Early, early tomorrow morning we’ll be headed to the airport to catch a Christmas Eve flight. This will be our first Christmas with my parents and sisters since we moved out to Arizona in 2009. The family celebration should be a lot of fun with two little grandsons/nephews visiting West Virginia for Christmas. Silas and I are praying for snow!

Because of our upcoming trip, we celebrated our little family Christmas this past Saturday. We opened our stockings and presents first thing. In between playing with presents, we chatted via video call with the South Carolina, Colorado, and Indiana Moodys throughout the day.

Saturday evening we tried a new restaurant for supper–Claim Jumper. Not only were the food and service very good, but the restaurant was also surprisingly kid-friendly. They provided a complimentary baby plate with lunch meat, cheese, apple sauce and mandarin oranges. That was a first for me, and it was great!

After our bellies were full, we drove up to Westgate in Glendale to catch a free horse carriage ride. Their Christmas celebration was filled with lights, a huge Christmas tree, and even some fake snowflakes falling from the sky. Once I finally caught a snowflake, I discovered it was actually soap suds, but it looked convincingly like snow.

Our carriage ride reminded me of the carriage ride Stephen and I took eight years ago in Indy. On that ride, the love of my life proposed! Now, eight years later, we’ve added two little munchkins and are oh-so-thankful for how they light up our life!

Merry Christmas!