Jesus' Birthday

Merry Christmas!!!

This year, though I was lacking in picture-taking, thoughtful gift ideas, and extravagant cooking and baking, was a wonderful and relaxed one. We spent Christmas as our little family of four (soon to be 5) enjoying being together, playing, and worshipping together. I love that Christmas fell on Sunday this year and we got to worship the Lord corporately on this very special day. I even enjoyed having Hudson with us in worship instead of in the nursery on that morning, though it was because he ran a fever the day before. I was excited at successfully remaining stress-free and relaxed this holiday season despite being painfully 34 weeks pregnant and not even close to feeling prepared to bring a new baby home. These days I take life as it comes and I do what I can when I can. I feed and care for the kids, do laundry and dishes, and organize and get projects and "extra" cleaning (ie. dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms, etc.) done around the new house as much as I can, but don't stress about them. Most of my days are mostly filled with "picking up" all day long, answering 4 year old questions, instructing and correcting behavior, teaching and leading activities, games, or art projects, and resting in between. And surprisingly, I'm satisfied with my day, productive or not, as long as everyone is cared for and I've not had an emotional breakdown or raised my voice at the kids.

So, back to Christmas. It was wonderful. We had such a good time watching the kids open their gifts and smile and play and best of all, we loved seeing the understanding on Hannah's face and hearing her share from her own 4-year-old perspective what Christmas is really about. It also brought so much joy to our hearts to hear the kids sing with joy to God all of those wonderful Christmas songs that share the Gospel so richly.

Hudson LOVES his new train table.

And Mommy is especially proud since I spent only $32 on it at the Dirt Cheap store in Albertville. It is very sturdy and was only missing one piece of track and the screws. Easy fixes. Score!

Hannah got lots of art projects and art supplies since that's her favorite activity now.

Hudson got a new airplane dress-up costume as well as a cape and mask and a light saber. He is all ready for some non-girly pretend-play now!

One of Hannah's gifts was a new set of blocks. These are more age-appropriate and take more effort and imagination than the mega blocks we've had.

She also got a Leapster Explorer. I hoped that it will be a useful tool to help in teaching phonics, etc. She's a real independent learner and I suspected she would enjoy it and learn a lot from doing the activities and games on her own. So far, it's a hit! And, Rodney showed her how to use it once and she's used it independently since.

Hudson is normally not drawn to stuffed animals or attached to any, but went crazy over this Larry from Veggie Tales at Lifeway one day. I gambled and got it not knowing if he would really love it past a day, but he really does! He's slept with it kept it by his side since he got it.

He also got lots of vehicles, which he loves!

And, now that he's a big boy and not going through many diapers thanks to his potty-training, I got him a backpack/bag he picked out. It has a motorcycle applique on it.

BB and G-Daddy sent him some Batman and superhero stuff too, which he was really excited about.

Check out the destruction!

I failed to get a picture of the most important activity of the Advent season, our Jesse tree, until the last night. We did these together every night. The kids responded really well.

We had an amazing Christmas holiday together and are so excited to have our new baby here with us soon. We are savoring this time together as Daddy has been on vacation and things are finally feeling more settled in our new house.

We thank God for His love and the ultimate sacrifice of His sinless Son on our behalf.

Thank you God, for Jesus our Savior......the best gift of all.