Content at Home

Even though it's just the end of October, my mind is already racing on our preparation and celebration of Christmas this year. Granted, I love Christmas and the whole upcoming holiday season, but this year, we get to celebrate our baby girl's first Christmas! I understand that she won't remember a thing about it, being only about 4 weeks old, but we will remember it and I want it to be a great celebration for us as a family; a new family... the Kyle Roland Family. :-)

However, as I prepare our Christmas gift list, begin to think about decorations, compile our Christmas card addresses, etc... I find myself getting so caught up into the business of Christmas that I realize I am at risk of forgetting the whole reason behind Christmas. More than the presents, the family memories, the lights and sounds, the smells and warmth of Christmas, I want to impact our daughter with the Gospel message of Christ coming to our earth as our Savior and the valuable gift that He offers to us! This far outweighs any other thing we can give her this year. So, even if that comes in the form of reading to her little ears about the Christmas story and telling her of the wonders of our Savior as we sit around our tree, or describing to her the manger scene on our table, or looking at our lights and explaining to her that Christ is the light of the world, I want to be intentional this Christmas season!

Here is a video I ran across on the GirlTalk blog that they posted a couple years ago. It's a helpful reminder to focus on Christ at Christmas. Enjoy!

This past weekend we went to see Kyle's family in Eastman, Georgia. We drove down on Friday and got in by suppertime. Then on Saturday we drove about an hour to go see his Granny in the nursing home. It was a special time to see her, talk with her, and pray with her. We are both so grateful for the legacy our grandparents are leaving us. Isn't it so beautiful to watch our grandparents stay faithful in the Lord, even to the end of their lives?

Here we are with Louise Yawn, Kyle's Mama's Mother.

After returning from the nursing home (and I laid down to rest for a few minutes) we drove about 30 minutes to a Japanese Steak house for dinner. It was so incredibly yummy!
Kyle's parents: Chris and Kay Roland.

My sweet hubby and I!

On Sunday we enjoyed seeing friends at church and chatting with people there. This was only my 4th time to attend Kyle's church but they welcomed me like family! I personally love when we "go home" to Eastman because I feel like I have friends there too! It means so much to be welcomed in by everyone! Thanks ya'll!


Here we are in our first Easter picture as a married couple! Married life is wonderful and I love celebrating holidays with my incredible husband!

To see more of our Easter pictures on facebook, click here.

Here in the Roland household we have candles a burning, stockings a hanging, presents under the tree, and the table set for a festive dinner together as we celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple. We are so excited about what God has done in our lives this last year and are so blessed to be together!

Growing up in the Oliver household, our tradition was to always celebrate our immediate family Christmas time together on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas day we would gather with our families and join them. Then, when my older brother, Michael, got married to his wonderful wife, our traditions began to change slightly. They would still come to my parent's house for our traditional Chinese food dinner, then open gifts between our two families, with my Dad reading the Christmas story. Then Christmas morning Michael and Lisa enjoyed celebrating Christmas with their sweet little boys at their home... then they would join us with our extended family for later during the day.

Now that Kyle and I are married... we've changed up these traditions quite a bit due to us living 900+ miles away from my family! However, this year will be very special because we are spending Christmas with Kyle's parents and we are very excited about being with them! We decided to follow in a similar tradition as my family by celebrating our own family's Christmas tonight (since we both work long days tomorrow), exchanging our gifts for each other and my side of the family, then joining the Roland family on Thursday. It so happens that my family in Texas is also celebrating their "Christmas Eve" tonight because my sweet nephew, Logan (3), is having heart surgery tomorrow morning. (More to come on that tomorrow. Please be praying for him!) So we are hoping to skype the Oliver's tonight as they celebrate together.

Well, this is just a little update about what is going on here in the 'Ville. More to come soon...

My parents drove in from Texas on this past Friday night and they are staying with us until this coming Saturday morning. We are so excited that they are here and we are enjoying our time with them. Kyle was blessed to have Monday and Tuesday off... and I've had today, Tuesday, off as well so we have been able to spend some good quality time with my parents. Tomorrow, while Kyle and I are at work, my Mom will be cooking; preparing for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and shopping.

My Dad LOVES to collect books! He is always finding great deals at Half Price Books. He has been collecting a stash to bring Kyle when they came. When he mentioned bringing a few books, I thought it would be maybe 5-6... however, he brought him a whole box full!

Here's Dad showing him the books...

I loved watching Kyle and Dad chatting and it meant so much to me that Kyle was able to appreciate and enjoy the same things as my Dad.

Bonding time... :-)

Another thing my parents brought us was a beautiful Christmas tree that my Mom had found in a garage sale for $7! You would never know that it was used though because it is still so lush and full! We are so excited about it!

Kyle and I decorating our tree.

Mom and Dad were so sweet to help us out!

Here it is all decorated! We don't have many ornaments yet, but we did buy a few with my parents at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby. I'd rather it be a simple tree anyway... and I'm sure over the years we will have more than plenty of ornaments! We love our tree!

As I've been looking for more Thanksgiving Day ideas for food and decorations, I came across a post on GirlTalk from a few days ago. This link takes to you a post where Nicole lists some ideas that they do on Thanksgiving; including a link to their menu and a couple recipes.

Also, back in October they had a fall decorations contest. One of the table decorations is of several apples with a small hole cored in the top where you can place tea light candles. I thought this was a cute and cheap idea. I may do this myself for our special day. :-)

Here's a Pumpkin Brownie Recipe that I found that looks really yummy and that I might tweak so that we can eat it.

Lastly, here is a blog post I found from last year about creating a wonderful Thanksgiving meal gluten and dairy free... exactly what I'm looking for!

Here are a few pictures from last year's Thanksgiving Day in Texas that Kyle and I spent with my family:


Me, my Grandmother, my Mom... three generations cooking together for the holidays! This is my first year in 25 years that I won't be able to be in Texas, spending the holidays with my grandparents... wow... how life moves on! I'm so excited though that my parents are joining us here in Kentucky for Thanksgiving! It will be so special to have family around and we look forward to hopefully spending Christmas with Kyle's parents!

As the fall draws closer to us; as the weather cools down (at least here in Louisville) and we start pulling out jackets for brisk mornings and cool evenings, my mind yet again wonders to the upcoming holidays. What will it be like this year? This is Kyle and I's first Thanksgiving and Christmas together as a married couple! Right now, our plans are for my parents to come up to Louisville for Thanksgiving and hopefully for Kyle's parents to come up for Christmas. This will enable us to enjoy our first holidays together in our new home.

We are so very excited about extending hospitality in our home to our families. For 25 years our parents have had the joy of us all being together in their homes during the holiday season... and now it's our turn to have them in our home, as we start new traditions.

Over the last few years, traditions have become a big deal to me. With the thought of having my own husband and family in the near future (yay!!! That time has begun!), I had begun to think of fun traditions that I would like to start, as well as many that I would like to continue. Also, now that I have a wonderful husband, I will have his family's traditions to begin incorporating into ours. What are your favorite foods to eat? Pecan or Pumpkin pie? Or both? Sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes? (I never even knew that people ate MASHED POTATOES for Christmas or Thanksgiving until Lisa joined our family!!! haha...) Turkey or ham?

With the excitement of our families coming to OUR HOME this holiday season, I am excited to begin working towards compiling a list of inexpensive holiday festivities to enjoy with them. However, I want to be so very careful that we don't become so wrapped up into "festivities" that we forget the real meaning of Christmas. It's so easy to become consumed in wanting my house to look "just so," or to have the perfect serving dishes, or to have the perfect holiday scented candle or the perfect bright colored decorations.

My goal for us as we begin new traditions is to learn how to center all holiday festivities, joy, and cheer around Christ.

Christmas with Kyle's parents in Georgia. The first time I got to meet them. We were just dating then... almost engaged.

The food that Kyle's Mama and I made... mainly her. :-) Oh... and her peanut butter fudge is DEFINITELY one tradition I am passing on! I LOVE it!

Thanksgiving at the Oliver's house. Our table, set and ready for the herd of people about to come through. It's always been so much fun over the years watching my Mom set our table so pretty and now enjoying doing that with her as I've gotten older.

The Oliver clan at Thanksgiving. Kyle was so brave to get in that picture with us... even though that was his first time meeting my family! I guess it was prophetic! ;-)


I would LOVE to hear from other couples, young and old, about fun traditions that your families have done over the years, or especially, that you have started as a new couple yourself! Please feel free to leave comments...

This weekend Kyle and I had a great time together on our date night Friday and with friends! On Friday night, July 3rd, we had our own little 4th celebration by using a gift card and going to Red Lobster for dinner, then we went to the Waterfront for a country concert and fireworks show. It was great!
Kyle's yummy shrimp with a peach bar-b-que sauce on it and scallions wrapped in bacon with a baked potato.

My AMAZING shrimp with crab butter sauce over rice with a loaded baked potato!!! Oh, just seeing these pictures makes me want more shrimp!!!

Down at the Waterfront, as we were walking to the concert site, the ship that carries all the fireworks was passing by us. Isn't that neat? All the fireworks were set off from this ship...
The concert stage... Jo Nichols was playing when we got there.
Squinting from the flash since it was so dark outside... haha...
Fireworks!!!

Today we spent Easter Morning with our good friends, Jason and Jenny Coobs. They invited us to come over for lunch at their house after church. We had a blast together, like normal, just enjoying each others company.



After church we went to their apartment for an Easter feast.
We love to watch Kyle and Jason together... they always make us laugh!
Men in the kitchen... check it out!!! They were a great help in making lunch!
Jenny and I ... in our normal "every season of life" pose... haha... I love it!
Our guest for lunch was a bread bunny... isn't he cute????
Fresh from the oven... awww...
oooo... Kyle stealin' a kiss in the kitchen...
Jenny coring out the back of bread bunny. She put our amazing spinach artichoke dip in him.
"oh no!!!" "poor bread bunny!"
Aww... at last... our yummy appetizer!
Our delectable feast...
Wonderful friends... Wonderful Easter celebration!
Kyle wants an iphone SO much!!! Jason let Kyle play with his today...
Cutting the Easter cake.
Our beautiful hostess... Mrs. Jenny Coobs