A Mill Valley Christmas

Well just wanted to say a quick hello and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all our friends and family! We just finished moving everything (still have a bunch of unpacking left, though) into our new apartment and cleaning out the old one for inspection yesterday...whew! We were really blessed to have our friends (and old neighbors) Dave and Kerri help us with this monumental task! Our new place was looking really cute last weekend (freshly painted walls- Joe and a few of friends that helped out did a great job, and our tree is so pretty) when we had some girls from church over for a fun night of making Christmas ornaments... then we had to bring the rest of our junk over! How did we get so much stuff anyway? And our poor son's room has become the storage room...well not for long, though... We need to start getting ready!

We have so much to be thankful for though. I'm enjoying some time off- my company gave us this whole week as paid vacation time- what a blessing!!! We'll be cooking a big dinner and having some friends over on Christmas, then later in the day spending some time with a family from church. It's kind of different being here and away from our families on the holiday, but it has still been very eventful and fun. Last Saturday we went caroling in downtown Mill Valley at the Depot as part of the outreach program that Joe has been coordinating with our church. It was great! Then on Sunday we did a big cookie swap and made cookie plates for everyone to give to their neighbors and invite them to our Christmas Eve service. Looking forward to that, too- our pastor is doing a special message on the incarnation and we'll have a guest worship leader.

Well, things have been super busy (as they always seem to get this time of year), but I'm praying that this holiday would be exactly that...

hol•i•day
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English halig, holy + dæg, day;
holy day, day set aside for special religious observance

A holy day of worship. That we would take time to worship and wonder at our the grace of our God and the humilty of Jesus as he took on flesh and came to dwell with us. We pray wherever you are, that your Christmas is filled with his presence and joy!
Love,
Joe and Hannah