Y’all! Holidays! December! Family! Work! Memories! This time of year is so delightful and is passing by far too fast. I feel like it should be the middle of November, not less than a week until Christmas.

This weekend I got to do something that was a lot of fun. On Thursday I had a very busy part day of work, then hurried home and packed so I could spend the weekend in Pennsylvania. One of my good friends is getting married in January, and her bridal shower was on Saturday. My best friend, Sarah and her family were heading to Pennsylvania on Thursday, so I caught a ride with them. We arrived after midnight, and then Friday morning we went over to surprise Hosanna.

At the end of October Hosanna had come to Ohio and surprised me (although I had kinda guessed it), so I was really hoping I’d be able to successfully pull off surprising her. To make a long story short, we were very successful with the surprise and it was a lot of fun.

I spent Friday hanging out with her and her darling little identical twin nieces who she’s been helping take care of.

On Saturday we hung out with the twins (and other nieces and nephews), then went to the bridal shower which went really well. While we were at the bridal shower I thought about how one of my sisters back in Ohio was having overnight company from Pennsylvania. Cue a flurry of texts, planning, and working things out, and next thing we knew when we left to come back to Ohio that evening, we brought Hosanna along with us.

After a fun car ride home, we got back around 1:30 at night and fell to sleep quite exhaustedly. Hosanna and I left for church at 8:00 the next morning and Hosanna went and hung out with other people while I attended one more last-minute run-through the Christmas play.

Our Christmas play this year was my most favorite one ever and it went perfectly well, so yay! The audience really liked it and the whole cast remembered their lines perfectly, mics worked well, and any mishaps were quickly covered by other people.

After church, we had our big church Christmas dinner which was delightful and delicious and a lot of fun. Then Hosanna and I went to the aforementioned sister’s house – she had company over but Hosanna and I were both so tired we went and took a nap. After our nap, we joined everyone else for snacks and games, and then around five, I had to say goodbye to Hosanna cause she was leaving for Pennsylvania and I was headed back to church for Christmas caroling.

At church, more than 50 of us clambered on to a hay-covered wagon and truck and drove around town for three and a half hours singing Christmas carols (accompanied by a trumpet) and making memories.

When that was over, I headed home and grabbed a few things then went to a sleepover. Monday morning I hung out with my friends from the sleepover until around lunch time and then hurried home to grab shoes (because I didn’t have tennis shoes with me), and then left for work.

All in all it was a delightful, delightful time, packed with memories, laughter, tiredness, and all sorts of happiness.

Do y’all go Christmas caroling?