Life with The Snyders: Advent 2015

Volunteer

We kicked the month off volunteering with our small group. Our church does Shepherd's Kitchen every Monday night where they prepare and serve a meal to the homeless (or anyone in need) in the community.

Morganton Christmas Parade
This was originally scheduled for early in the month, but it was cold and raining so they postponed. I'm so glad they did! The night they had the parade was a beautiful, fun evening! I wish they didn't do it at night because it's hard to see everything and everyone, but you gotta love a small town Christmas parade!

There was a Shrek float! The only thing I could get a good picture of was the gingerbread man!

Church Staff Christmas Party

We had a great evening at a Japanese Steakhouse in Hickory!

Go See the Living Christmas Tree (Singing Tree)

One of the churches here (not ours) does a big musical/drama production every year similar to the Living Christmas Tree that Grey Stone does. This church focuses more on the drama and this year they did a rendition of The Grinch. It was a very long show, but we enjoyed it! Their lights aren't to the level of what we're used to on the tree, but it was fun to watch.

Stephen and I both realized this year productions like this and a parade are much more fun when you know people in it. Next year, we're looking forward to enjoying these events even more!

Night of Lights 5K

Another church in town hosts a 5K at the beginning of December every year. After our crazy summer, Stephen and I both needed some motivation to get our butts back into gear with running. This was the perfect opportunity...a race through Morganton (our little town that decorates so well) looking at all of the lights. Well, then Stephen finds out his foot is broken and later has to be out of town for the actual race for a funeral. :( That left me running alone. Thankfully, several friends from church were there so I didn't have to run all alone! I will say I was a little disappointed with the route. I think because they wanted to keep it one big loop, they has us run around downtown, missing the best part of the lights Morganton puts up. Even though this got me back into running some, I was still (still am) a slacker with my running, but I was proud I ran 2.5 miles before walking any!

2016...going for a 10K!

Drink Hot Chocolate and Watch a Christmas Movie

We watched several movies this year and of course grabbed some Starbucks!

Decorate and Hang Stockings

Oh the debate of the Christmas tree! Stephen loves real...I love fake. Classic of our personalities. All I can see with a real is the mess, the unevenness, the fights over getting the lights just right, and the cost. Someone at church gives the church staff a tree every year. Stephen jumped on that! Even though I still didn't want it, Stephen informed me one day our tree was being delivered. So we compromised...both. The real one got brought in the back door to the kitchen and we used it to hang our Christmas cards. Then we decorated the perfectly symmetrical and pre-lit one in the living room. :)

Horse Drawn Carriage Ride

Morganton offers carriage rides every holiday season. So we just had to add that to the advent calendar!

Chick-Fil-A Date Night

If you know us, you know you don't need a picture as proof that we made time to go to Chick-Fil-A!

Watch a Christmas Movie on TV

Well, we don't have cable anymore, but we did watch A Charlie Brown Christmas Special (DVD) so I'm counting that!

Make a Gingerbread House

Make and Take Gifts to the Neighbors

This was the one thing we didn't do this year, but we did get to meet all of the neighbors when this fun happened! :) (see previous post for details...)

Wrap Presents

Every year, I've depended on Allyson for this task. This year, I had to do it myself.

Mail Out Christmas Cards

Make Our Favorite Christmas Snack

We ~~did this Christmas day with Stephen's mom~~ ran out of time...

Small Group Christmas Party

We had a great meal and did a White Elephant gift exchange...Sadly no pictures...

Daniel Boone Inn Double Date Night

When we moved, Stephen had the excellent idea to add a double date night in Boone to our advent calendar since we live so close now. And Daniel Boone was the restaurant of choice. As with everyone, December gets crazy busy so we booked this early and looked forward to it for weeks. Well, we drive all the way to Boone, rush out of the car towards yumminess, only to walk up to a sign on the door that says they're closed. NOOOOOO!!!!

So Outback it was...not nearly as good, but the company was still excellent!

Next year this WILL happen!

No fear, we made sure to eat the equivalent amount of food at Outback as we would have at Daniel Boone!

Camp Out in Front of the Christmas Tree

One of our favorite traditions!

Youth Leaders Christmas Party

We were so blessed to join a wonderful team of youth leaders when we moved here. We had a blast celebrating with them at our Christmas party!

Make Ornaments

I went simple on the ornaments this year.

I saw this design, but was sure I couldn't do it. Then Steph showed me how to do it and it's so easy and quick...and looks so fancy!

EKA Christmas

So glad we got this scheduled as well. Any excuse to cuddle this sweet baby is a good one!

Drive Around and Look at Christmas Lights

Small towns do Christmas lights well! We loved looking at all of the lights around town this Christmas season.

Summit Christmas Service

#christmasatdpac

The Summit does Christmas at DPAC every year and we were so excited to squeeze this in on our short trip to Durham. It was so nice to go "home" and see so many friends! (please pardon the Instagram quality videos)

You can watch the whole show here! It's definitely worth your time.

Go to the Christmas Eve Service