I love this season. For so many reasons, and not just because there are presents! Although those are nice, too! I love the cold weather, the barren trees, the fact that you don't have to water your yard and thus, your water bill is lower! I love that you can drink hot chocolate and wassail and hot tea to your heart's content and not break out into a sweat! I love piling quilts on my bed and snuggling deep beneath them. And just on that note...is there anything better than a really old quilt? I think not. I collect them and use them at the same time.

I love letting the house get cooler right before you jump into bed beneath layers of quilts and blankets and then feeling the substantial weightiness and warmth of the quilts just embrace you. There's something about the feel of an old quilt, how it was hand-pieced and stitched by some unknown hand that could never have known just how appreciative you'd be some cold night in December.

I love dragging down the boxes from the attic and slowly putting up all the Christmas decorations (I actually didn't wait till after Thanksgiving this year). I love EGGNOG! I love Christmas music and seeing the city put up street decorations and thinking about what gifts to get my children, my husband and my family. I love decorating the tree! That's actually our plan for tonight and we're all super-excited!

I love telling the kids about the Christmas story...Christ's birth and what it means for them. They love to play with our many nativity sets and boy, does some imagination reveal itself then! I love making a list of my Christmas goodies - this year I'm thinking home-made cinnamon rolls, my former neighbor Heidi's toffee recipe, maybe even divinity (crossing my fingers), cinnamon/oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, who knows what else. It's just a great excuse to bake and then surprise my neighbors.

I love proof-reading my Dad's annual Christmas card and seeing how it turns out after months of deliberating, writing and re-writing. I love getting Christmas cards from people I've known all my life - seeing the changes in their families...kids growing up, new kids...it's this time of year that my mom strips her own refrigerator of its hundreds of Christmas family photos and awaits the arrival of this year's pictures. It's always fun to go to her house and try to spot the newest picture!

And this year, I have yet to mention it because it still doesn't quite seem real, we have a new car. Knowing we were moving from 2 car seats to 3 sort of necessitated a car change. And this was something that Kyle and I both really struggled with. We were completely content and happy with our current car situation as it was. Guess we should have thought of that before I got pregnant. There is just no room in the Audi for another car seat, as hard as we might try. And none in the 4runner, either. So we've been looking for a Suburban or Yukon XL for several months now. As devoted as many of my friends are to their mini-vans, it was not an option for us. We hadn't been looking too hard...we figured we'd get serious after the holidays.

And then, upon our return from Seattle, my Dad found a car for us through his banking connections. And it was way more than we were even expecting or hoping for in a car. Just another way that God blesses us more than we can even ask or imagine or hope for. It's a Lincoln Navigator L, the Suburban length Navigator. Everything we wanted in a car and then some - black with chrome accents, tan leather interior, DVD system, navigation system, heated and cooled seats...it is so pretty and again, it doesn't feel like it's ours. We feel ridiculously humbled to have been so blessed. And we're officially ready for car seat #3.

Now, if only we could sell our 4runner! Anyone know anyone who needs one? It's a 1997 SR5, 143,000 miles (which will go for at least another 150,000), leather seats, 2wd, wood trim interior..and it's Kyle's baby so he's taken really good care of it. And is quite sorry to see it move on, but it's a necessity. So, that's our current prayer - a new owner for the 4runner!

In the meantime, we're settling in for Christmas and hoping you are enjoying doing the same with your sweet families.