Merry Christmas!

Among the presents and excitement, the food and the family time may you find a few quiet moments to steal away to reflect on the Christmas Story and it's wonderful meaning today.

Above all our hope is that you would find Jesus and accept Jesus' awesome gift this Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you!

The Eve of Christmas Eve

Today was the day before Christmas Eve.  My husband greeted me this morning with a "Happy Christmas Eve Eve Day, Wifey!"

I love my husband because he knows how nuts I am for Christmas and embraces me.

The love I have for Christmas comes honestly.  My mom is the same way.  There is something about Christmas that just causes me to dance ridiculously around the kitchen to carols while "baking" baby cupcakes.

I believe that the crazy-love I have is an overflowing of the excitement of knowing the true meaning of Christmas.  There is something so humbling about the realization that my Jesus was born into this world, lived a perfect life of example and died for me so that I may live in Him.  The Ultimate Gift.

It's just extraordinary.

Tonight before dinner Noah picked up my camera and started snapping photos.  With Noah, you never know what you are going to find pictures of on your camera.  Growing up it was pictures that looked like this:

This is a self portrait of Noah and his finger after he got it caught in his gas tank in Tyler.  That's a gross story for another time.

Here are a few from today:

This one didn't turn out half bad...  Note the new haircut!  It was time for a change.

No, Dad is not sticking his head into the ferns...he is checking to make sure his frogs are still living...  Thanks for this memory, Noah.

Noah's mad camera skills coupled with my Dad's awesome crazy eyes makes for great pictures like this that we will be able to use for Dad's 80th birthday party some day.

And of course, we had to get one of Noah doing what Noah does best... torturing poor Lulu.  It's no wonder that she barks at you!

Mom and Jingle-Jangle.  Noah didn't take this.  I did.

I will say though, this one did turn out quite lovely!  Thanks Noah!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve Everyone!

Meal Planning Monday

Not a whole lot of meal planning going on this week.  We will be making meals to clean out the fridge before our trip to see the family!  Hooray for vacation!

Happy 5 days until Christmas!!

And the winner is....

Betty!

Betty left a post on Facebook saying, "Favorite Family Vacations - Disney cruise!  It was amazing for everyone & couldn't beat the airline discount.  Second favorite - Breckinridge, CO in the Spring.  It even included a 12 mile bike ride downhill all the way!"

Congratulations!  You have won a one year subscription to Budget Travel Magazine!

And because it's only one week until Christmas.... 

And because I love giving things away...

And because my husband doesn't mind when I give things away...

we drew a second name...

Tammy

You have won a one year subscription to Budget Travel Magazine!

Tammy left a blog comment saying, "One of my favorite vacations is Estes Park, Colorado.  My in-laws go every year during the summer.  They rent a cabin at the YMCA of the Rockies large enough for the whole family and friends.  The whole week (or 2) is spend doing hikes in the mountains to pristine mountain lakes where the fly fishing is really great!  I'm not a fisher, but I love laying on the shores of the lake with a good book while watching the family fish.  Soooo relaxing!"

Betty and Tammy, contact joyfullysoaring@gmail.com to claim your prize!

Thank you to everyone who entered the give-a-way.  All of your vacations sound awesometown and I want an invite the next time you go!  We love having the opportunity to give fun things away and appreciate your wanting to get them!  Without you reading, there would be no one to give to.  Except my mom....  Hi Mom!

Happy 7 more days until Christmas!!  

Unicorns in Plano?

Folks, apparently there was a Unicorn in Plano today and I missed it!  I received an email in my inbox this afternoon titled, "I tried to get your attention, but it was had already disappeared!"

Yup.  You read that correctly....."it was had.."

Anyway.  When I opened the email this is what I saw:

A tiny unicorn standing on Andrew's hand!!  How did I miss that?!  :)

This email is one example of the many fantastically magical things that happens around me each day.

Happy 9 more days until Christmas!

Meal Planning Monday

If it feels like forever since you have seen one of these entries, it's because it has been forever!  With interviews, holidays and late nights at the office meal planning has not been consistent at the Cozad household.  This week is changing that!

Monday:  Beef Stroganoff and cracker crumbed califlower
Tuesday:  AM Christmas dinner for me; Benjamin on his own
Wednesday:  Baked Ziti and veggies
Thursday:  Quick Chicken and veggies
Friday:  Dinner in Waco
Saturday:  Wherever the wind blows us
Sunday:  Fish sticks and macaroni

Happy Monday to you all!

Traveling on a Budget + a Give-a-way!

One of the things I look forward to every month is my Budget Travel magazine.  I discovered Budget Travel quite a few years ago when I popped into a Target looking for something to read during my lunch break at work.  That first volume opened my eyes to Shady Dell Trailer Park in Bisbee, AZ as well as Marfa, TX and the mystery of the lights.

And those two things were enough to make me a fan for life!

The magazine has nifty tips from other readers like when you travel to other countries and accumulate a lot of change, donate it to a nearby church.  They often write up reviews on handy travel accessories or just things that are plain nifty.  Like the Roll-Upz, crazy light-weight shoes that roll up - convenient for quick shoe changes.  They also do a section called "room finder" which gives cheap but chic hotel options in a selected city.  From time to time they do a piece on stops you should make should you drive this particular route in this fun city and pieces about a city from the perspective of someone who lives there.  Two months ago the magazine had a write up on Dallas which inspired our Saturday adventure day.  It has great photos and in the back they have really great travel offers!

In conclusion, I love my Budget Travel magazine.  Sure, the website has most of this stuff on it if I were to look hard enough + more, but I just love getting fun things in the mail!

This magazine is for the person who loves to travel and who enjoys finding a good deal on hotels, rental cars, and adventures around town.

If you are that person, than this week is your week!  You have the opportunity to win a subscription to Budget Travel for one year!

Tell 'em how to enter Bob:

Simply leave a comment telling me what your favorite vacation was and why.

To get extra entries:

1 entry - be a follower of Crazy Cozad's and leave a comment telling me about it

1 entry each - post a link to this give-a-way on your blog or facebook page and leave a comment telling me you did it.

Ideally you could get up to 4 entries!

Deadline for all entries is Midnight CST, Friday December 17th.

Please enter a valid email address for notification purposes.

And if you are wondering - both Bisbee and Marfa are on the bucket list!

Packages and other things.

Have I said enough how much I just adore this Christmas season?!  It truly is my favorite time of the year!  Benjamin and I have been doing loads of online shopping this year.  I mean with no tax and all of the awesome free shipping discounts, why not?  AND, it means you will come home to mounds of packages outside your door!

I just love opening packages!

Today the FedEx man brought giftees as well as our Christmas cards!  Tonight I will be stationed with pen in hand to start addressing envelopes and licking stamps.  Or sticking stamps actually.  Thank the Lord for sticky stamps.

Even though all of this Christmas cheer is going on internally, if you were to come visit our house right now you would think we were Scrooges!  We don't have 1 stitch of Christmas out besides the Lego Christmas village that is in pieces on our kitchen table.  It's currently a work in progress...

Hopefully this weekend we will have time to catch our breath, get down ornaments, wrapping paper and Christmas dishes so that our home can match the same amount of Christmas bliss we feel on the inside!  Any one else decorating a little slower this year or is it just me?

C'mon weekend, c'mon!

Christmas in my mailbox

Every year at this time I look forward to getting the mail each day.  Not only do we have boxes arriving from the online Christmas shopping we do, but tis the season for Christmas cards!

It has become a fun game to see who sends the first Christmas card and every year for the past four Christmases, I have been right in my estimation!

Carles and Lacy's card has always been the first to arrive at our home.  And this is because Lacy get her Christmas cards in the mail so that they arrive after Thanksgiving.  She has the timing of sending the Christmas cards down!

Who did you receive your first card from this year?

And the results are in...

The number of interviews and cities that were travelled to:

The number of schools attending:

We found out this morning that Benjamin has been accepted to the Orthodontic residency at University of Texas in HOUSTON!

Our first reaction was a crazy mess of jumping, cheering, and crying.  Our second was to huddle together and praise Jesus for this awesome blessing!  Little Lulu was confused as to what to think because then we were on the phones calling parents back to the excited stage!

All day today my emotion has been one of thankfulness and to be honest, I have been overwhelmed by the Goodness of God.  It was our heart's desire to return to Houston and it was Benjamin's first pick.  The fact that God chose to bless us with this amazing opportunity just blows my hair back!

We know that Benjamin's classes will start the first part of July and that he will graduate in 2013!  Over the next few weeks we will be putting together a timeline and continuing to seek God's direction for the move.

But for now....we are still celebrating that we are going to ORTHO SCHOOL!!!