Christmas Snapshots

This year, we spent Christmas at our home and enjoyed lots of our family coming to see us. Perpy and the boys enjoying Ice sculptures-until our hands and feet got so cold that we couldn't stand it.

My mom and Sam with our family

My mom got a Wii for Christmas, and Graham had so much fun playing it with her.

Christmas Eve lunch

Nana, Graham, Will, and sweet Grace along with our friend, Hiroto

Nana and Graham made a gingerbread train

Her First Ornament

For some reason, everytime I see a bird, I think of our daugther. I don't know why. It started when I was decorating our newly remodeled our bathroom and found some bird things at store. I was just drawn to them, and they made me think of her. One was a print of a mother bird watching over her nest full of eggs. It just seemed fitting.

I have lots of ornaments on the tree representing different stages in our boys' lives. From an expecting parents ornament to lots of baby's first Christmas ornaments to handmade ornaments the boys have made, our tree is full of ornaments for our children. I knew I wanted to find an ornament for our daughter, and when I found a dainty, ceramic bird, I knew it was perfect for her first ornament. Graham helped me hang it on the tree, and I like to look at it often. It helps my heart to feel a little closer to hers. I can't wait to show it to her next year and to talk about it every year when we hang it on our tree.

I found some ceramic ornaments for the kids to paint and they helped me paint a bird for our baby girl. It's blue with glitter and on the back I wrote, "waiting for our baby girl".

We are waiting for you, sweet baby girl. Our hearts long for you to be with us next Christmas.

When Love came down to earth...

This Season, my heart has been overwhelmed with the humble manner in which our King came to redeem the world. I just keep feeling amazed that our Savior did not come with great fanfare and earthly glory but as a gently, helpless baby.
We sang this song in church on Sunday, and my heart was touched again. If only you could have heard it! What love has come to us! Merry Christmas!

When love came down to earth
And made His home with men,
The hopeless found a hope,
The sinner found a friend.
Not to the powerful,
But to the poor He came,
And humbled hearts
Were satisified in Him.

What joy, what peace has come to us!
What hope, what help, what love!

Traditions

Traditions...you gotta love them. They help connect our memories from year to year, create bonds among family and friends, and teach us about what is truly valuable.



I love the short-lived tradition my best friend, Christine, and I made over the Christmas breaks during our college years. We would get together and make ornaments. Some of them made of glass balls and dough still hang on my tree. As I show them to Graham and we talk about each one, I remember her sweet friendship and our precious times together.



I also have some ornaments hanging on my tree that my parents gave me when I was a child. We had the tradition of recieving a new ornament every year, and my mom passed along those ornaments to me when I became an adult. Seeing the little brass angel with its dangling bell or the white ceramic bear with the red bow bring up some tender memories of when I was a little girl.



I remember the tradition my brother created with me when we were little. Every Christmas morning long before anyone else was awake, he would sneak in my room and wake me up so we could go see the goodies waiting for us by the tree.



Tim and I are trying to create traditions with our children in hopes that someday they will look back and smile on the ways they celebrated Christmas as children. Some of them are simple and fun like making ornaments to give to family. Some of them will hopefully show love to others like baking treats to pass out to our neighbors. And some of them, the most treasured, will help to remind us of the truths of Christmas. They will center us around the manager and cause our hearts to adore the Savior.



I love the tradition of the Jesus birthday cake Tim and his sister had in their house growing up, so now we bake a cake for Jesus with our children every year. Another special tradition is the Jesse Advent tree. A few years ago, I got together with some ladies in my church to make ornament for the Jesse tree. The 25 ornaments represent different prophecies written about in the Old Testament that foresee the coming of the Christ. Every night, the boys are excited to find out which ornament we will hang on the little Jesse tree. They might not understand all of it now, but in years to come, I hope it will become an important tradition to them.



I would love to hear some of the traditions you had as a child or ones you are now creating as an adult.

Puppies!

Andrew's neighbors' dog had puppies, and he invited us over to play with them. They were adorable, and the kids loved it.