Christmas in Idaho...

This year we spent Christmas in Idaho!  Though we missed our family in Ohio very much, we hope to make a trip there very soon.  Thankfully we have wonderful friends, Benj's brother and his family live near by, and his parents were able to spend the entire month here too.

For Christmas, we had so much fun going to see the lights, shopping, baking, and just spending time with friends and family.

I made caramel popcorn and Benj made green salsa from the tomatoes in our garden for gifts.  I also had fun making jewelry and crocheting winter hats for gifts as well!

This year, with our church family, we did Christmas a little differently.  We learned about and participated in the Advent Conspiracy.  I won't try to explain it, but if you visit www.adventconspiracy.org  you can find out why and how we celebrated Christmas this way.  We did our best to give homemade gifts and to simply be more intentional about spending time with the people we love so that more of our finances and efforts could go to giving to those in need (specifically to Clean Water, and International Justice Mission).

We thank God for how much He provided during such a typically stressful time of the year and we are even more thankful for how much He gave himself for us!

Walking through the lights in Caldwell

Some wonderful friends gave Benj an accordion for free!  He's so excited to learn a new instrument :)

The Litters at our church for Christmas Eve

I made my favorite Caramel Popcorn!

And Benj made Green Salsa from the tomato garden in the back yard

We had a bowling night for our Starbucks Christmas party....Love these people!

We are getting tons of snow and it's' not melting at all...not loving this kind of cold too much but it's pretty :)