  Bummer!  We still have not gotten up the energy to tackle this beast again…but maybe, just maybe!

Right here is our ‘North Pole’, if you will.  And, yes, that is me in a red robe and Santa Hat.  And, yes, I did go to Target on our final decoration run dressed as such.  Surprisingly, I didn’t even receive any strange looks.  Might have frightened a child or two, but nothing major. (Please note that the windstorm also blew away the snow and the sign)

And this photo is part of our original intention of a Christmas card.  Since we have so many visitors here at Casa Schneple, we wanted to have ourselves decorated in ugly Christmas sweaters with all of our guests located lurking in the background.  Clearly, this didn’t quite turn out as anticipated (especially since we were missing one long-term roommate, Jen aka ‘Homeless’ and Rachel’s beloved pup, Chaco).  But you get the idea!  🙂  I’m not sure why this one is so small and the rest are normal…