Christmas Joy in 2021

In the Lawrence home, the Christmas season is filled with joy, Jesus and a mix of chaos and lessons in gratitude. Sounds about right when you have a family with young ones! Keeping the focus on Christ and others requires real intentionality in a consumer-focused culture. And let's face it, it's so fun to buy gifts for children! Reading our Advent story together with candles in the evening helped us all come back to the true reason for the season - the gift of Jesus coming to earth. We pray the presence of God was felt and acknowledged this Christmas - He is so worthy of our love and devotion. 

And, knowing this was our final Christmas on our King William farm, we ended with a bang hosting many friends from around the country and family members from around the state. We are so thankful our home has the space to allow people to stay comfortably and explore the great outdoors. Here are some of the highlights from the season in pictures. 

Leila and I had a super fun time shopping for a dress for the December Holly Ball. This one was the winner!

We enjoyed selecting and cutting down our own Christmas tree this year. 

December = hot cocoa season. 

Our church hosted Christmas At The Movies for 3 weeks in December, which is when our pastoral team takes movies (similar to a modern-day parable) to communicate a message about Jesus. 

It was Benaiah's turn to put on the star this year. He's getting so big!

Here's our stunning 8th grader accompanied by her Daddy for the ACDS Holly Ball. 

They joined Addison and Matt for a daddy/daughter dinner before the Holly Ball. 

Mary-Michael participated in her dance studio's Christmas production ("Oh Night Divine"). She worked so hard for 6 weeks to learn 4 dances. 

Ladies lunch with new and old friends in town from France and California. 

Our girls dinner crew got together for our annual family Christmas dinner, which included an intense and fun game of opening presents with potholders on. 

When Chip and KJ came to stay with us they gave the kids gift cards to their new favorite restaurant - Taco Bell. Oh my stars. Sorry Chick-fil-a. 

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at church. We always love this time together with our church family celebrating the birth of Jesus. 

These two...like this...a rare moment I had to capture. 

Benaiah was very excited to receive a tricycle from Mimi and Poppy for Christmas. 

Much to my children's dismay, I stopped buying cereal for breakfast about 6 months ago in an effort to get them to eat more protein in the morning. So, guess what we had for Christmas morning breakfast!

Leila (16), Mary-Michael (11), Frazier (10) and Benaiah (3) on Christmas morning. 

Our Christmas morning tradition continued with delivering farm goodies and presents to wherever the Lord leads us on Christmas morning. We felt led to focus on homes with only 1 car knowing these may be homes where people were alone. We were blessed, as always, by being able to do this. We remarked as we drove around on the many families we've met over the years because of this tradition. 

We enjoyed Christmas with the Lawrences, and we were happy to have Uncle Mike in town from Texas (especially Benaiah). I just love this picture. 

How many grandsons can Grandpa wrestle at once!?


Chip and KJ are serving the Lord in amazing ways through Circuit Riders, and we are so happy to be a small part of their journey. We are always excited when they come in town and stay with us.