My favorite Christmas

This Christmas has been one of my all-time favorites. I love my family, I love that we all get along so well and have such a fun time together. It is so fun being an auntie to two of the cutest kids in the world! I am sad that our time together is coming to an end and am already looking forward to our family vacation in August!

The cousins waiting in front of the Christmas tree to open gifts.

My cute family (minus my brother in laws and niece and nephew).

Micah loving the King's game (his favorite part was the mascot!).

Sydney at her best!

Part of the reason this has to be one of my favorite Christmas's is because of the generosity I have seen from people. I was able to hand deliver the gifts from my class to the Oates and they were blown away and felt blessed, which is exactly what I wanted! They are an amazing family! It was fun visiting with them and getting to know the kids a little more.

This past Friday my class held a bake sale to help raise money for Isaiah and his family. Isaiah is a son of a childhood friend that was diagnosed with leukemia in May. My class decided to adopt him and his family for the year. As a class we decided that instead of giving gifts to each other, we would buy gifts for Isaiah's family (a total surprise!). We raised over $400 and I was blown away at the generosity that was shown during this bake sale. People just generously donated money without buying any baked goods. My students were so excited and so proud, it was fun to watch. Now comes the fun part of shopping for these gifts and presenting them to the family when I am home next week. God is so good and His goodness has shown through in a huge way this week.

Along with the bake sale, I was able to lead 11 of my students in a prayer to accept Jesus into their hearts, something that was not expected or planned but just a divine appointment.

On Friday, my 4th grade teacher from Cali was in town and wanted to come visit my classroom, I was SO excited and it was so fun to see her! She was only there for about a half hour but it didn't matter to me. The fact that she just wanted to see me was what meant so much.

So, this has been a week full of emotional highs and has been one of the best weeks of my life. I have seen God like never before and the generosity and love of people have amazed me. Here are some pictures of our fun times on Friday. Enjoy! :)

My adorable class

These pictures do a pretty good job at capturing the cuteness of the kiddos in my class. Even as today was a rough day, I do have to say that I love them very much. Through all of their craziness and misbehavior, they have sweet spirits and they are the reason I teach!

Julia and Zach are so sweet!

Katelyn proudly displaying the can used for collecting the money for "Isaiah's Christmas Fund." I am very proud of the kids as they have not complained one bit about not receiving a gift from a classmate. Instead, we are giving money to go towards a gift to help Isaiah and his family. That is the true meaning of Christmas!

Preston and Jared working away on spelling sentences.

Let it Snow!

The snow has been coming down for the past few hours and my roommate and I decided to go play in it for a bit and here are some pictures that don't quite catch the beauty of the snow!