4th Annual Christmas Tree Trip

For the last four years, we've gone somewhere in the mountains of NC to a choose and cut Christmas tree farm with Andy's parents. This year, Andy's sister and her family were also able to join us. Somehow, in all the craziness, I didn't manage to get a group photo, but here are a few pictures from our day.

The hunt begins

Maybe this one?

Getting the thumbs up!

No better way to warm up then with a fire and some hot chocolate!

Oreo

It cracks me up to see him go from this

to this

Plus, check out his adorable little Christmas bow tie! :)

Oh yeah! I'm one of those people who think it's super cute to dress your little dog up! (It's just too bad he's a boy - they make much cuter girl stuff!!) Bring on the Christmas sweaters and reindeer antlers!

From

From tears to laughter

From frustration to relaxation

From disasters (however small they might be) to solutions

From acquaintances to friends

You gotta love the days (like today!) that take a turn for the better!

Christmas Cards

Every Christmas season I look forward to the rush of "fun" mail. December is the one month of the year where the "good" mail outweighs the "bad" mail. Did you know you can learn a lot about people based on when their Christmas cards arrive? You have the overachievers: their cards will arrive precisely on December 1st! You have the Goldilocks mailers: their cards will be not too early and not too late but just right! You also have the late bloomers: their Christmas cards turn into Happy New Years updates. Finally, you have those who might send out cards every couple of years because I, I mean they, just don't get around to it every year.

Whenever they come, I enjoy getting them. My favorites are the ones with personal pictures. Have you seen the great designs you can make all with a few simple clicks on your computer?? I love these from Shutterfly! We've used them for cards and prints before, and my all-time favorite of their products is their hardback photo books like these! I love scrapbooking, but I feel so much more comfortable leaving these out for my girls to pick up and look through (not to mention that they are way faster and easier to make!). Anyway, if you are a fellow blogger, Shutterfly is offering a promotion right now to give away 50 free cards if you write a post about them and their promotion. Guess I need to narrow down my choice, and pick out my free cards to send out this year!!

P. S. (Can you do a P.S. on a blog post??) What do you do with all the Christmas cards you receive? I'm always trying to come up with a creative way to display/enjoy them through the holiday season.  

Our First Christmas

In a way, we feel like this year will be our first Christmas. It will be the first of many Christmases that we spend together as a family in our own home (we'll do all our traveling after the fact). Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year, and I've been dreaming up grand plans and traditions that we can make our own this year. In the back of my mind, though, there's always been a part of me that thinks that I don't make a big enough deal about why we celebrate Christmas. In the past, it has been too easy for me to keep that thought in the back of my mind, or to just satisfy it by throwing in some little conversations here and there and adding in a little extra Bible reading.

Yesterday, I read this, and it completely changed my outlook. You have to stop and read it now, or the rest of this post will not make much sense.

My first reaction was thinking this is crazy! Who'd give up presents at Christmas time?! What kind of bad parent would you have to be to not get your kids any Christmas presents?!

My second reaction was one of guilt. Why do I think it's okay to be satisfied with making Christ a small part of Christmas? How can I feel bad about giving up my presents when God gave up His Son for me?

My third reaction was hope. As in, I hope that I can just feel bad about this for a while, and then go back to having "real" Christmas plans, or I hope that maybe God just wants to show me to do a little better at sharing the true meaning of Christmas with my girls.

My fourth reaction was shame. I'm sorry, I can't be a better follower of You. I just can't.

My fifth reaction was to question. Why can't I? What is holding me back? What lessons do I want to teach my girls? What do they need that they don't already have? Is getting them a new doll or toy that will be played with for a while and then be forgotten under the bed more important than teaching them to love and care for others because we love Jesus and want others to love Him? Why can't I?

My final reaction was one of acceptance and excitement. In fact, the more I thought about it while I was waiting to talk about it with Andy, the more excited I got! I think the clincher for me was thinking about it as Jesus' birthday (not that I've never heard that before - just that I've never taken the time to honestly think about how we celebrate His birthday). Birthdays were always a huge deal in my house when I was growing up. They were pretty much equivalent to a national holiday. I've continued in that pattern and made my girls' birthdays a pretty big deal every year. Why have I made Jesus' birthday a big deal for us instead of for Him?  Well, things are about to change!

With this being our "first" Christmas, it's the perfect time to set new traditions. Here's our take on it. We are going to give presents to Jesus for his birthday! It's not about us - it's about Him! On Christmas morning, the girls will have one special present from us to help us talk about the most important gift that we've ever received. They will have stockings as their "treat bags" from Jesus at His party. We will then spend time around the Christmas tree with catalogs from Compassion, Samaritan's Purse, Partners International Harvest of Hope, World Vision, Gospel for Asia, and any others we find. Together, we will pick out presents for Jesus.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25: 34-40.

*For clarification, I don't think that gift giving at Christmas time is wrong. Our Christmas will actually last about a week with all the traveling and spending time with our families, and many presents will be given and received over that time. For us, in our own home though, this is how we have chosen to celebrate our Christmas morning and our personal gift exchanges. 

On the Road . . . Again

Wednesday the girls and I loaded up the car and set off for NC. We have many scheduled stops and tons of fun planned. The night before we left, Andy said, "You are taking Oreo, right?" (Yeah, he's still not a huge fan of us having a dog, but between you and me, I think he doesn't want to get too attached because that way none of the dog responsibilities will end up on his plate. Guess, I understand why because I cleverly managed to "temporarily" make changing Felix's litter box his responsibilty over 6 years ago and guess who has continued to change it ever since??) Anyway, of course Oreo had to come along. I tried my hardest to get a cute shot of them all in the back seat. You know what they say -

If at first you don't succeed,

try

try

try again

. . . and then just give up!

For the record, Oreo was only insanely crazy for about the first 15 minutes. After that, he curled up and pretty much slept the whole way! 

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Monday we celebrated the girls 5th and 6th birthdays. How did that happen?? I can't believe how quickly they are growing up, but as sad as it is to think about how they're not babies anymore, every year just gets better and better. I'm looking forward to all the fun and excitement these ages will bring.

We spent the day together as a family at the Atlanta aquarium, visited The Varsity for dinner, and then headed over to Stephen and Rachel's house (my brother and his wife) for some cake and ice cream. Whew! Busy day! Of course, I took a ton of pictures, you can click here to see all of them, but here are a few highlights.

Thinking about how big the girls are now led me to looking through all the pictures of them growing up to this point. I also found a few old video clips, so here's a little walk down memory lane.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cake, Cake, and More Cakes

It's about time! I've finally found most of my cake pictures and have them all together in one place! I'm definitely learning as I go, and I'm always looking for an excuse to make a cake! Want to check them out? You can click the Just Icing on the Cake link at the top of the page, or you can always just go to it directly at justicingonthecake.blogspot.com

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, and November 20 is National Adoption Day. If you are considering adoption as a way to grow your family, why don't you take some extra time to pray about it this month. If you are not considering adoption at this time in your life, why don't you give it some thought and prayer.

Will you accept the challenge to do something to help adoptions this month? You may choose to set aside some time for some serious prayer this month, or you may choose to donate some of your time, money, or supplies to help the cause of either domestic or international adoption.

Our family is planning some special activities this month to help us celebrate our adoption and the country we are adopting from. Want some ideas? Here's a neat little calendar I found with an idea for every day of the month.