Happy New Year!

Ok, I guess it's really a Christmas wrap up, but I thought you might have tired of Christmas so I jumped ahead to New Year's in the title. We had such a great time with the Whitmans. Aunt Joanna had us absolutely in stitches for most of the opening presents time. I didn't post pictures of her doing her very best imitation of an old smoker on oxygen. I literally had tears running down my face. I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. (If you're on Facebook, you can catch them in my album there.)

At the end she gave us a gift for hosting Christmas. It may mean more than any other gift since Aunt Jo is not an Alabama fan. Not even a little. If you look closely at the picture above, you will see that the gift was Crimson Tide Night Before Christmas. Not only did she buy it for us, she read it to us, after almost losing her dinner. (That also made us laugh since she didn't recognize many of the references.) It was a very thoughtful gift.

The young guns are growing up. Bennett is taller than I am, James has become quite photogenic (especially in Papa's new hat), Barrett is always such a sweetheart (and my eggnog buddy) and Christopher, The Youngest, is always having a hard time with the bigger kids it seems.

Well, except for this one time. Christopher rocks.

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a prosperous New Year. (And, oh, Roll Tide, Roll!)

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia

Unconventional blog post today. Still recovering from Christmas so I lazily am sharing this, which I loved. Hope you enjoy.

Merry Christmas

This is our Jesse Tree. We have readings in the Bible and an amplification of that Scripture each day starting November 27th. It starts all the way back at the beginning with Adam and Eve showing the redemptive story throughout God's love letter to us. Each reading has a corresponding felt piece of the story that hangs on Jesse's Tree. (I am always so appreciative that Aunt Jo and my mom made me one just before Christopher was born.)

We don't always get to a reading every day, but I realized this year the importance of the tradition to my boys. I like that because this is the true meaning of Christmas...God's great love for us even from the foundations of the earth.

I hope you all have a Merry and very blessed Christmas.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We're all ready for our Christmas Eve service. It's so much fun, especially the 4 or 6 pm service, because there are soooo many kids who get soooo ansy. I confess looking at them a bit smugly knowing that I am beyond trying to keep a 3-year-old quiet for an hour while looking like I'm listening and have it totally under control.

James has decided we're starting a new Christmas tradition. We're staying up until midnight to open our gifts. I'm not sure how he convinced me and his dad that this was a good idea...maybe it was the chance we might be able to sleep late in the morning. We'll see how it goes. It'll be the first Christmas ever where I have on makeup for the pictures. I guess that should go in the pro column.

From our house to yours - Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Jesus. Thank you for your gift to us.

2 Days to Go

I love nativity scenes. My house is filled with them at Christmas. Elaborate ones and very basic ones. I'm not sure why other than nothing says Christmas to me more than a nativity and I do love Christmas. Today I was pondering one of my oldest sets. We either got it the year we were married or the next, I can't really remember. It's been through a lot. Mary's arm has been broken off, the paint is starting to rub off of them. The paint was helped when an upstairs bathroom flooded the basement this year and there was 4 inches of water standing in the bin that had this nativity. (The shepherd boy especially lost some color after that.) I still love looking at it. The solemnity of the wise men as they look at the baby Jesus.

I know - they weren't really there when he was a baby. But I am sure they looked on him with the same reverence when they did find him. I also imagine that they were captivated by him. Probably some laughter - you know the laugh when a toddler says something profound and unexpected. I imagine Jesus did that often to his mother Mary.

I then think about the baby. I am positive he didn't have strawberry blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Did he cry? Was he a pleasant baby? What was he like to parent...especially when he was 13? A nice moment of meditation and then it was interrupted.

I was a bit irritated. I was meditating. I was taking pictures. I was thinking of nice thoughts to blog and Linus showed up. Then Linus quotes the line from the cartoon. Behold I bring you great tidings. Who am I to say that my nativities are the only or best way to celebrate? Christopher has picked Linus up several times today and has played this line. A pretty good reminder, I think. Great tidings indeed. Thanks, Christopher for the interruption.

Countdown to Christmas - 3 Days

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Isaiah 11:1

I guess I have to explain about the Countdown. I always countdown to Christmas Eve...not sure why that is. Maybe it's because we were always able to open one gift on Christmas Eve night, maybe because we always go to a Christmas Eve service, maybe because I always have just a few quiet moments before I go to bed to reflect.

I love to sit by our Christmas tree and remember all the stories behind our ornaments. So many of them have a nativity scene on them. I like to remember the stories around the ornaments and the story behind the ornament.

I hope you all are having a wonderful and blessed Christmas season.

Christmas Countdown Continued - 4 Days Left

And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.

Luke 2:6

Just a sentence. A fairly brief one at that. For anyone who has given birth or watched someone giving birth, it is packed with meaning. Along my theme of wanting to be amazed at what Christmas is, this really hit me in a way that it hasn't before. This was the God of all gods; the Lord of all lords. He choose a unlikely mother and definitely an unlikely location to be born. No planning. How in the world did Mary do it without pre-natal classes, no hospital to rush to and no one to help? (Ok, ladies, dwell on that one. Your first pregnancy and the only person you have to help you is your brand new husband. Seriously? Did God know what He was doing?)

I think about how different that is from the stories of a royal during his coronation or announcement to the world that he is king. Such grandeur and glamour. Yes, God knew exactly what He was doing. Such contrast with the world's view - such a picture of humility.

I hope you are soaking in this greatest gift and that you are amazed.

The Christmas Countdown

Manager creation by Christopher Todd

Behold, my servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted.

Isaiah 52:13

It's hard to see how you get from a humble manger to the God of the universe saying you will be high, lifted up, exalted. It really is quite an amazing story when you think about it. I pray this Christmas season that I will see the story how God wrote it and that I will be truly and utterly amazed.