Ornament Palooza

I've been friends with a wonderful group of girls for many, many years now. I don't even know how we all started getting together. . . well, we all homeschool and have been friends for many years. . . maybe that was the beginning? Our husbands are all pretty good friends and so are our kiddos. . . I'm not quite sure where it all started, but I'm so very thankful it DID!!!

I think it all may have started after we moved into our house. I had them all over for dinner one night. . .

We had so much fun. . .

Then . . . we decided to go out for Faith's birthday. . . to treat her to real special night. . . we closed DOWN the restaurant. . . then I left to go crawl into the bed. They all stayed talking in Jennifer's car until I think into the wee hours of the morning. .. 1:00 AM, maybe?

Next, we got together for Lisa's birthday. . . girls only, of course. I, again, bailed to go home to go to sleep. They all stayed in Jennifer's car talking as I was having sweet and peaceful dreams. We decided even then we COULD NOT wait for my birthday to come around to all go out again. . . so Lisa, came up with a wonderful idea. . .

Why not do an ornament swap at Christmas?

Y'all I was SO determined to hang with them. I lasted until about 11:15 (in Jennifer's car, of course). Oh what fun these girls are!!! We laugh, we talk about nothing and everything all at the same time. We talk about our joys, our struggles, our fears, our frustrations. . .

Our hubbies all get along really well too (which is an added bonus). Our kids love spending time with another (another bonus). We even all had a Thanksgiving dinner together at Lisa's house. (I forgot my camera, and I have this blogger disease called "it is hard for me to blog about something unless I have a picture")

We encourage one another in just LIFE period. A merry heart does doeth like good medicine (Proverbs 17:22). We all planned a camping trip together back in October, but only Jennifer's and Lisa's families could go.. . I think they were secretly glad my family didn't go because it rained most of the time and they predicted we would have bailed out and came back home. .. I think Tim even gave a "Jon impersonation" on what he would have said. . . our friends know us well. . . we would have SOOOO bailed. . . we'd been like "We love y'all, but we are going home where it is warm and DRY."

And. . . the amazing thing is . . . we could all go for weeks without having the time to pick up the phone and check on one another. . . or, between the hustle and bustle of life, quickly say "Hey" to one another as we pass each other at church.. . but, we ALWAYS just pick up right where we left off.

Thank you my sweet friends for such a fun night. Thanks for journeying with me on this thing called LIFE. Thank you for your sweet words. Each of you added more love to my Christmas tree and to my heart! I love you all dearly!