It’s the week of Christmas! Woo hoo!

Wednesday was a pretty rough one at work. Nothing seemed to be going right, but a break in the clouds came at lunchtime!

Anyone remember my roommate, Mia, from NC? She was driving through the area and stopped for lunch with me during my break! It was so sweet to see her, even if briefly.

Thursday, El invited me into her girl’s night with Miki (aka Kylie) and Izzy. We ate delicious pho and talked about our identity in Christ!

It’s always so cool to watch women I admire in action as they operate as wife and mother! El is definitely someone I take notes from!

That evening, we played Scattergories, a new game to me! I got squashed by the competition, but it was a blast nonetheless!

A fun ritual (that I think began with Iggy and I’ve just inherited) is a few nightly rounds of Super Smash with the boys before bedtime.

It’s great to be invited into things regardless, but when one is invited by teenagers, that is extra special. Despite getting beaten consistently with varying degrees of severity, I enjoy the time spent with them and that they want to spend time with me!

The plan was leave for Ohio after work Friday, but unfortunately, the weather prevented me from doing so. It was my first Christmas not spent with my family and I’ll be honest, a few tears were shed at the prospect.

However, the Bean’s welcomed me into their Christmas celebrations and did a great job at making me feel included.

We spent some of the weekend watching Christmas movies and building a Lego set of the Millennium Falcon.

It doesn’t look like much here, but it is a set with several THOUSANDS of pieces.

On Christmas Eve, I finished the book I was reading and squeezed in my annual tradition of reading “A Christmas Carol”. Good and thought-provoking as always!

The most touching part of the weekend was when I was given a present from under the tree on Christmas Day!

Of course, I wasn’t expecting anything because I wasn’t originally planning on being around for opening presents on Christmas! So, I was moved when one was handed to me!

Miki (aka Kylie) made me an art piece on a cut of wood and the whole Bean family wrote sweet notes on the back!

It wasn’t the Christmas celebration I was planning on, but it was still memorable nonetheless!