Magic Moments

I'll formally introduce you to Tucker eventually. Right now just know that Tucker is really, really cute and also really, really annoying. Veteran dog owners with children have assured me that getting a dog for the boys will be soooo worth it. I'm clinging to that everytime I get up in the night with the puppy or clean up a puppy mess or console a 3 year old in tears because the puppy either hurt him or his feelings. I will eventually have an awesome, well trained dog. That has become my mantra. These pictures make me smile. They give me hope.

We had a wonderful Christmas with Tom's side of our family. Everyone of us crowded into our cabin and the holiday brought cutting down a Christmas tree, Church, Scripture Readings, Carols, Christmas Eve gifts, Christmas morning surprises, cookies, fondue, and broomball on the lake. God is so good to give us reasons to celebrate. I took very few pictures because I just enjoyed living in the moment. Christmas Eve ornaments from Grandmommy and Grandpa Christmas Jammies is always the Christmas Eve gift.  They help you sleep while you wait for Santa to come. To foreshadow the next mornings event the boys got puppy Jammies this year.   Hanging the stockings Laying out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer Waiting on the stairs for everyone to be ready to see what Santa brought. No peaking allowed. The boys (and everyone else in the house) were woken up at 6 AM on Christmas morning by the pitiful cries of this cute boy. Santa came t...

I keep telling Aiden that the best part of Christmas isn't just the day, but it's the whole season. It's the anticipation, the wonder, and the honor you give the whole month of December. I love the 25 days of Christmas that we do because it makes Christmas last longer. By the time the month ends I really feel like we've given our all to our Savior's Birth. This last week has brought lots of cheer. Last Sunday we enjoyed a holiday concert at church. The boys LOVED the whole thing....the orchestra, the woodwinds, the choir and the children's choir. The entire service was lovely. The boys sang along even during the solos, but they were so happy and so much living in the moment I didn't have the heart to tell them it wasn't their turn to sing. I just let them make their joyful (off key) noise unto the Lord. Hopefully the whole balcony at church thought it as beautiful as I did. We also made Christmas Cookies. I'm not a baker so this was my one obligatory...

I could write so many things about this day. I've been reminiscing all morning. 11 years goes by so fast. My 6 sweet flower girls were all 8 and under and now the oldest is 19. Tom and I had yet to finish college. We knew nothing and had nothing except we knew the love we had would endure and sustain us. And 11 years later I would still say maybe we know nothing and we'll someday leave this world with nothing, but I know our love will sustains us. The difference is that after 11 years of loving someone I would tell you that when our human capacity for love fails, the Holy Spirit steps in and carries us with the Love of Christ. It's Christ in us that makes us work and he makes us beautiful. We love because God first loved us. Tom, I have no words to tell you how much I love you. My day revolves around you coming home at the end of the day, sitting at the dinner table with you, hearing you love our boys, and crawling into bed with you at night. If the next 11 years bri...

Sage is doing all kinds of sorting out in his brain trying to figure out the Christmas story. We've had some sweet conversations that reveal he is doing some deep thinking in his three year old mind. Talking about the song Away in a Manger... Mama: Jesus didn't have a nice baby crib because he was born in a barn. His Mama, Mary, had to use a manger for his bed, which is something animals eat out of. Sage: But Mama! What if the animals eat Baby Jesus' bed?? Mama: I'm sure his Mama was watching closely. :) We were talking about the Jesse Tree ornaments... Sage: What is this ornament? Mama: That is a ram. It reminds us of Abraham and Issac. Remember when God asked Abraham to kill his promised son, Issac? But then God provided a ram for them to kill so Issac was saved. Just like God provided Jesus to die for our sins so we don't have to. And we don't have to kill animals for our sins anymore. Do you know why we don't have to kill animals for our sins? ...

Week 48: Thanksgiving- So thankful for my little family! Week 49: Numbers- This advent Calendar is one of my favorite traditions. We count down to Christmas with a special poem and chocolate each night before bed. I'll probably still make the boys do it long after then think it's cool. :) Week 50: Details- Working to get the details just right in their Lego creations. And I'm working to try to understand the details of photographing Christmas Lights.

I've been anxiously waiting for it. Every Christmas season it seems God reveals a marvelous truth  from the folds of a story we've all heard many times. I love that each year I marvel in the beauty of an ancient text that is relevant today. How amazing it is to serve a Living God. We started school on Tuesday morning, just like every morning. I hadn't looked ahead in the plans so I didn't know exactly what was in store for us. As I opened up our text I was so pleased that the day brought a study of the centuries old song, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. This was a perfect Advent study for our day. The words, which in their earliest form date back to the 12th century, are so beautiful. The song itself, I think, sounds a little mournful, and perhaps it should. The words refer to passages in the Old Testament when people were waiting for our Savior. They were still sacrificing animals, looking for the Christ Child that had been promised. We've all been studying Moses this...

Macy's Christmas display....I LOVE it! Macy's used to change their display yearly but years ago they stopped and Santa Land has become their signature 8th floor display here to stay. For a couple years I was mad. It was so fun to see something new each year. But now we embrace Santa Land and we LOVE it. I think this was the 8th or 9th year in a row that we've been so it's become a long standing tradition. I've been there with crowds of people and we've been there and had almost the whole place to ourselves, like this morning. Obviously, going on a Monday morning is the best time to go. Sage was mesmerized. And I was too. Santa Land defines merriment and wonder and magic and all the sweetness that comes with the festivities of an American Christmas Celebration. We  missed our friends who got sick and couldn't go, but we were able to meet up with some other friends and had a lovely morning. Sage never once faced the camera. He was too busy taking it all ...

We're counting down to Christmas the best way we know how....with fun things everyday! Wednesday: The boys all watched Frosty while I was at work. Thursday: Nothing. The boys are gone from 9-4 and we had small group at night. That was enough. ;) Friday: We read the book It Smells Like Christmas and included every scent that was mentioned in the book on a tray to eat. :) This idea wasn't mine. I saw it on Pinterest. The book is a scratch and sniff book and as soon as I saw that I was sold. I have such fond memories of scratch and sniff stickers from growing up in the 80's. :) So, we read the book and ate oranges, apples, chocolate, candy canes, and in preparation for the book we even made ginger bread men. You can't possibly add too many sugar sprinkles.  Friday Bonus: Because Advent doesn't take enough time ;) we also made bird nests. We studied birds in school and as we've been going through each of the 50 states we learned the Robin was the stat...

Defining advent as the expectant waiting and preparation of the coming of the nativity has such deep meaning and produces much excitement at our house! I'm not really sure what "day" of advent we're on since we've been in the festive spirit for awhile. I'm also not sure that I'll be posting everyday because that's just a lot of things to get done in a day. At best maybe I'll combine the days. Time will tell. Time is also ticking by s-l-o-w-l-y for two little boys who are over the moon excited about the possibility of a puppy on Christmas morning. They have been drawing puppies, playing with their stuffed puppies, reading puppy books, and asking to play puppy games on the computer. To top it off we get to read to Dudley today whom, I've been informed, looks just like our puppy will probably look when he grows up. So, no pressure, Santa. ;) Sunday marked the beginning of advent. It was the Sunday of prophecy and we lit the candle of hope. The...