A White Christmas

Hi everyone!  First off, thanks for all your sweet comments on the last post.  You all are so genuine and it means so much.

Secondly, I'm home, slept for a good ten hours and woke up to snow everywhere.  Plus, I found out we are heading to Texas for Christmas and I will get to see Gracie, even if it will be, well, different.  Life is good. 
Thanks to the several inches of snow, it feels like Christmas.  There is something so special about the ground and trees covered in snow, with the green branches dusted in white powder and the ground looking like someone covered it up with a down comforter.  So so pretty!  We drove home from Wichita last night and thankfully, I slept through the worst of it (when do I sleep in the car?  Never.  Goes to show me I'm still sick;) 

Snow can be as dangerous as it is beautiful.  I'm so grateful for my dad, because honestly, even when other families were stopping to spend the night, instead of drive through, Dad kept going.  He knows the roads, he always keeps track of the weather, and he trusts in his four wheel drive and years of driving.  We made it through with no issues whatsoever.  I never felt unsafe with him and that is something I'm incredibly grateful for this Christmas.

A white Christmas.  If you've ever been around snow, you know that snow gets dirty very easily.  Dirt, sludge, stuff  - it all ruins and weighs down the beauty of the snow.  You know, there is more to white than I give it credit for.  White is for the color of Jesus' righteousness.  Like, how powerful and pure is that?  And because of Jesus, my heart can be white as snow, no longer weighed down by the dirt, sludge, and stuff that life/attitudes/problems throw at us.  I realized I was trying to make myself white, that I wanted what I could do and accomplish to make me good enough.  Guys, I can't.  Thank goodness that I can truly enjoy Christmas because God is all powerful and I'm not.  God didn't have to give me snow this morning, but He did.  God didn't have to open doors for us to go to Texas, but he did.  God didn't have to be born as man marked to die on Christmas, but He did.

A White Christmas.  A Merry Christmas.

 

Dad let us pull the sled behind the four wheeler this year!  Either my debating skills got better, I got more trustworthy, or I just avoided asking Mom ... take your pick. 

 

Snow soccer!  Best thing ever.  You can fall, flop, kick, and it doesn't hurt.  It does wear you out like nobody's business!

 

I love this pic!  I keep seeing more and more of my dad in Nathan.  Nathan loves driving the four wheeler and as he was pulling me, everything about it reminded me of when Dad took me on the jet ski for the first time.  I love the look on my face (Nathan had just wiped me out;)

I don't know if you can see, but my face is soaked from all the snow that gets sprayed in your face when you are riding in the sled behind the four wheeler.  Totally worth it though!