{It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!}

Is everyone having a wonderful holiday season?

Christmas at The Finstad Homestead means a lot of shopping, crafting, secrets, cooking/baking, and some local travel with a few Starbucks runs thrown in - all fun!

This year, as is tradition, we enjoyed a delicious seafood and pasta dinner and a 'Secret Santa' gift exchange on Christmas Eve with the Pesci side of Jean's family. It was wonderful to gather with family both near and far (over Skype!), share a meal, play with the young cousins, and start the Christmas celebrations the night before.



Another tradition we enjoy each Christmas is giving to those less fortunate than ourselves. While we make a true effort to give throughout the year through a variety of programs, what we enjoyed most this year was putting together a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. All it took was a trip to the dollar sections of Target and Michaels, but I hope that the 5 to 9-year old girl that receives our box enjoys all of the fun (and some practical) items we put in the box. We sure enjoyed filling it!

One of our most treasured traditions is attending the candlelight church service on Christmas Eve. This is something that I have done since high school, and Jean and I have continued this tradition. Both last year and this one we attended Christmas Eve services at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church where we regularly attend Sunday services. This tradition definitely puts us in the right frame of mind for the next day!



Speaking of Christmas Day...what fun! Before we headed to bed the night before, we made sure to turn on the flame feature on our electric heater so Santa would know where to find us, and he did! The next morning, we started off the day by having our own mini-Christmas gift giving, just the two of us. Jean and my parents had gone in together to purchase me a treadmill for my gift back in October (when it was on sale), so I didn't expect a single solitary thing this year, but I was thrilled to find a package from Santa on top of our electric fireplace!


Sneaky Jean had told Santa about the Steve Madden coat that I had had my eye on at Nordstrom Rack just two days earlier. Jean also enjoyed his gifts, including Redskins pajama bottoms (it's a tradition to buy/receive new jammy bottoms for Christmas!) and a Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf, handmade by yours truly!

After finishing our own Christmas morning celebrations, we finished packing up the car to head out to Front Royal to celebrate with Mom and Dad, via our local Starbucks, of course (and yes, we went into Starbucks in our Redskins and gift-wrapped present PJ's!). When we arrived, we were greeted with a warm house, a table full of yummy snacks and baked goods, and a giant present mountain under the tree. The four of us headed upstairs to mom and dad's cozy new loft to open our gifts, including hand knit items for mom and dad, lots and lots of knee socks and sweater tights for me, and a brand new gas grill for Jean!


The rest of the afternoon was spent in the loft with the pups, on the recliner couch, watching the many DVD's we had brought with us, including two VeggieTales Christmas movies, 'Keeping the Promise', and 'The Nativity Story'. We were able to tear ourselves away from the giant HDTV and fireplace once the yummy dinner smells started coming from the kitchen, though! The next day mom and I hit the after-Christmas sale at Target and stocked up on gift wrap for next year. Jean and I also drove around a checked out a few houses and neighborhoods that we have our eye on. As soon as we're in the new year, we'll be getting the home buying ball rolling!


Christmas wasn't over yet, though! John and Laine and our nieces returned home from her family's on the 26th, so we all headed to Herndon to celebrate with them on the morning of the 27th. We enjoyed yummy sandwiches made from Christmas dinner leftovers and even MORE gift-giving! Jean and I were THRILLED to unwrap a new Keurig coffee maker!


We were a little worried that our middle niece, Mary, wouldn't be too keen on the whole Christmas chaos after her not-so-successful visit to Santa this year, but I think she understand now that he's not so scary after all :)

All-in-all it was a wonderful holiday, and now we're looking forward to the new year and all of the exciting changes it promises to bring us!