Un-decked Walls and last post on Christmas

The walls seems to empty now without all of the Christmas decorations up, but we decided to take everything down early since we aren't hosting a New Years party this year.  We had planned to have a large crowd over from our church to RING in the New Year, but another friend of ours from church decided to do one this year and so we are going to their place tonight. 

So once the decision was made it all happened pretty quick, it took me days to get all the Christmas decorations up around the house and it was all down within hours both upstairs at my folks and down here in our part of the house.

So it is now all packed away and already stored away at the storage unit to wait for next year.  Before I took them off the tree I took one last picture of our new Christmas ornaments for 2009.

I did pick up a few great deals at Walmart for our decorations next year, I usually pick up a whole lot more to add to our decorations while the sales are going on, but this year it just isn't possible to stock up like we normally do.  I picked up all these decorations for under $20, I can't wait till next year to use the new green bird and pine cone ornaments (not picture is a pack of 8 red glass balls which were already packed away).

I found these cute ornaments at 60% off and couldn't resist picking them up

for my hope chest and Dreams of a Pink Christmas

Christmas this year seemed a little off, not sure why, but we just didn't seem to have our normal holiday cheer.  Maybe it was the fact that I am such a perfectionist about things and having two very active boys under foot while I tried to decorate and cook for the Christmas season was a little more stressful.  Maybe it was where we are financially at the end of 2009.  Maybe it was the stress of waiting for my liver panel results.  Maybe it was the three back to back dental procedures I had to have from Thanksgiving through mid December.  Maybe it was because for the second year in a row we couldn't afford to visit my MoG's family in New York during the holidays.  Maybe it was the strain of things happening at church.  WHO KNOWS, but what ever it was Christmas didn't seem to be as joyful as it has in the past.  Don't get me wrong, we truly enjoyed celebrating Christ's birth and honoring Him in the ministries He has called us to be a part of all year but especially during the Christmas season.  We also greatly enjoyed our time with my family both at Thanksgiving and again on our family Christmas on the 26th, but it just didn't completely feel like Christmas for some reason.

We are praying for new beginnings with 2010.  We are praying for more wisdom in our financial decisions.  We are praying for more skills to direct the boys energy and focus them on the Lord Jesus Christ and a knowledge of Him.  We are praying for better health for us and the boys in 2010.  We are praying for a new addition to join our family and help our family to feel complete.  We are praying for the Heaven Father to give us peace in His plans for us.