Merry Christmas!  I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating Christ's birth!  Our month has been extremely busy and full of unexpected blessings and challenges.  Such is life, right!? :)  We did have a great time celebrating Christmas with my family though! 

During the day on Christmas Eve, my sister, brother-in-law, and their kids came over to my parents and we spent the day relaxing, playing, and cooking!

In the evening, most of my family attended a Christmas Eve service together.  It was such a gift to sit with Josh and the boys (as well as my parents, siblings and their families) and enjoy worshiping together instead of from the platform! 

After church we gathered in the "clubhouse" at the apartment complex where my mom, brother and sister work to have our big, family Christmas celebration! 

On Christmas morning, we had fun exchanging gifts and then spent most of the day relaxing.  Josh and two of my sisters' boyfriends (that is two sisters each with one boyfriend) had a blast jamming on their guitars.

The boys got an abundance of LEGOs, so this kept them very busy most of the day! :)

Christmas Day ended with an intense table tennis tournament, followed by an out of control nerf gun battle between Josh, my youngest sister, and my mom!

Tonight and tomorrow night, Josh will be playing in The Starry Night Coffeehouse at Warm Beach Lights of Christmas. These are our last two Christmas concerts and then we are finished with our Christmas performances and will be back to our normal "presentation" next Sunday. 

On Saturday, we will head back across the mountains on our way "home"!  We are enjoying our family time, but are also so looking forward to our first full month at our new home!

The past week has been very full!  We finished our time in Spokane with my voice back to full strength!  Praise God!  The weather continued to get colder and snowier in eastern Washington, so we woke up early Monday morning to try to get back over Snoqualmie Pass before things got worse.  Once again, God was gracious to us!  We made it over with minimal difficulty and just in time.  The pass has been closed for two days and will remain closed all day today!  

Last night we did our last Christmas concert of the year.  (Although Josh will play at The Lights of Christmas in the Starry Night Coffeehouse on Monday and Tuesday.)  It was a wonderful evening of worship and Christmas celebration!

I'm looking forward to spending the next few days relaxing with my family!  I've made a slideshow of pics from this past week below.  I also wanted to include the link to a blog that I read yesterday.  I was so blessed by this sweet story from a blogger I've come to love, that I had to share it!  It is a wonderful reminder that God sees each of our hearts and loves us so much and He loves to show us His love in special, personal ways!  I am certain you will be blessed by reading "My Christmas Miracle"!

I didn't have time this week to do my Christmas carol research.  So instead I thought I'd share a music video from the group All Sons and Daughters.  Josh and I started doing their song "God With Us" last year at Christmas time and I've come to absolutely love it.  The lyrics beautifully express the true reason for the season!  Enjoy! :)

Oh man!  When I re-read this post from last year, I laughed remembering how truly insane those last couple weeks of December felt!  Praying this year is a little less intense!

Here is my post from December 27, 2014
The Holiday Insanity Continues
Hello All!  The past two weeks have been a whirlwind.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we're not there yet.  I thought I'd just write a quick post to update you on Snodgrass happenings.

Late Dec. 16, I got home from Hawaii (see my last post).  On Dec. 18, we headed to Spokane (we did not want to take the trailer over the pass, so we stayed at a hotel) for a very busy weekend.  We had Christmas concerts Thurs., Fri., Sat., and Sunday morning and evening.  It was a very busy but very blessed weekend.  We enjoyed our time away as a family during the day and then enjoyed serving at 5 different churches.

On Monday, Dec. 22, we left our hotel in Spokane and headed home.  We made it to Ellensburg, and then our truck engine passed on to that big junkyard in the sky.  We had not been having any trouble that we were aware of, so it's passing was very shocking and difficult for our family to deal with....ok, I apologize for my dramatics! :)  Our engine's death was a complete surprise to us and left us sitting in Wendy's for three hours trying to figure out what to do.  In the end, we left our truck at a mechanic temporarily and rented a car.  I'm sure we were quite a sight to see as we emptied our truck (the bed was COMPLETELY full) not knowing if we'd ever return to it and stuffed our belongings into the cute little Jeep Liberty which was the only vehicle available at the rental place.  Don't tell them but I expect we were riding a little low!  The boys sat side by side with a tower of belongings on the third back seat and their feet resting on other stuff.  I had my knees against the dash with more of our junk in my lap.  If it hadn't been such a long exhausting day for him, I would have envied my husband and his comfy driver seat.

Tuesday evening Josh had a Christmas concert and then Wednesday we did a Christmas Eve service at another church!  We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with my family on Thursday.  It was fun and relaxing!  Then, yesterday after much prayer and counsel (and because we were running out of time - rental due back on Monday and new tour starting on the 8th) we bought a new (to us) truck!

Needless to say, we are a bit pooped!  We rested today in preparation for tomorrow morning when we have to leave the trailer at 5:15am in order to get to the church we're ministering at by 8:45 (much driving and a ferry ride are involved).  Josh will play at The Lights of Christmas on Monday and Tuesday evening and then we will be done with ministry events until January 10th! Phew!  We are ready for that break!

We love you all and appreciate your prayers through this crazy holiday season!  I'll try to post more pics soon.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)
p.s. Next Friday (the 2nd) Josh and I will celebrate our 11th anniversary!  It has been the best 11 years of my life and I'm still madly in love with him.  Josh is my best friend, my hero, and love of my life! (just in case you were wondering ;)

Just a reminder that this was "throwback" post from last year! :)