It's a New Year

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!!  Ours was sweet and wonderful...had Hannah and Nic here for over a week, the time with them was sooooo nice!!!  It was a wonderful, as well, for we had a new van to take Noah places with us!!  We went to see the lights at the Botanical Gardens in Norfolk not once but twice.  The first night, we made the mistake of going on Military family night, and waited 1 1/2 HOURS to just get in!!  It was fun, though!!  It was Noah and I, Hannah, Nic and Emma.  Nic told constant jokes for the duration, kept us all in stitches...so the time passed quickly and the lights were too short, but WONDERFUL...for those of you who may not know what the "lights" are...here are a couple pics:

They are lights that line a path at the gardens and the cars drive through and look at the various displays.  The Gardens have a "garden theme" throughout with the various seasons...this year synchronized to music at one part...soooooo cool!!  We did take pictures of "us"... here is everyone minus me(even Lucy our dog after her shave that day:)!)...

 Emma and Lucy(Emma had Lucy entertaining people in other cars with her Bichon wave:)!!)

 Noah with his blanket to keep warm while we had the windows open!!

Hannah and Nic snuggling together...awwwwwwww!!!!

I took Noah back the night after, as everyone was busy doing other things...and it was even better...even sweeter.  The weather was warm, I rolled all the windows down(the side windows on this van ROLL down...never heard of such a thing before...but sooooo cool!!!) and we took a LONG stroll through the lights again(no waiting line this night)!!  The sweetest thing was looking in my rear view mirror at him and watching him looking back and forth out of both windows, up and down at all the lights...so engaged with the splendor and beauty...it truly touched my heart!!!
Emma and I took Noah with us to Williamsburg a few days before Christmas...about an hour from our house.  We visited the Yankee Candle Shop there(HUGE store with lots of Christmas stores along with the candles).  Emma took Noah to a spot where snow falls on you...Noah LOVED it!!  Emma and I sang to the Christmas songs on the radio while driving..having fun with each other, and Noah was "splitting a gut" behind us....at one point, Emma and I looked at each other and with tears, I said, "Emma, THIS is Christmas...this is IT!!"...she was crying too.  This was as close to "normal" as we could get...driving...shopping...singing...laughing...having fun...being together...the van has been life changing for Noah and our family......wow....what a blessed Christmas we had!!!!
We are hopeful for great things this year...for our family and for yours...and that the love of our Savior will abide, abound, and will advance throughout us and the places we live...much love to you and yours!!!!  Lisa