Activity

R thought his "activity" (i.e. nativity) needed a stable. So, my creative, innovative, imaginative son kicked his fisher price horses, cows, and farmers out of the barn to make room for the Baby Jesus. Hilarious and sweet and mindful...all at the same time. Notice the little blonde dog. He was not part of the nativity set that R's Nana gave to him, but (supposedly) he wanted to worship the Baby Jesus, too. Sorry there isn't a better view of Jesus, but it is kinda crowded in the Fisher Price Stable.

Makes me think...am I kicking out the extra in my life so that Jesus is always front and center to be worshiped and adored in my heart?

Christmas Cookies

Really, I just had to share this picture that my friend Courtney took of R yesterday. We had our MOPS small group Christmas Bunch, and everyone had a great time...especially the kids (who were totally hyped up on pumpkin bread, baked french toast, Christmas cookies, and icing.) Most of them just licked their icing stright off their knife once they had sufficiently loaded their cookie! Thanks, Courtney, for taking this great picture of my little one.

Cousins

When we were in Florida, my sis-in-law had a photographer take some pictures of our boys. Can you even believe these boys are related?!?! But, even though they look nothing alike (believe me, they ARE related by blood)...they play so great together and we had a great time. I am just grateful for the pictures to remember their time together...that doesn't happen often enough!!! If we lived closer, I feel like R and S could be best buds. Such sweet boys...

Christmas Tradition

Today was the official kick-off to Christmas for me. We shopped months ago, decorated weeks and weeks ago, and baked yummy treats last week. But today was THE DAY the Christmas begins for me. A local church had a live nativity that we attended this afternoon - twice. (Once was just not enough for my little R.) We also drove around Candy Cane Lane to see the lights. But the best of all was hearing my son pray tonight after devotions...

But, to back up a little bit...

I love Christmas and the traditions that means for our family. I honestly probably do a better job at teaching the Christmas story to R than I do Easter. R still struggles with Jesus as a grown up, so we have concentrated our efforts on Jesus as a baby/little boy and his reason for coming from that angle. Anyway, we have regular family devotions reading various parts of the Christmas story during the month of December, and we do these names of Jesus ornaments put out by Family Life named "Adornaments". These ornaments go over various names of Jesus and what they mean. R's prayer tonight made me realize that the traditions are not for naught!

"Dear Jesus,
I just want to thank you for who you are. Thank you that you came as a baby to die for our sins. Thank you that you are our door to heaven. Thank you that you are our Good Shepherd, our Savior, and our Immanuel. Thank you that you are with me all the time. Amen."

Thank you, God, that R is learning about You through our meager attempts. Thank you for using us to teach another generation.

Disney, Baby!

So, we had a great time in Florida...on the beach, eating seafood, seeing family, and going to DISNEY WORLD!! We had a fabulous time.

R said "I want to LIVE here, or I at least want to work here."

So...here (I hope) is a picture of R with his favorite Disney character...the famous, whacky, witty duck himself. Move over mouse!!