Christmas at Home

What a blessing to have Christmas in our home! We miss our family and friends dearly but it is a treat to be in our home and start our traditions for the first time. Every other year we've been in on the road or in transition but not this year! I especially miss the way my Nana Joanne has someone read the Christmas story from the Bible and then organizes the children and a few reluctant adults into a play that helps the children understand why we have Christmas. I hope we will follow that example to teach Jacob, Daniel and Elisabeth that Christmas is not presents and Santa, but our Lord Jesus Christ's birth.

Today we had a big turkey and ham lunch with friends and then went to a candlelight service at church. Jake stayed with us in "big church" and I think he'll want to do that more often now that he knows we play with fire in "big church." We came home and had a little hot chocolate and settled in for the night in our warmest jammies.
On Friday we baked a birthday cake for Jesus and every second since I've realized that was entirely too soon. It seems I have been chasing boys off of the counter every five minutes since. You could feel the anticipation in the air as I put them to bed and we talked about tomorrow finally being Jesus' birthday. We have spent a good amount of time talking about the meaning of Christmas over the last few weeks and so far all that has sunk in is "it's Jesus' birthday and we get to eat cake." Better luck next year I hope. It has been a blessed year in that this year, both boys learned the name of Jesus Christ and they know that God made everything (even bugs and tractors). Jake is turning into the little boy from Jerry Macguire. At mealtimes he always has a bit of trivia to perk up the conversation. "Did you know that birds eat worms?" "Did you know that lizards eat bugs?" Then Dan runs to tell "Zeh-dee" good morning and then he looks out the window for Frosty. The family across the street has an inflatable snowman and the boys are amazed that he leaves each morning and comes back each night but they never see him come or go. They look out at dinner and yell "Frosty's home!"

Erik installed a pull up bar in a doorway for those times when you just need to do pull ups. Dan always needs to do pull ups when his Daddy does.

I pray you all have a Merry Christmas, I wish we could see each of you! If you ever want to wear short sleeves and no coat at Christmas, come stay with us.