Let the festivities begin!

We started celebrating Christmas this week with Mike's family. I really like spreading Christmas out over two weeks. This is all rather raw footage - nothing fancy. But it felt has cozy as it looks in these pictures to me.

Thank you Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Doug. We love you. Merry Christmas!

And this...

...is why we asked for some matchbox cars for Christmas.

In case your baby Jesus comes up missing...

Or your socks for that matter. Olivia has taken to putting every member of the Nativity in her socks - the ones from her feet. She takes off her socks (daily) and fills them with the holy family and their visitors. Most of the time they remain crammed in the barn; however, they have been found in various places around the house...and they are always in "the bag" that leaves the house with her and sleeps in her bed. She is kind of like Queen Elizabeth with her bag - always nestled in the crook of her arm, even while she sleeps.

Baking Christmas cookies "with" the kids

Maybe I should say baking Christmas cookies near the kids. It doesn't help that one of us is six months pregnant and doesn't even really enjoy baking/cooking all that much anyway(clearly that is not me...I love to cook). Plus the fact that we didn't really make it a kid friendly event - we used all new recipes (including some gluten-free ones for a friend who will be at our cookie shin-dig tonight) and didn't really know what we were doing. They begged and begged to watch "the sheep movie" (it is a Christmas cartoon about a sheep who was at Christ's birth...I think), but then they only watched it for about 10 minutes. I can't say that really bothers me all that much.














So this was the older girls' contribution - supervising the oven...and taste testing the results of course.

As you can see from the previous post, Mike made it back safely from Israel. I think he is still in the process of going through pictures and should put some more on his blog. I told him you can't title a post "Day 1" and then leave out days 2-4.

We have been a bit busy working on various Christmas projects and just getting back into a family routine. Mike should be done with all of his school projects as of today and his parents get here tomorrow for the beginning of our two weeks worth of Christmas. I love it!

It is overcast, a bit snowy, and about 20 degrees outside. It is perfect for snuggling up for a warm nap...but by the current sounds of it, Joseph is not convinced so I better go.

From our house to yours...

(We couldn't decide which recitation was clearer. You decide. Or for a translation see Luke 2:9-11. And excuse Olivia's ragamuffin hair - she was pre-coif at breakfast.)

Note to Readers

We are on a bit of a blog hiatus while MIKE IS IN ISRAEL. He took our camera and will be posting pics and updates on their travels. He already has one post up! You can link to his blog just to the right on The Approach.

She's got...

...the wonderful love of her blessed Redeemer way down the steps of her heart.

Hope you do too.

I ain't much

But it's out there and she's playing in it...in her pajamas.