tis the season....

tis the season to go crazy.

is it just me or does this christmas season feel insane?! i'm a little discombobulated this time around. last year was peaceful and so much fun

mom and i decked out the house, we baked baked baked, tiana and i made a gingerbread house, isaia came home for christmas, opened up stockings and watched home alone, went to the live nativity down the road...

this year.

gah. well.

*takes deep breath* mom-dad-tiana-are-going-to-hawaii-meaning-not-that-many-christmas-decorations.house-being-built=trying-to-save-money.christmas-program-at-church-and-no-intelligent-ideas-that-i-can-think-of.and-it's-all-going-down-next-week.pizza-shop-is-bustin'ballsbusy.isaia-not-coming-home-for-christmas-(waaaaahhhh!!!).

i still love the holidays (love!!), just seems fast this year. and. strange? but still good. this year we took "manalli family" pictures (whoa! that's a first *BIG smile*). we couldn't afford to get them professionally done, so i asked tiana, my ten year old sister, to take them. i edited them and cropped them. with the help of shutterfly.com, i dropped them into a christmas card and now they are being mailed off. here's kind of how i arranged them, minus the shutterfly look:

i also took some of mom and dad's christmas pictures. they didn't use this one, but here's one of my faves:

how adorable is that?! i'd show the rest... but... i think mom wants to save them for the cards.

any other christmas i probably would have gotten these:

but this year, we are getting a house, so the christmas wish list consists of things like towels, curtains and a welcome mat. :)

when i take those moments to sit back and relax, all in all, it's a very blessed time of year. it may be slightly crazy this year, but i'm still so thankful for friends, family, and the supernatural meaning of christmas.

God is good. real good.