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 Whew. We are finally back home after all of our Christmas celebrations and traveling. We spent Christmas day with my family, dropped Griffin off with Cody's parents on Saturday, had a few free days here at the house before hosting a New Year's Eve party with the youth group and then heading back to Cody's parents on Wednesday.  (I am tired just recapping that!) 

I haven't downloaded my real pictures yet, but here are just a few snapshots of Christmas:

Is this not the cutest Santa and his elf that you've ever seen? 

My dad busted out the train set for Griff while we were home. I can't even tell you the amount of miles my brother and I put on this set when we were littler. It was fun to see Griff playing with it and I know the boys will eat it up next year!

Bamps and Bami bought the older great grands (5 boys ages 6-10) these massive Nerf guns plus blow up deer for target practice. Guess who got lucky enough to work on one of the deer? It was quite the sight!

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Why is it when "The Proposal" is on tv, you just can't help but watch?  I can't even count the number of times I've seen it, but it makes me belly laugh every. single. time. 

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We hosted a New Year's Eve party for our youth group this week. Activities included Glow in The Dark Arnold Ball, Glow in The Dark Dodge Ball, Strobe Light Pillow Fight and Hide and Seek.

Preparation for the event included breaking what felt like 1,000 glow sticks to tape on various items in the room for the games we would play. If you haven't used a glow stick in a while, go get you one. The cracking noise when you make it light up is just the best. You won't be disappointed. 

Cody and I dominated at Hide and Seek by hiding under costumes in a closet. Had I not outed us by a photo on Facebook, I'm afraid we would have been stuck there all night.

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I am sure everyone and their dog has heard about it, but in case you're living under a rock, Beth Moore is offering her online books for free until January 10th. There are up to 16 books free, but I've actually seen 5 free on Amazon and others reduced from .99 - 3.99, which is still a great deal. You can find them here.  (It looks like once you purchase them, you can loan the book out for free too. So even if you have already read it, it might be good to download to share with a friend someday.)

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We're looking forward to a normal week around these parts. Here's hoping the first week of January treats you well!