Last Friday, we had some friends over for dinner. We had a great time! Sorry Matt...I couldn't get one with your eyes open!
I love this picture of Kevin in action! I have the most wonderful husband!
Emily was a little angel and here she is working on her contributions to the meal!
This year, God put it on our hearts to have different people that are a part of our lives, share with Emily something about Christmas.
It has been so neat that as we have asked different people to share with Emily about Christmas, each person brings a different perspective to the table.
Stan Anderson helped Emily to understand that Jesus is in your heart when you ask Him to live there.
Big Papa explained to Emily that Jesus is The Reason we celebrate Christmas.
Mommy has been working to help Emily understand that Jesus is a light that shines in our hearts. And that Jesus has come to help us.
Daddy has been teaching Emily that Jesus came as a Servant King.
Here is a picture of Melvin and Christy reading Emily a story. We had asked them to share with Emily the Christmas story.
Christy shared with Emily that because of the sin in our hearts we are separated from God. But, because of this sin God sent to us Jesus, so that we could be close to God.
It has been such a joy to our entire family, as we have tried to keep our attention on Christ during this Advent Season.
Perhaps one great treasure of parenting is the lessons that you, as the parent learn! As Kevin and I have tried to use this Season to teach Emily about who Christ is...we too are learning more and more about who He is!
As we meditate on the magnitude of how eternity came to finite earth, to save broken man, we are falling more and more in love with The Christ Child!
This past Sunday, after Church, we headed over to Grammy's house to decorate Christmas cookies. Aunt Mindy & Aunt Jennifer were there. They brought Tyler, Madison & Katie, so you can only imagine the blast Emily had!
Christian enjoyed his cousins too!
Here is Jennifer with Dad. They are actually cousins.
Christian enjoyed the festivities, although he spent most of his day in the baby carrier!
The kids had a great time! It was so neat to see the different kinds of creativity each child had to offer.
Madison came up with some beautiful designs for her cookies!
And Emily tried to learn from Gi Gi the art of decorating.
She tried it for a little while...
But then got a little bored....
And did her share of sampling! You should have seen her blue mouth!
Tyler, as always was a real sport! He helped us look after Emily & Christian. And was a true delight to be around!
Even when little ones acted like little stink pots!
After decorating the kids and I headed upstairs to read a couple of stories about the birth of Christ. After I read my story, instead of an encore...Emily asked if Katie would read! This was a true blessing to watch.
I am not sure how much of this cookie you can make out...but it was an Emily original! That's right and original piece of art! That was soon to be...eaten!
Gi Gi packaged up the cookies we decorated and we took some to a local nursing home.
It was so special to see the residents light up when they saw little Emily's smile. "Merry Christmas" she told them. "Jesus loves you!"
As we neared the end of our time at the nursing home the inevitable happened! We reached the last cookie! Gi Gi promised Emily that if she would give up this cookie...she would have a very special one all her own at home.
She thought about it...
Debated...
And she did the right thing! She gave her cookie away with another "Merry Christmas!"
When we got back to Gi Gi's house, Gi Gi read Emily a classic Christmas Story. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. This is a wonderful story about how God has a very special place for those who are "different". This little lamb, while he was crippled and always left out of activities the other lambs were able to participate in, he was the lamb that was chosen to keep baby Jesus warm, when He was born in the stable.
And as you can see...Emily got her cookie!
Later that afternoon, we went to pick Daddy up from work,
And traveled to The Hunnewells to see their many Nativity Scenes.
Emily had a great time checking out all of the differnt kinds of Nativity Scenes they had.
Christian enjoyed himself too!
He got lots of attention!
Emily wasespecially excited to see this nativity scene!
We were very greatful to The Hunnewells for allowing us to share in their Christmas traditions!
I think Emily learned about the wisemen from Mrs. Hunnewell. Somthing I had not really talked with her about.
When we got home, we had dinner and Emily got her PJs on. Kevin was busy working on Christmas cards and Christian and I were doing laundry. Emily was watching a movie...
And this is how I found her! She gets it honestly! My sister and I have both been know to bite our toenails!
