I like writing Christmas letters of some sort, but this year I didn't pull off writing/mailing a letter with our card. I hardly pulled off making/sending a card! So I thought instead of sending a letter I would post a virtual Christmas letter here on my blog to give an update on our family. On Christmas Eve we sat at our little kitchen table and toasted our glasses to, as Jared put it, "a year of chaos under God's grace." Chaos under the gracious rule of God in our lives. Christmas Eve had been a somewhat difficult day with Ethan having trouble controlling his anger at his grandparent's house and then totally falling apart when we had to leave Mimi and Grampie's to come home to Athens. The new "normal" in our lives has become lots of noise, toys everywhere, and a weekly "oh, my... the house has completely fallen apart". But slowly we are learning that this isn't all bad. There was a time when I thought a messy home was to be avoided at all costs, but now the mess is sign of life. When we brought Andy home from the hospital in October, our mess seem to grow exponentially. Now we have more clothes to wash, more people to feed, and more voices to be heard. But we also have more smiles than we did a year ago. Andy cried as we sat down to eat dinner on Christmas Eve while Ethan struggled to sit (not stand or walk around) during the meal, so we cheered to a life of chaos under the grace of God. The chaos part is clear when you have little ones, but it's easy to miss the grace part. The grace of God is that we can laugh when things get really crazy (not always, but a lot of the times). God's grace is evident when Ethan says, "mommy, you're the best mommy in the whole world..." (I know that's grace!!!) One particularly crazy day Jared and I were both at the end our short rope and the door bell rang. I wiped my eyes to make sure I didn't look like I was losing it, and opened the door to find 2 friends from church. They dropped by with a Trader Joe's turkey and 2 bottles of wine. They said they just wanted to tell us they were grateful for us. That was God reaching through our door into our chaos and giving us a hug (and a glass of wine:). So as much as we can say that 2011 has been a busy, messy, and sometimes breaking year, it has also been a year full of examples of God showing up in our ordinary lives to gives us strength and joy for the journey. That's the inside reason I picked these pictures for our Christmas card. I picked a picture of our 2 boys sleeping and looking so peaceful because of how it juxtaposes the craziness... and at the end of most days, Jared and I peek in on our sleeping babies and are reminded that they are gift. True blessings even on the smelliest and most chaotic days.
So for a quicker run down of our year, I thought I would mentioned some highlights: Jared becoming an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), photographing weddings with my dad (the ultimate father/daughter date!), giving birth to Andrew Clay Bryant a month early, watching Glee episodes on Hulu (Sue Sylvester is my FAVORITE!), discovering Pinterest (check out my board here), hearing Ethan pray for the first time, holding 2 new baby nephews (baby Asher and Baby Charlie), seeing the birth and becoming godparents to Annalea Tillman, watching close friends get married, a road trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota to see my cousin get married and catching up with a dear friend in Madison. And now for some pictures from 2011...
this is a picture I took at Thanksgiving in Hilton Head visiting Gran + Pop's house, and it's Ethan sharing his M&Ms with his great-great aunt Blanche. I really love this and he really loves his aunt Blanche.
and here is Jared pushing Ethan on the swings in Hilton Head. He is a really good dad.
and Jared and I dressed up like cows for Chickfila cow day. Christmas, Easter, and Cow Day. It might be one of my favorite days because people dress up in funny costumes AND get free food. Halloween with protein.
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for those who you haven't seen Andy's nursery, here's what it looks like!
This is a picture of Ethan from our snow week last January. We had snow much fun being together, playing in the snow with our neighbors and sitting by the fire. Maybe the best week of my life. 
and this is Jared feeding Andy after Annalea's baptism. I really like this picture because it captures an everyday moment in our lives and there something really rich and beautiful about the everyday care of children. And a husband who shares the load with me...
I need to post more pictures, especially of Andy, but I'll have to just blog more in the future to show them. So cheers to 2012, supposedly the year of the Vespa according the Chinese calendar. Maybe I'll wake up on my 30th birthday (this October!!) to find a blue vespa in my garage... a girl can dream:)