Feliz Anos Nuevos from Nicaragua!

This post is coming from Leon, Nicaragua. This is Abby and I am four days into my Nicaraguan mission trip. This is just to let you all know that I arrived safely and had a wonderful New Year's Eve! I hope to update with pictures the next time we get internet!
Happy New Year!

New camera!

…sort of! Our pastor is letting me (Abby) borrow one of his awesome cameras for my Nicaragua trip! I’ve been practicing with it!

  

Advent treats! Chocolate dipped shortbread , maple cinnamon swirls, Oreo truffles and oatmeal coconut cookies!

The flash is a little strong, however!

Little Prints Hairy is here over Christmas!

 

CHRISTMAS TRADITION: RIDING THE MALL CAROUSEL

 

Jack

Sam

Me

Jesse and I

Chris

Nathan

Christmas Break!!!

Okay, so we’ve actually been on Christmas break for a while, but now Daddy and Jesse can join us! This past week has been finals week at Samford, a difficult time for professors and students alike! But today is the last day and soon we’ll all be free to enjoy the holidays!

 

I (Abby) have been preparing for a trip after Christmas. On the twenty-ninth, I’ll be flying to Nicaragua for a two-week mission trip with some friends. Which means that Mama and I have been shopping for skirts, tank tops and bug spray in the middle of December! I’ve already gotten my passport and plane ticket and am very excited, although I would covet your prayers for safety while I’m gone.

 

More pictures will be coming soon as we truly begin the Christmas season!

Iron Bowl Saturday

Some of you may have seen the score of the Iron bowl today. Sigh. Some of you may have even watched the game. Sigh. Not that we care that Alabama whipped Auburn thirty-six to nothing! Not that we care that that makes the Sabanites 12-0! Go Gators.

 

 

P.S. Some of you may not understand this post. Probably only the folks from Alabama will understand that the Iron Bowl is the Alabama-Auburn rivalry game, and that the Sabanites are the Alabama players (Nick Saban is the team’s head coach). And that Alabama is now set to play the Florida Gators in the SEC championship game. Most of you, however, will understand that I, at least, am an Auburn fan. Sigh.

Go Gators.

Christmas time is here!

Getting the house ready for Christmas is a three day affair. It starts on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, as the guys prepare the outside of the house and Mama cleans the inside. (I, Abby, was at Grandmother’s helping cook for Thanksgiving)

Sam scrubs the windows and screens before hanging the wreaths.

 

Securing the garland.

And the house is lit up for Christmas!

Sorry, we don’t have any nighttime pictures yet!

On Friday, it’s off to the Christmas tree farm! Sam and Jack have either selected a tree, or they have something cornered in the distance!

It turns out that selecting a tree was actually easier than taking this picture, since Jesse and Christopher decided to arm-wrestle mid-shoot!

Mama and Daddy behaved better for this picture!

So they tied the tree on the van… No, just kidding, this isn’t our tree! Look at the size of it, though; we thought it might be for a town hall or something, but it was just a family tree. I wonder what they did with it when they got home? You can see the tractor in this picture, they had to use it to haul the tree to the van.

The farm had more than just trees, of course. They have pony rides and corn mazes, but we also had fun looking at the animals.

When we get the tree home, the guys have to clean it and get it in the stand. As you can tell, it’s a big tree, so its pretty hard to get it to stand up straight. Last year, the tree was so big that it fell over on top of Samuel several days after the decorating was over!

Then come the lights, the garlands and the ornaments! I love this picture of Nathan!

Jesse Abby

Sam

 Jack

   Chris

Nathan

Update in pictures

Lots of leaves have been raked in the past few weeks, but the flow seems to have slowed now.

There have been several (unconfirmed) Jesse sightings at home, usually on the weekend. This photograph seems to suggest that he is studying.

We’ve been to several Samford football games and at one we saw this beautiful rainbow. The blue sky gradually came up and erased it!

Mama and Daddy went to a conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee this last weekend and saw snow!

Jesse News

Since Jesse isn't home to update the blog, his sister will do her best to update ya'll on his life!

He's been doing so well in school: he hasn't made under a 95 yet! He's loving Samford and has made lots of friends in the honors program. He comes home near midnight every night so we usually don't see him on weekdays except in the early morning. He's loving his classes and teachers and gets all his classes done in the morning and homework finished in the afternoon so he can hang out with his friends at night. The Fellows, as Samford's honor students are called, have their own 'lounge'! It's really just a classroom they can use when it's not being used for classes, but they get the room to themselves at night, watching movies and playing cards. 

He's joined a casual choir with several of his friends and we'll be going their concert next week, so we'll be sure to update with pictures. We've heard them sing once before and as soon as I can figure out how to get pictures from Daddy's phone to this blog I'll put them up!

Hope I've answered some questions for ya'll, if you have any questions feel free to comment!