This was our eighth Christmas together, and it was really special. We had such a fun time shopping for each other this year and were blessed to be able to spend all of Christmas Eve and Day together. Over the years that we’ve worked in food service (Paul) or retail (me), we haven’t always enjoyed the luxury of having Christmas Eve off from work!
On Christmas Eve we started the morning with hot cinnamon rolls for breakfast and dug into our stockings before heading to church. It was a joy-filled, comforting and exciting service that invited us to worship Emmanuel who has come and to rest in confident hope because all is well in Jesus! I’ll also add that before church I listened to this podcast from Focus on Family – Women Who Welcomed The Birth of Jesus. It was such a blessing!
After church we came home and exchanged gifts – we couldn’t wait any longer! After that was a big meal of “The Best Sunday Roast Beef” and potatoes, green beans, crescent rolls and chocolate pie. Paul gave me an amazing coffee maker for our anniversary, so I enjoyed as many lattes as I could cram into the weekend. 🙂 We spent the rest of the day watching movies and enjoying the coziness by the tree!
Christmas morning we slept in and then enjoyed a big brunch while watching the Disney Christmas Spectacular on ABC. We headed to Paul’s parents’ house in the afternoon and enjoyed visiting with some family we hadn’t seen since last Christmas!
We dearly love our sweet niece and nephews – they are so much fun and are growing up so fast! They’re also multiplying – last Christmas we had one niece and one nephew. This year (combining my family and Paul’s) we have one niece and four nephews! Aunt life really is the best life. 🙂
My Christmas Dinner contributions were Meaty Cheesy Lasagna and Spinach Lasagna. I’ll take lasagna over ham any day! We finished the meal with an assortment of gelato – it was delicious! Here are all the Pendells: Paul’s mom and dad, his two brothers with the two sister-in-laws and three grands!
During December I co-hosted the 2017 Christmas Moments Photo Challenge. It was such a fun way to capture little bits of the season! Here are days 1-25.
This is my last post of 2017! I’ve enjoyed sharing with you this year and look forward to lots of good things in 2018! Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read, comment and interact with me here. I cherish this community and love you all so much. Happy New Year!
Come Home For Comfort 
The Christmas photo challenge was a lot of fun!! I enjoyed watching for everyone’s posts. So glad your holiday was a festive one! We enjoyed our Christmas Eve service, too, and had a relaxing Christmas Day at home with food and some fun movies. Usually, a set of aunts/uncles comes over for dinner on Christmas, but they were tied up with their farm life. So we’ve yet to celebrate with them. It might be next Christmas before we get together. LOL! 😉 But Christmas was overall pretty relaxing. We worked hard to not be rushing around at the last minute, and it was an awesome feeling! Planning sure makes a big difference!
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I’m so glad you joined the photo challenge – you rocked it for sure! 🙂
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Thanks! Your posts were delightful, too! 🙂
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What a sweet Christmas! Your new coffee maker sounds like so much fun and your holiday at home looked just perfect this year.
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It was really a lovely time at home! I love setting aside times for us to celebrate together.
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Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you, Whitney! Looking forward to more great posts in 2018! 🙂
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Thank you, Colleen! Happy New Year!
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What a lovely Christmas! I am glad you had a good holiday. Enjoy the last few days of 2017!
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Thanks Ashley!! Thinking of you and your “any day now” mode! 😉
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