Merry Christmas from MarksvilleandMe to you.

Our month has been pretty busy with shopping, college, basketball, family trips, and me being ill for the better part of December. Christmas day is here and I am finally writing a personal life update for my readers.

We were not able to have Thanksgiving with our family until December 5th. We are missing 3 family members but this is the closest we have came to a family picture since 2012. 

I love advent calendars and finally after 24-25 years of marriage, dating, and children, I found the perfect one for our family. I ordered this through Zulily but it came from Pockets of Learning.

My daughter Deanna is on both the youth basketball team as well s the traveling team. Her traveling games have started. 

Deanna's regular position is short forward, but in the first game she was taking the place of her cousin while she was out sick and played a different position. As you can see we won 24-16Our family against the Germantown Clippers. They just had a game last Saturday against the New Lebanon Tigers with win of 32 - 9. So far the girls are rocking the games, lets see what they do in the next few weeks. We have a game coming up in the next few days.

Our family has Von Willebrand  disease with myself also having Thalassemia. I have struggled all of my life and never knew what I had until between my 5th and 6th child. Luckily something serious never happened to my children before we found out. Anyways with my husband being injured we now have time to take part in our Bleeding Disorder Association's programs. Above you see a picture of my husband Dennis and daughter Deanna playing a Hot game of Jenga, at the annual Snowflake Fest. 

Every year we say we are going to take this trip and every year we miss it due to other obligations or circumstances but we finally made it this year. Capital Holiday Lights in the park was a much larger display then we had thought they would be which was really pleasant for the whole family.

About mid month we finally got our tree up. We went with something really simple this year and did a snowman tree. Isn't he cute? With Fibromyalgia believe me this set up is something I want to do each year, but we did miss our traditional tree and will return to it next year while setting this up on our porch. 

Finally we made it to Christmas and we had the presents wrapped and ready before midnight for once. Last year I didn't even get to bake, and even though I am not baking as much as I usually do we were able to get Snickerdoodles, Peanutbutter Kisses, Magic Treasures, and Sugar Cookies made. With Fibromyalgia I never know when I will have energy or a less painful day so we take it one day at a time. 

Christmas presents, kisses, and family. What more can you ask for? God has blessed our family so much this year. Here is to another year of growth and healing for all. 

Merry Christmas from MarksvilleandMe!