Celebrating Christmas

We are enjoying the holiday season, but we're also taking it relaxed and slow. We decorated a gingerbread house with the kids during one of their snow days. Peyton had two days off of school due to snow. I can't remember the last time we had snow in December, but both kids were thrilled. They got out their new snow saucers and did some sledding in our back yard. Mama tried once and hit the fence....and that was the end of her sledding adventures! We have been hiding our elf, Lincoln, each day and the kids enjoy searching for him each morning.

We have finally decided on which church to attend and have been looking forward to becoming more settled there and getting to know people. It's been nice to be able to hear more than one sermon in a series. We visited so many churches that there was no consistency. It's good to be able to think about starting Sunday school and getting the kids into a better routine. Today is Mark's last day of work until the new year. He has been feeling nasty and went to see the doctor yesterday. No definitive diagnosis, but hopefully antibiotics will help and he'll feel better by Christmas.

Only 3 more sleeps.....

That is not my house!

The new header is not my house, but a house near Peyton's bus stop. There are 3 pretty awesome houses in our neighborhood that we can see from the second floor of our house! We are working on our lights, but we lost our extension cords (or maybe we just didn't have many). I'm going to grab some today so we can light up our own house tonight!

Christmas 2009

family pic taken by my mother-in-law (it's a good one and we're all coordinated!)

Christmas was a very busy time for us, but a blessing too. We spent Christmas Eve at church. We helped decorate the fellowship hall and put some table decorations together for the Christmas day dinner. We went back for the 4:30 service and then worked in the nursery during the 7:30 service. It was a busy day, but a wonderful day. We also squeezed in time for ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday! We got to bed so late that night and were thrilled that the kids slept until 8:30 the next day! We opened presents and ate an enormous breakfast and then left to go to Fredericksburg for a Meadows family dinner.

Dinner was delicious and time with the family was precious. The children did a program for us and then there were more gifts to open. Then we went back to the family farm and opened gifts with Mark's immediate family. We do family/ homemade gifts. It's always fun to see how creative everyone is. The cousins get along so well and they play beautifully together. They played so hard all weekend that we barely saw them! We also spent some time with Mark's grandmother. She had some gifts for the kids and she let them choose treasures from her curio cabinet. They were so excited to choose whatever they wanted!

Coming home has been nice too. We've had a few days of sleeping in late, waking up and playing with new toys, watching some new movies, eating meals together, running a few errands, etc. There is no pattern to the day, just lots of poking around! We woke today to a dusting of snow, about 1.5 inches, and so it's a jammies day!

Gingerbread Houses - Round 2

Liam's preschool class invited the older siblings to come to the class this week to decorate small gingerbread houses. The teacher had hot glued graham crackers together in the shape of a house and had all kinds of candy for decorating them. They loved decorating their very own houses! They also really enjoyed eating cookies and other goodies afterward!

More Christmas Fun - Mrs. Claus Tea

We had tea with Mrs. Claus this week. It was a very sweet and special event for the children. She read several holiday books and then everyone had the chance to sample delicious cookies and drink hot chocolate. The adults enjoyed a holiday tea blend. Mrs. Claus answered all of the children's questions about her famous husband and told them that she had to fly back home to help him prepare for Christmas day! Peyton and Liam really enjoyed the stories and cookies. There was one story about a little girl who received a steamroller for Christmas and we all really liked it.

Gingerbread Houses!

Peyton really wanted to make a gingerbread house this year

The snow from the "Blizzard!" We were so glad our neighbor plowed our driveway for us!

I cannot believe Christmas is in 2 days! I am so not feeling festive this year. I cut down on the amount of stuff I baked this year and didn't have much pressure to have to go buy gifts. We ended up making a lot of our gifts this year. But for some reason, I just don't feel excited about it at all. I am hoping tomorrow will be a great day to help me get fired up! We are going to church in the morning to decorate for the community Christmas meal and then we'll attend the 4:30 service and help in the nursery at the 7:30 service. We're eating both meals out tomorrow too!

Peyton saw the gingerbread house kit at Target on Tuesday and asked if we could buy it. They had a great time decorating it. Liam had help with his icing, but Peyton did her own icing and decor! It is quite a house and looks very festive sitting on the counter. They also decorated little houses, made of graham crackers, at Liam's preschool today. I'll post pictures of those later. The preschool class hosted the big and littler brothers and sisters and all the kids got to decorate a house. Plus there were loads of cookies to eat. We also had tea with Mrs. Claus today, which was a special treat. I'll post that as well, later. Gotta run and get the laundry done before it's too late!

Liam funny and our Christmas so far

I was unstrapping Liam from his carseat yesterday and we were talking about having lunch when he said, "If we eat, we'll hit God on the head." I asked him what he meant and he said, "Well, if I eat an Oreo, which is heavy, it will hit God on the head." So I said, "Well how, where does God live?" And sweet Liam replied, "He lives in my belly!" He was very concerned that his food would hit God on the head. It was so funny!

I have been trying to do less this Christmas, bake fewer cookies, do fewer activities, and it's been great, but next week is going to be crazy! I have to provide cookies for Liam's preschool class, so I'm going to buy them (ACK!) and I'm going to buy some premade pie crust for the apple pie I'm taking to the family dinner on the 25th (HORROR!) and I am making 2 dozen or so muffins for a church activity on the 24th. The 24th we're spending the morning at church decorating and prepping for the dinner the next day. Then the kids are singing at the 4:30 service, so we have to have Peyton there by 4:15. Then I'm working nursery for the 7:30pm service. It will be a very busy Christmas Eve, but I wanted to spend that day, my birthday, serving my church family, so I'm excited about it.

We still don't have our tree. We have two possible places to go look and we're hoping to do it this week. There just seems to be too much to do for Christmas, plus the regular housework, laundry, etc. I'm plodding my way through it and trying to put all my focus on the reason I celebrate. I don't want to have my big party without inviting the birthday boy, Jesus, to attend. We have been lighting our Advent candles and reading Scripture each night. The kids have been taking about it in church and Sunday school and we're trying to reinforce at home that it's not about the gifts and the lights and the tree, but it's about God coming to the Earth and taking on human flesh, experiencing the same things we experience, ministering to those in need, those who were lost and broken, and then dying for them and for us, so that we can have communication and a relationship with Him, the Creator of the universe. It's just awesome to think that God, the Creator of the whole universe, can offer us forgiveness if we just ask for it. I am awed by this daily and humbled by it and that's where my heart is this holiday. I desire to help others and to reach out to those in need, to minister to their needs and to celebrate Jesus

I have never been a Christmas-lights-in-the-yard sort of girl. We didn't do it growing up, and Mark and I never put them up at the old house. We did candles in the windows and a Christmas tree, but never lights in the yard. We moved to this house in 2006 and that Christmas, and every Christmas since, Mark has strung lights on the outside bushes and the porch rails. This year he let the kids help, so the lights were all wonky and crazy. As we drove around looking at lights this year, the kids got exited about seeing the deer in people's yards. So we got one! They were crazy on sale at Ollie's and I spent $5 on this one. We put it in the yard and the kids were so surprised when they saw it. He has been named Rudolph, even though he doesn't have a red nose (as Peyton reminded us).

We bundled up the kids today and went to the park for a hike and a picnic. We even took Randy, who spent the whole time sniffing everything she could sniff! The sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. It was a great way to sort of wrap up our holiday time. We have church tomorrow and I have Bible study, so the lazy go to bed late, get up late time is coming to an end.