Secret Santa, Ice Skating, and Christmas Tree Lane

Last Friday night we hung out with our usual group of friends and celebrated Christmas. We had picked secret santas about a month before and it was time to reveal! We started out by meeting at our apartment and went to drive down F street in Oxnard. As a kid that was where we went every year to see great Christmas lights. This year was a bit disappointing (I don't remember seeing the giant camels), but it's still part of a Christmas tradition. Next year I want to see Camarillo's lights cause I hear it's much better. Many of the houses were definitely decked out in lights, but it wasn't as impressive as I remember

Our group's so big that we had to take two cars. Allison and Elyse came with me and Doug

Don't worry, he kept his eyes on the road!

This huge santa looming over the manager cracked me up!

After stopping at Jack in the Box for some food we went to the Channel Islands Ice Skating Rink. We all got our skates and hit the ice (except for Allison and Sammy who decided they didn't want to skate). They took the camera and were our own paparazzi. 

Not quite sure what he's doing...

We kept trying to get group photos

Many of the group

Us with our fur lined hoods!

The guys that were currently present (James and Kaity had to find an ATM)

The present girls

Allison in the scarf that she got from Doug

Candid

A lot of the pictures were blurry. Allison was having a bit of a hard time getting good pictures. What is it with me and digital cameras?

 Kaity

Kaity and James

Allison and Sammy

Skating!

Hahaha

Elyse and Allison 

Sammy, Allison, and me

We finally got a group shot. The first one we got was blurry so we had to do it again

Then we came home and had hot chocolate and cider, ate cookies, and read Luke 2. Then we exchanged gifts and watched Charlie Brown Christmas. It was a lot of fun. I'm so thankful for such great friends!

The next day there was a really pretty sunset. It had been partly cloudy all day long and then toward the end the clouds started taking over, pushing in to the horizon

I love our view! Only 4 days till Christmas. We're excited to spend Christmas Day with Doug's sister and her family and Doug's mom too. We're having Christmas with my family the day after Christmas when everyone is in town and rested. Sometimes it's really hard to keep things in perspective of what we are celebrating since it's easy for me to get caught up with all the activities surrounding this season. The music, the baking, the presents, the movies, the hot drinks and sweaters that get to be worn. And then there's the busyness of working in retail. I'm excited to get to go to the Christmas Eve Service on Saturday. And I'm not doing floorset this year so I'm not using all of my free time to sleep. Thank you God for sending your Son as a sweet little baby to save us from our sins. May we always keep that at the front of our minds and our hearts during this special time of year!