Special Saturday



Yesterday I was privileged to join the Christmas decorating and first birthday party for sweet Edmund Jon at Aunt Jody's home.

 

Eddie more than just enjoyed it the spaghetti dinner--he had noodles in his hair and a streak of sauce above his ear by the time we were finished.  Although his birthday is actually today, we celebrated it yesterday making it the third celebration already so he should feel quite loved :) He's still a little unsure about this whole candle idea.

 

After supper the decorating began!

 



Photo credit: Joey

Photo credit: Joey

We all had a grand time together with Christmas music, a cozy fire, the warmth of family and friends (well, Kailey is practically one of us by now ;D), anddddddd church lunch prep!

Aunt Jody served lunch today so I baked a few sweets Friday and yesterday. (Eggnog lovers, have you ever tried eggnog cookies? I'm not a fan of drinking straight eggnog but in cookie form it's tolerable and if you really enjoy that holiday flavor I'm sure you'd find them delicious!)  For the meat we assembled some delectable hot ham and cheese sandwiches last night.  Who knew something so simple as cutting bread could be so technical?

Steven thought this was the most efficient way...

And Jonathon thought laying the knife on the table and pulling the bread through it was a better method.  Well, it was argued that the latter method produced a straighter cut but took longer and therefore was less efficient.  Then things went to the next level.

And that didn't last long.  Back to method #1.

Once the bread was cut things went pretty quickly.  As we were standing in our assembly line casually chatting the time away, I mentioned going for an evening walk back to the waterfall with Kailey.  Pretty soon Steven and Joseph were game to go and we wrapped up the last of the sandwiches.  What started out as a 20 minute walk to the waterfall ended in an hour long hike to the top of Echo Mountain.

And that's LA.  Except it sprawls even further on both sides, the lights only stopping where the ocean begins.

At first we took a few pictures with the timer setting.

And then there was this random guy, by the name of Jim M, who was up there taking photos as well and he offered to take several for us.  Thanks, Jim!

'I think all of you standing would be better.'

'Maybe spread out a little.'

Hmmm, we kind of lost Joey in that picture but the lighting was tricky.  So thanks again, Jim.

After soaking up the view and being reminded of how big God is, we headed down the mountain and went home to bed.  And I won't mention what time that was :) I'll just say that although I'm tired it was completely worth it and a wonderful way to end the evening.