A Belated Merry Christmas - Picture Heavy

This post is quite late in coming, but better late than never!

 

This was our second Christmas, and James' first!!

We celebrated Christmas in a different order this time than we did last Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we celebrated our own Christmas.

 

We had a brunch of homemade cinnamon rolls, and our special holiday drink of hot chocolate with vanilla chia tea.

 

 

 

We spent the day just relaxing and enjoying one another's company, and John played Christmas carols on a tenor banjo he was given from a friend at church.

 

 

 

 

For dinner we had a turkey dinner! The turkey was a (frozen) gift earlier in the month, so we saved it for our Christmas dinner. It was a very yummy smoked turkey. Along with it, we had mashed potatoes, green beans, and a salad.

 

After dinner and dishes, we went out to a neighborhood in our area that is famous in the Houston/Cy-Fair area for their Christmas light displays. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures, but it was a very enjoyable evening. After James realized there were interesting things to see outside our car windows, he got more interested in just sitting on my lap and looking at the lights as we drove by. There were some pretty impressive displays!

On Christmas Day we spent pretty much all day at the other Pedersen's house. We arrived about 8:30am for a breakfast of fruit and a Danish version of a pancake called aebleskiv.  The morning was a relaxed time of visiting and playing instruments.  At noon, we had a main meal of beef stew, salad, and dinner rolls. After the meal, we all departed to go home for naps. Some of the other Pedersens and Wades went Christmas caroling in their neighborhood. In the late afternoon we all gathered back at the house for more fellowship, and food! We even had a friend come join us for the evening! Dinner was a light finger-food meal of munchies.

 

Breakfast with the three households.

 

 

Anna making the aebleskiver. The pans are called "Puff Pastry Pans".

Aebleskiver is plural, and aebleskiv is singular.

 

Samuel demonstrating the art of aebleskiv eating!

 

 

Cousins having fun!

On December 27th, we went to the Lemay's house for Christmas. We celebrated later in the week due to my dad's new work schedule (He was out of town on Christmas day).  We spent the afternoon and evening with them. There was a time of opening gifts, food, and fellowship - and more Christmas carols! :-)

 

James and his Uncle Riley

 

 

They are quite the pair! ;-)

 

 

One tradition my family has is eating Jello Salad that my Grandma makes. I don't remember a Christmas without it!

 

 

 

Below is our Christmas letter:

 

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you well. This past year has been an exciting year with many firsts!

On March 21, 2012, we welcomed our first son into the world! James Anthony Pedersen was born at home at 2:24pm, weighed 6 pounds 15 ½ ounces, and was 19 ½ inches long.  The labor was fast (Four hours) and relatively easy for a first-time mom!  He is now a busy 9 month old who enjoys life, outside, and his parents. He does the army crawl and can pull himself up to a standing position now!

On June 4, 2012, we celebrated our one year anniversary! To celebrate we went to the Houston Zoo, and had a very special dinner at home. We are very grateful to the Lord for the first out
of – Lord willing - many blessed years together as husband and wife.

John’s work has been going very well. This year he completed a partial remodel of a kitchen – his largest project to date. It was a drab gray and outdated 1940’s kitchen and now it’s a nice bright white 21^st century kitchen!  It turned out great, and his customer is very happy with the work!

Megan stays at home to care for our home and family. She enjoys it despite challenges that arise with household chores, or caring for James. She is hoping to get some more sewing time in to make 18inch doll clothes to sell on Etsy for her store (www.legacydollshoppe.etsy.com).

The first week of October we went on a camping trip to Pedernales Falls State Park just west of Austin, Texas. The weather was warm and there was some rain, but it was an enjoyable weekend despite those elements. Thankfully our tent didn’t get flooded by the one night of heavy rain. Some friends of ours though, didn’t fare so well.  James enjoyed being outside and also the camp fires! We brought along his Johnny Jump-up (doorway jumper) and hung it on a tree limb. He loves his jumper and it proved a very valuable item to have along!

Our guest bathroom remodel is going very well. The walls are textured and painted, the vanity is in place with the soap stone counter top in – which John cut to fit the vanity and cut out the sink hole – , the tile is in on the floor and in the shower.  The medicine cabinet, vanity doors and drawers are cut, and we just need to stain and varnish them and then they can be installed. It’s a lot of fun to see it all come together!

May you all have a blessed Christmas and new year!

Love in Christ,John, Megan, and James Pedersen