Greatest Gifts

As I mentioned a couple days ago, we have a lot of Christmas traditions in our family. I'm sure that in the coming years Hubby T and I will create even more with our new family. But I wanted to share one that we started in the last two years that I'm especially excited about. We are calling it the "greatest gift."

Each year when we make our Christmas lists, everyone, including Hubby T and me, will include on the list a charity or organization that they would like to make a gift to. The idea is that each of us will sacrifice a present we would normally receive and have that money instead be donated. I am hopeful that this will teach our children that it is more blessed to give than to receive and that they, who are so abundantly blessed, have a responsibility to give to those who are not. (Actually, I really hope that they eventually come to make this gift because they want to, not because they have to. God loves a cheerful giver, right?!)

This is the first year that all three of us gave and received "greatest gifts." Hubby T and Baby B gave my gift to the International Justice Mission, a human rights organization that fights for the victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression around the world. Baby B and I made a gift for Hubby T to Haiti Partners, an organization that is helping to rebuild Haiti and improve the country through education (and one of our friends from college works for them!) Hubby T and I made a gift to World Vision on behalf of Baby B, specifically to the fund that provides vaccinations for children around the world.

As I survey the vast mounds of presents that were so generously given to us by friends and family this year, I am glad that I have these "greatest gifts" in my heart to remind me that Christmas isn't just about the material things that we give and receive. It's about extending love to others, just as God extended his love to all mankind by sending his son to Earth. My hope is that every year our family will keep the cards and letters we receive from the organizations we support and put them in a scrapbook so that over time we will have a book to look back on and remember all those to whom we extended God's love.

What organization would you want your "greatest gift" to go to? Have you supported them yet this year? I hope that you will make room in your heart and wallet to do so.

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve friends!



I have spent a fair amount of time today thinking about the holiday traditions that Hubby T and I each grew up with and thinking about how we are incorporating them (or not) into our new family. Baby B isn't old enough to remember any of this, so I consider this year a practice run for future years. All in all it was a pretty good day!

I don't ever remember football being a part of my Christmas Eve. But it certainly was today! I give Hubby T credit for being willing to go to the 5 pm childrens service at church since it meant missing three quarters of the Eagles game. (Go Eagles, even though your season is basically over!)

When my sister and I were growing up, the elves always came sometime on Christmas Eve to fill our stockings (usually during nap time or, in later years, while we were at church). I always looked forward to opening a couple small presents the day before Christmas, it extended the present fun. In our past discussions about this topic Hubby T has been pretty adamant that we do stockings on Christmas Day. I've mostly caved to him, but on the way home tonight he indicated that it might still be open for discussion. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what those crafty elves do next year:)

My mom always made clam chowder for dinner on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why, it may have something to do with her Catholic childhood. Either way, since I'm the queen of the kitchen and Hubby T eats whatever I give him without complaining, that is a tradition that is continuing. I made the soup this afternoon and then left it in a crock pot to keep warm while we were at church. It was wonderful to have dinner ready and waiting when we got home (and toffee snickerdoodles for dessert!).

Finally, when Hubby T was growing up, his dad always read The Night Before Christmas before putting the kids to bed on Christmas Eve. This is a tradition we're both excited about keeping with our children. So Hubby T read it tonight, to a squirming Baby B who was more interested in playing with the phone charger on the bed than listening to the story. Oh well, hopefully next year will go better:)

I've also been thinking lots of thoughts today about the true meaning of Christmas. You know, Jesus is the reason for the season and so forth. But I'm tired and don't have the energy to express those thoughts as eloquently as I'd like. So hopefully you went to church tonight and got a taste of the awesomeness of worshiping God on Christmas Eve. I'll try to get those thoughts out soon. In the meantime, sleep in heavenly peace friends:)

Merry almost Christmas!

Baby B and I have been busy getting an early start on our Christmas vacation this week. Baby D stayed home with his mommy on Monday so we drove down to Gramma's house to spend time with her. We had a fun time hanging with her and Auntie A and the little boy that Auntie A nannies for (is that a verb?). Baby B was having such a good time that he decided to bring Gramma home with him! So my mom got some extra grandson time Monday night and most of Tuesday. The benefits of living close, she's enjoying it while she can!

Baby B still hasn't said "ho ho ho" for us yet, but he is getting more into the Christmas spirit. He and Baby D had a great time opening his present from Baby D yesterday.


No way Baby D, that's my bow!!



I figured out that if I make a little tear in the paper, Baby B will grab it and keep tearing. He's getting in some good practice so that we don't have the longest present opening sessions ever with our families next week:)



The verdict is still out on whether the wrapping paper or the puzzle it covered is more exciting. I guess we'll find out next week!

Christmas party

Last night we all went to our small group's Christmas party! We've been a part of this small group for 3 years and each year we reserve a space at church to gather with all our kids and celebrate Christmas together. Yesterday there were 10 adults and 10 kids (all age 5 or under) running around in the big open fellowship hall, so you can imagine the noise and craziness that ensued. This is expected every year and is part of the fun (and probably part of why Hubby T and I went to bed at 9 last night)! Someone was smart enough to bring a couple toys down from the nursery - check out Baby B on a "bike"!



I think he spent more time kind of walking on it rather than riding, but that's okay. Everyone contributed some delicious food and drinks to share. Baby B isn't quite old enough to join everyone at the big kid table, but he kept himself occupied.



We moms organized a kids gift exchange, so we tried to get all the kids to sit down together so that they could each hand out their presents. We corralled and settled down almost all the kids, and then Baby B decided to crawl out a couple paces. This was the start of our downfall. In an effort to entertain the kids one of the dads suggested that everyone get on their hands and knees too...which led to everyone not only being in the crawling position but actually crawling....which led to this -



So much for sitting together nicely!! Baby B got to open his very first Christmas present with Hubby T's help. As anybody could have predicted, he was happy after pulling off the bow! He'll come to appreciate the Little People tractor that was inside though:)



Our small group has seen several people come and go this year, which hasn't always been easy. But the group and the families in it are a huge blessing in our life and it was great fun to celebrate the holiday season with them. Merry Christmas friends, we love you all very much!!

When Hubby T is sick

When Hubby T is sick...

- Our bedroom becomes the quarantine room. We love you Daddy dear, but don't want your flu bug, so we will love you from the doorway until you are better.

- The guest room is now Mommy's room! Which means all the Christmas presents that were accumulating on the guest bed had to be moved before I could go to bed last night. Which reminded me just how much wrapping I have to do...

- Mommy feeds Baby B all of his meals. Normally I only give him lunch, Hubby T feeds him breakfast and dinner. While it's not much trouble to feed him, it is a bit strange, just goes to show how much I rely on Hubby T (see last point).

- Daddy's car sits in the driveway when he doesn't go to work in the morning, so when we were running late for playgroup, we ended up being super later because I had to move his car before I could move the Baby B-mobile. When our family gets out of it's routine, boy are things messed up!!

- Completely unrelated to Hubby T's sickness, check our Mr. Hawaii Five-O!



I held Baby B up to his closet this morning and said, "What do you want to wear bud?" and he chose this awesome surfboard covered shirt. He looks so stylishly handsome:)

- Also unrelated to Hubby T's sickness, Baby B demonstrated his growing brain today by sorting his corn and carrots into separate piles all by himself!



I never cease to be amazed at these moments when I turn around and realize that he's just done something that he's never done before. Totally awesome. And, and in case you were wondering how that meal turned out, the answer is messy. Baby D sat in my lap in awe.



- The real lesson of the last two sickly days, however, is that I have massive amounts of respect for single parents. By the strength of God, I have had the energy to entertain two little boys for the last two days and get through the end of the days with Baby B with relative ease. Doing it every day though, by myself, on top of everything else single parents have to deal with (like say, a job!) is nearly unfathomable to me. Thank heaven for Hubby T and all the love and support he gives us (when he's not germy that is!!:)

Good reading

Tonight was supposed to be book club night for me. But due to the business of the season, it's been pushed back until January. So I decided that in addition to watching the Glee Christmas special tonight (so fun!) I would share some great books that I've been reading lately, including the one for book club.

Have you ever read Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross? I'm so glad my friend chose this to read for book club because it was fantastic. It's based on an actual person, or legend, it's a piece of Catholic Church history that's not really known. It tells the story of Joan, a young woman living in the Dark Ages, who passionately pursues learning, even though it was strongly frowned upon by those around her, including her family. Her life journey leads her to a point where she assumes her deceased brother John's identity, joins a monastery, and eventually becomes Pope. You can see why the Catholic Church would deny this person's existence, a woman pope? But the story is filled with so many things that I love - history, religion, womens rights, even a little romance. If you're looking for a compelling page turner to read over your Christmas break, this is it.

The other book I just finished reading is The Host by Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight series). This was an unusual book for me to not only read but also to love, because I am not a science fiction gal at all, and this book is science fiction. But I think the reason I love it so much is that it's more a story of humans and human relationships set in a science fiction setting. The premise of the book is that the end of the world has come and all humans were taken over by "souls" except for the few that resisted and are in hiding. The story is told from the point of view of Wanderer, the soul who lives in Melanie's body, except that Melanie doesn't disappear, both minds stay active in Melanie/Wanderer's body. Sharing one body joins them together and they embark on a journey to find Melanie's family. In the process Wanderer learns what it means to be a human. There are a lot of great themes in the book, like loving others more than yourself, forgiveness and mercy, and learning to understand a situation from your "enemy's" perspective. This book also showed me that I really like Stephanie Meyer as an author. This book was a fingernail biting page turner the same way Twilight was, as in I hated to put the book down at night and go to bed because I was so engrossed in the story and couldn't wait to read what happened next. Books like that are hard to come by but I love it when I find them and am sad it's over. I'm sure Hubby T isn't sad though, now he's free to talk to me at breakfast again!

And what has Baby B (who is eleven months old today, by the way) been reading? We don't have much of a Christmas storybook collection yet so we've been supplementing with books from the library. Two of our favorites so far are Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear and A Charlie Brown Christmas with interactive sounds. Baby B hasn't quite figured out the sound buttons yet but I think he still likes it. Auntie A bought us a copy of The Night Before Christmas but we have to save that one because Hubby T's family tradition is for the dad to read that to the kids on Christmas Eve. Another first for our family that we're all looking forward to:)

More Christmas fun

And the Christmas fun continues! We spent all week admiring (from a distance) our Christmas tree, listening to Christmas music, and trying to get Baby B to say "ho, ho, ho" (unsuccessfully) and "(fa) la, la, la" (which was successful!). If you are looking for some new Christmas music, I'd recommend Michael Buble's new album, great voice and great arrangements on some classic Christmas songs.

The Christmas highlight of our week was cookie baking yesterday! My aunt sent me an early present, a set of ten star-shaped cookie cutters that can be arranged to create a Christmas cookie tree!



Baby B was a great helper when it came to decorating the cookies.



I think my cookie tree turned out pretty good!



I'm not sure if it actually looks like a tree but I do think it looks pretty. Can you tell the bottom star broke in about 4 different places? I've never cut out a cookie that big!! Oh well, it'll still taste good. Right Baby B?!



He thinks yes:) I think we have a little cookie monster on our hands now!!

Advent Devotional

Remember my church's Advent devotional booklet that I mentioned a couple posts ago? Today is "my" day! When I first signed up to write the devotion, I got to look over the passages for each day and pick which one I wanted. When I flipped to this one, the message I got from it leaped out at me immediately, which almost never happens when I read the Bible. I consider it a cool God moment. Anyway, here's what I wrote, I hope it helps bring you closer to God on this lovely, cold Advent day.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Matthew 2: 1-3

Which character do you identify with in this story? Do you identify with the Magi, who traveled a long distance away from home in search of a Messiah? Or do you identify with King Herod, who was disturbed to hear that a Messiah had come to earth? As much as we might not want to admit it, King Herod’s thinking was understandable, at least if you look at the situation from an earthly standpoint. But let’s look at these characters from a different point of view.

From God’s perspective, the Magi left everything in their lives behind to travel a long distance in search of the Messiah. It was probably easier for them to do that than we might understand because they knew what they were looking for. Prophecies told them that God had come to earth in human form; He was concrete, someone they could see and talk to. Throughout all of history that hadn’t happened often, but here was there chance to see God in person! They also knew the significance of what they were looking for, that the prophecies and promises of the scriptures were coming true through the birth of this child. They came by themselves, willing to go the distance even if others didn’t believe. And they came to worship, one of the things that God desires most from his children.

King Herod’s reaction to the Magi’s news was probably not what God was hoping for. Instead of rejoicing at the news that God had come to Earth in the form of the Messiah, King Herod was disturbed, troubled, anxious, and perhaps even suspicious. He may have felt threatened by the prospect of an authority on Earth that had more power than him. And as the leader of the people of Jerusalem, he led a whole city of God’s children into his doubt and worry as well, instead of worship.

What is our reaction to the news that God is in our world? Are we excited, like the Magi? Are we willing to re-prioritize our life to make room to seek after and worship God? Or are we disturbed, skeptical, suspicious, even threatened by someone claiming to be God’s presence in our world?

The Good News is that the Magi were right. And because Jesus came to this world, we have the opportunity, as God’s forgiven and redeemed children, to follow in the footsteps of the Magi. The decision to follow God has always been left in our hands. Will you make time to seek after and worship our Lord this season? Will you encourage those around you to do the same?

Random things

- I heard a really interesting thing in church last Sunday. Have you ever wondered by so many of the Advent hymns are so minor and solemn? Think O Come, O Come Emmanuel or We Three Kings. Advent is supposed to be the season of preparing for the birth of Christ, which I knew. But apparently in the times of the early church, this season was recognized as a very somber, serious time, similar to Lent before Easter. These Advent hymns were written to reflect that attitude. I've always been slightly annoyed that church songs can be such downers during this very cheerful holiday season. But since I heard this, I think I'm going to appreciate them much more. Christmas isn't about Frosty the Snowman, after all, it's about Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. And maybe that should be taken more seriously...

- Yesterday I looked over while doing dishes to discover this -



Look at that "Whoops, Mom caught me! I didn't do it!" face. My son was standing up by the high chair and reaching up to the seat to find whatever crumbs of food Baby D dropped while he was eating and then eating them himself. Very resourceful Baby B, but really? I do feed you your own food you know!! To be fair, Baby D did the same thing later that day, except instead of eating Baby B's food, he was chewing on his foot. Yup, not kidding. He loves chewing on Baby B's socks, so I wasn't that surprised, but normally he chews on them when they are off Baby B's foot!

- I made this Panko-Crusted Salmon last night from the Barefoot Contessa's How Easy Is That? cookbook. It was super delicious and super easy, you should try it.

- We discovered very quickly this year that there is no heavenly peace to be found in Baby B's nativity scene. This is how his wonderful baby-friendly Nativity scene looks when I set it up.



The wise men with their camel, the Baby Jesus surrounded by his parents, the animals all looking on. So peaceful. So nice. So orderly.

This is what it looks like after Baby B gets his hands on it.



Ahh! I know it's designed to be messed around with by crazy babies like mine. I find it equal parts sad and hilarious to see Baby B and Baby D use Baby Jesus as a basketball with our basketball hoop, and to watch them tear the Angel off the top and throw him around as violently as possible as often as possible. (I've mostly given up putting him back up.) It's okay, someday Baby B will understand the meaning of his Nativity scene. In the meantime, we'll have to keep him away from his Gramma's Lladro Nativity scene!

- For the last year and a half, almost without any breaks, Hubby T has been working his way through several online classes. As a teacher, the only way to get a pay increase is through years of experience or getting more education. Since we can't control or speed up the former, Hubby T has been steadily working on the later. As of last night, he completed his last class and, once the paperwork goes through, he will officially have a Master's Degree plus 15 credits, which equals a slight pay increase! Way to go Hubby T. Baby B and I are grateful for all your hard work, you are an awesome husband and father:)

Yay for the Christmas season!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!



Hubby T and I picked up our Christmas tree from Costco on Friday night ($30 - what a deal!) and decorated it last night after Baby B went to bed. We slightly rearranged the furniture in our family room so that the tree is mostly blocked off from grabby baby hands. That doesn't stop him from being curious though.



Oh yes, and those overalls, perhaps the cutest most Christmas-y thing of all so far.



My grandmother smocked these for Baby B and they could not have turned out more adorable. Those are three little reindeer on the front, and each one has a little bell sewn around its neck, which provided great entertainment in the car ride home from church today.



You can just see his little brain thinking, "Is it cool that my clothes make noise or is my mom just crazy?" I love making him look so cute:)

We also experienced one of my other favorite parts of Christmas today - spending time with family! My dad spent the afternoon with us, which consisted of playing with Baby B, taking naps, and watching football. Baby B especially liked his playtime with Grampa.



He also helped me hang his very first ornament, which his Mom-Mom gave him a couple weeks ago.



Okay, so maybe he'll be more eager to help hang ornaments next year. Anyway, I think he was also happy today because he totally rocked his little Chargers hoodie sweatshirt. He's such a little man!!



Okay, a little man who fits in a diaper box:) Anyway, there should be more Christmas festivities to come in the next couple weeks, stay tuned!

Bliss is...

...enjoying a peppermint mocha from Starbucks while pushing your adorable son in a swing on a beautiful fall afternoon with Hubby T, who met us at the park on his way home from work!









Bliss:)