Christmas in Southern California

While our family was experiencing a wintery white Christmas in Arkansas, we were celebrating Christmas for the first time in Southern California. The weather never truly felt like Christmas time....but the celebration of Christ's birth filled our hearts throughout the day. We were so blessed to have Rich and Dottie here to celebrate Christmas with us this year! They got to experience Julia's first Christmas with us which was a blast...of course she slept the majority of the day but for the times she was awake I am pretty sure she had a great time! :) Here are a few pictures of our time with Rich and Dottie that I hope all enjoy!

Julia just loved getting to meet her Poppy and DotDot for the first time! She loved being held by them, fed by them, and being loved on. She is a quite the little thinker and loved studying their every move. She was getting to know them very well!

Of course what would be a California Christmas Vacation without a photo op at the beach!

Last Sunday we had the honor of lighting the "Peace" Candle at church during the 6:30pm service. Andrew did a wonderful job introducing us to the church congregation and reading Scripture that spoke of Christ as our Prince of Peace. 

Christmas Eve was very special. We spent the day making some yummy treats for the marines working down at the gate and delivered it to them, went to the Christmas Eve service at church, and had a wonderful turkey dinner that night before Santa came to our house!

(this is the organist at our church...she fell in love with Julia's big bow and requested she get some as well! As you can see she likes big hats and bows as well!)

Christmas morning with the Brown's! 

We had a wonderful visit with Rich and Dottie. It was so fun getting to see them meet their granddaughter for the first time! Our first Christmas with Julia was such a joy! We hope you all had a wonderful day filled with Christ's presence of hope, joy, love and peace!