Passionate Homemaking

A shot by Aaron look­ing up into a well lite tree

We had a very blessed and relax­ing Christ­mas at our home this year! I have delayed in post­ing lately because we also have been struck with a stom­ach flu since Wednes­day. I am thank­ful it didn’t hit until after Christmas…but we thank the extended Edmonds family for pass­ing it on to us on Christ­mas Eve! This is the second year in a row that they have taken ill on the hol­i­days. Alas! I will break from my Nat­ural Living on a Budget series today, but would like to post a few pic­tures from our cel­e­bra­tions. Enjoy!

The Lord blessed us with the oppor­tu­nity of really min­is­ter­ing to one of our neigh­bors this past week­end. Do you remem­ber me telling you how I was strug­gling with my delay and decided to make some bread at the last minute to give as gifts? Although most of our neigh­bors were out of town, we did have the oppor­tu­nity of giving a loaf to an older divorced woman. She was really hurt­ing and opened up to us. We were able to pray for her. She was so blessed by our prayers and by hold­ing little Karis, that she even began to tear up. She expressed inter­est in going to church with us in the new year. Praise God! This was such an encour­age­ment. We have been trying to reach out to one par­tic­u­lar couple in our neigh­bor­hood with­out much suc­cess, as we had invited to three dif­fer­ent Christ­mas events and they backed out of each one. God encour­aged us to just keep being faith­ful! I know He has placed us in this neigh­bor­hood for a reason…and I don’t want to miss out on the oppor­tu­ni­ties to minister.

Karis with her Christ­mas hat & Grandma Taylor (my mom!)

Here we are at the Grotto Fes­ti­val of Lights last Sat­ur­day

Our Christ­mas Tree with Christ­mas cards posted on the window

Karis with her stock­ing (it is as large as she is! Thanks to Grandma Edmonds)