… but we still had a “real” Christmas, we think?

Remember when Mommy thought a photo w/ a Santa statue was as good as we’d get this year? Boy were we surprised when we stumbled on this guy at a walk-through lights event. The boys weren’t too convinced though and quickly labeled him “Fake Santa” mainly because he “wasn’t fat enough” (他不够胖). Looks like Mandarin immersion is good for something (aka talking ’bout Santa behind his back?). :D

The light scenes were really well done… We went early, stayed far apart from the few folks there and left right when more people started coming.

These two bugs!

Said it before and saying it again… Love our pod fam! They have been like our special SD angels. :)

Christmas star gazing… To think that a similar star followed our Christ child so many years ago to His birth centers us. The lyrics of “We Three Kings” come to mind:
Star of Wonder, Star of Night,
Star with Royal Beauty bright,
Westward leading,
Still proceeding,
Guide us to Thy perfect Light.

Regardless of the times… He’s still proceeding… still guiding us to that Perfect Light.

We attempted a hike on Christmas Eve but it started POURING rain so we had to cut it short.

Our quiet, intimate little Christmas. :) We’re digging our simple “Charlie Brown” tree, hehe. One thing that we told ourselves after leaving Texas (and the more and bigger is better mentality) is that we really wanted to pursue a life of minimalism where we will value experiences over things. Accumulating lots of stuff in a huge house is not the lifestyle we want to live or teach our son. At the end of the day, we feel the things that you saw and did and felt will be far more remembered over what you owned. Rant over. :P And of course we are still going to buy things… but we always think twice (or thrice+++) about its usage, quality, necessity.

The rest of Christmas Day was spent building, playing, resting… Our living room became a Lego factory, haha.

This year’s Christmas card:

Since we only used two photos from our quick mini fall shoot, here are a few other takes that we liked:

It was almost foreign to be out of PJ’s, loungewear or hiking/outdoor gear. ;p

Sooooo, 2021, here we come!