Merry Christmas

Mark and I enjoyed a long Christmas weekend this year, we felt like it was Christmas Eve for three days straight. Sunday night our family joined us for the Christmas service at Mariners, and it was amazing. Thousands of people heard a very clear picture of God's love for us through Jesus and were challenged to think of the personal message of Christmas in God's relationship offered to them. We spent Christmas Eve dinner with my family, ending the evening with a hysterical game of gestures...boys against girls of course. (girls kicked some!) After spending Christmas morning together, Mark and I headed back to my dad's for Christmas day. My dad was so excited to give all of his big gifts this year, including the BOB revolution stroller for our baby or "the king" as my dad refers to him. He also invented his very own rendition of the bug a boo, called the bug-a-boo-boo, including a TROY football logo and a duct tape beer holder for Mark. Thanks Dad.

Saukkola Family Christmas

This year we celebrated Christmas early with the Saukkola family so that everybody could be there. We had the whole night to be with just the Saukkola's (such a rare treat) and Mark's dad made tons and tons of his famous homemade pizza. Carol and Roy are so generous, and my favorite thing every Christmas is watching Carol give her gifts. Never have I seen a person find so much joy in giving, she is literally giddy. The kids were so cute as they opened all of their gifts...I think my favorite gift of the night was watching Jamison open her ballerina costume. She shouted "Its a ballerina, its a ballerina" about 5 times and put the full costume on immediately. For the rest of the night, she kept her costume on and proudly displayed her wings and ballet slippers...

Jessica is getting married!!!

So...there is A LOT going on in the Burton family right now. In the first couple months of 2008, we will be adding 2 new family members. Jessica will be marrying Kevin Hall on February 3rd, and we couldn't be more excited. Here is the bride to be at her first bridal shower thrown by our mom's sisters. It was beautiful, every detail was amazing...and it was so fun celebrating Jess.

I Love Christmas...

For so many reasons, Christmas is my favorite season. This is a group of our good friends at the Newport Harbor Boat parade, we had such a good time walking around Balboa Island and taking in the fun of the season. I love the parties, the lights, seeing family and friends so often, giving gifts, traditions, and cozy tree lights on at night in our house. Our church has been celebrating Advent, or the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ. In spite of the season of busyness and activity, our hearts have been stilled in studying the advent and how the people prepared for Christ's coming. The stories remind us that just like us, they were in the midst of difficulty, fear, brokenness and waiting for the impossible to happen in their life. The promise they received from God as an answer to their prayers was "God is with us, Immanuel". Mark and I have been trying to soak in this idea that God not only came to be with us in human form, but that in the waiting and the trying times God is with us...