Christmas Card :)

Stationery card

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Christmas is upon us! And we just wanted to give y'all a sneak peak of what we're sending out to our loved ones this year :) 

We really wanted to make our first Christmas momentous so we took some pictures with our lifelong friend and photographer, Mackenzie Martin. Check out her photography page at:

http://www.agapephotograph.blogspot.com/

Merry {almost} Christmas!!

Enter His Gates

Psalm 100:4 "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name."

 

Thanksgiving is always an interesting time of the year for me. I think over time, we have seemed to twist the meaning of thanksgiving. It's kind of a filler between Halloween and Christmas nowadays. Or maybe it's an excuse to eat 3,000 calories in one meal. 

Although there's a lot of substance to the origination of Thanksgiving as a holiday, it's disappointing that I often wait until Thanksgiving to reflect on how God has blessed me in so many ways. I doubt many Americans even do that anymore though.

God dictates a posture of thanksgiving in our lives. Daily. In each moment. Towards each person. And I don't do it. 

I didn't understand how negative {i like to say realistic} I was toward circumstances in my life until I married the most optimistic man in the world. He always shows thanksgiving. And he always sees the blessing in every instance. Matthew reminds me to "enter His gates with thanksgiving...and praise His name."  

So to me, this holiday was more of a catalyst for me in our marriage--a reminder of the woman God wants me to be, and the man my husband is to me. My prayer is that thanksgiving will be an attitude in the hearts of Americans rather than a day of good food {and lots of naps :) }.

I hope to celebrate Thanksgiving on Christmas; Easter; Memorial Day; and the 4th of July. And I hope y'all do the same ;) Happy Thanksgiving friends! 

 

Getting In Sync

We finally are feeling so at home and comfortable in our marriage and the Raleigh area. It has been a difficult transition for me in the fact that I had such an amazing friend group {shout out to my girls} in Chapel Hill and I knew about zero people here in Raleigh.

Matt has been so amazing in spending time with me and doing the things I love--he's made it relatively easy to get used to this area. And he even let's me drag him on double dates to meet some new married friends!

Buttt, I figured, he does so much for me that I needed to pay back a little love. So this past weekend we did some of his favorite activities, which of course included going shooting.

I have never shot a gun before. I know. Hard to believe when I grew up with two rowdy boys and a kid-at-heart dad who loved wrestling, fighting, and shooting things. Well, let me just tell you, it's not like the movies. It hurts! The recoil from those bad boys is insane!

We met up with our new friends, Jessica and Daniel in Fuquay and they took us to their brother's house to shoot pistols and shotguns. We shot clay pigeons and I missed a-everything dang one!! But I did manage to hit some bottles with Matt's pistol. {at least I can defend myself if necessary}

After shooting, Matt proved his manhood by eating some world famous ice cream from Fuquay called "Cold Sweat." It's made with {habanero?} peppers. And you have to sign a waiver to get a sample spoon size of ice cream. Yea. Let's just say he's not doing that again.

We're loving getting to know so many great new friends up here! But of course we miss all our old friends. We're excited to go to Charlotte for Thanksgiving to see our families and hopefully friends too.
Unfortunately, Matt has to work Black Friday. So get ready for some, I'm sure, great stories from his experience :)

Going the Distance

Honestly, we sometimes get lonely here in Raleigh. We haven't made many married friends yet and we're still lacking marital mentors. But, it's comforting to be reminded of how close our family and friends are across the state. And that our relationships can really go the distance, no matter how far.

We had a full weekend full of new and old friends. I'm blessed to live near my best friends in Chapel Hill, where I can always go to have a girls night out. With Matt working more at Best Buy and Summit, I've had a lot of quality "me" time as well as girl time. On Friday I visited Ciara and Andrea who are such lights in my life. Just being able to eat dinner together and catch up was such a treat for me.

But what a highlight for our weekend it was when our dear friends Courtney and Matt ventured from Charlotte to stay with us Saturday and Sunday. We showed them around town, took them to Summit, and had a wonderful dinner together.

On top of all of that, we got to meet up with some new friends for breakfast who are married and love Jesus. It meant so much to us.

However, I think God has really been tugging at my heart to start pouring myself out to others and really investing in new relationships. Whether it was by His hand or not, my iPhone somehow "fell" in the toilet this morning, giving me plenty of time to think and reflect. And I think Matt and I really want to make some drastic changes in our lives. Whether that's giving some idols up that we didn't realize we had before {sadly maybe my iPhone} or donating more of our time, money, and efforts to God's kingdom.

We'll keep ya posted. But pray for us and our purpose in God's brilliantly designed plan. {And that we make more married friends!}