Saturday, December 24, 2011

December 24th

Can you believe that it is Christmas Eve? Where has all the time gone? Lucy is so excited about Santa coming tonight! We baked cookies this morning and then decorated them. It was a lot of fun, as you can tell. . .






We went to Weaverville UMC tonight for their Christmas Eve service. Salem UMC only has an 11 PM service and I knew there was no way that Lucy would be awake for that. It was a nice service but the best part was being able to attend church together simply as a family. I can't think of any time since Lucy was born where we have just been able to sit together and worship as a family. . . no one had to play, no one had to preach. . . we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves! ;)

Lucy and Daddy before we went to church


We told Zoey goodbye tonight. She has been watching Lucy carefully and apparently today, she called to tell Santa that Lucy has been good. She'll be gone tomorrow, back to the North Pole to help Santa until next year!


So the cookies and milk are by the tree, with some carrots for the reindeer. We are ready for Santa's arrival!


Within the realms of all this excitement, here's a little reminder from Lucy of what this season truly is about:



Merry Christmas to all!!!!!

Friday, December 23, 2011

December 23rd

Are you on Pinterest?? I have to admit, this website has become an obsession for me. I waste so much time here, sadly. Of course, is it a true waste of time if I get ideas to use??? I find tons of great recipes, ideas for school, ways to be more organized, as well as fun ideas for things to do with Lucy.

The first group of pictures in this series are from our baking adventures in the kitchen today. There are SO many great recipes on Pinterest and I have made many in the past few months. Some are delicious, some are not so great, but it's always fun to try something new. I found this recipe for Cherry Christmas Salad (you can click HERE to read the recipe yourself!) - we decided we'd like to try it for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Lucy and I set to work this afternoon to get it ready for tomorrow.

I opened cans and Lucy poured everything in. . .

While Mommy stirred, Lucy cleaned the lid of the Cool Whip container . .. wasn't that thoughtful?! ;)

Lucy's favorite part was adding the marshmallows (which for some reason she calls "mill flowers" - so cute!!)

The finished product - not it just needs to chill in the refrigerator until dinner tomorrow! What a good helper!

Tomorrow morning, we are going to bake our Christmas cookies for Santa. Lucy loves to help in the kitchen and she has already picked out her cookie cutters to use tomorrow.

The next set of pictures are inspired by an another idea I got from Pinterest. There are all kinds of tips on how to use your camera, your photo editing programs, and ideas for cute new pictures. I saw this idea and had to try it for myself. I promise, Lucy was closely supervised while playing with the lights! :)






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Thursday, December 22, 2011

December 22nd


Lucy and Kamden, walking to get Cheese Pizza!! :)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

December 21st

We took Lucy to the Grove Park this afternoon to see the Gingerbread houses. She seemed to be in a great mood when we left school, but she wasn't quite in the holiday spirit while we toured around. Oh well, I guess that's life with a two year old!! :)

Maybe M & M's will keep us happy. . .

Hard to believe this is all edible!

This one was made by a bakery, so I don't think it really counts. . .

This was the winner for the teen division. Lucy loves the movie Despicable Me, especially the minions!

Snoopy!!

Lucy's favorite gingerbread - it has DORA!!

Trying to get a decent picture. . .

This tree was covered in fishing related ornaments, including a fishing pole, with a fish hanging from the line. It looks like she's crying, but she's actually laughing hysterically as she knocks the fish back and forth!

Lucy was so excited to see the Gingerbread Man. . until we got over there and then she wanted nothing to do with him.

By this time, she was ready to leave. So we bribed her to stay a little longer by buying her a ridiculously large Jingle Bell. Yes, I realize that buying your child off is not the best style of parenting, but it worked for a little while!


We probably shouldn't have waited in line to take our picture in Santa's sleigh, even though Lucy said she wanted to. By the time we got there, she was done. (As you can tell!!!)

We didn't make it down the wing of the Grove Park that held all the adult winners, which was disappointing. However, I was not going to subject these people to my bell-ringing, screaming child who wanted nothing more than to go home. So we left - I guess I'll just have to watch the Today show in order to see the winners.

We went to dinner with the Robinson family tonight. Hopefully, I can get Kevin to email me the pictures of Lucy and Kamden - they were SO cute, holding hands as they walked to dinner! :)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

December 20th

Today, Lucy brought home all that she had been working on at school this month. I loved her little art projects so much that I decided to share them with you! :) There is also a present under the tree that Lucy made at school. We promised Lucy we would wait until Christmas to open it, but Baxter keeps sniffing around it, so he may beat us to it!!



Monday, December 19, 2011

December 19th (pictures)

Here are photos from today. . .

We took Baxter to get a bath this afternoon so he would smell nice for the holidays. So Lucy decided she needed a hat for this outing. .. . I need to remember to hide the Dora hat. . . . .


Tonight we introduced Lucy to the movie, Elf. She made it through about 30 minutes before getting bored . . . although her favorite part was the credits at the beginning! ;)

December 19th

I read this article this afternoon, and I felt the need to share it. One of the things I have struggled with as Lucy becomes more and more aware of everything about Christmas is finding balance. How do you balance the Santa, and Christmas trees, and reindeer and jingle bells, with the HOPE, JOY, PEACE, and LOVE that Christ brought in His birth in a lowly stable? How do we justify the business of the season without becoming overwhelmed by every thing we have to do as well as everything we want to do?

Well, this article sums up those feelings and how to deal with all that comes with Christmas really well. It comes from www.desiringgod.org, a website full of resources by John Piper. This blog entry is by Rachel Jankovic and it is found here: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/of-kids-and-christmas. I have copied it here, just for your ease of reading. . . . hope that you find some meaning in it as well.

One of the serious responsibilities of parenthood is pulling off Christmas. If you have a little posse of kids you already know what I am talking about. Weeks and weeks of mad-dashing and shopping and wrapping and brainstorming and decorating and planning and pouring eggnog and peeling baggy oranges and unsticking candy-canes from table tops and carpets and the bottom of hot chocolate mugs. Frantically realizing that you failed to mail packages in time, or that you forgot to order in time for free shipping, or that you still haven’t done the gingerbread house kit with the kids, and that you’ve even managed to fall four days behind on the Advent calendar.

Then there are all the things that you are trying to do differently than last year — the things learned from unfortunate experience. Correcting gift imbalances. Learning what kinds of stocking stuffers actually survive past Christmas afternoon.

And, of course, you are stressing yourself out with what seems like completely unnecessary work. Who wanted to sew everyone new pajamas in the first place? Who thought we should be knitting the Christmas stockings? Why is it after midnight and I am still up making caramels? What is the point of messing around with a real tree, with lights, with sick amounts of baking?

On top of this, basic parenting through the Christmas season can be a real minefield, too. Sometimes the kids start being greedy, sometimes things that you wanted to be special aren’t even noticed. Sometimes no one wants to sing Christmas carols around the dinner table.

Not Exactly a Catalog Shot

Christmas comes to the real families of this real world. Often, it doesn’t look like a catalog shot, but more like a blooper reel. Turkeys burn. Gravy clots into lumps. Presents that you thought came with batteries didn’t. You end up presenting someone’s gift in a garbage bag. Kids might get grabby around the Christmas tree. People might not like the gift you thought they would like, and they can even be too tired to pretend. Headaches know no seasonal bounds. Life happens.

This is why we have all heard people talk about Christmas like we all just need to get a grip. Where has our spirituality gone that we are worrying about a holiday five weeks in advance? Real Christians would celebrate quietly around the fire with some spiritual reflections, perhaps some small handmade token, or just a loving smile. There would have been no stress in that Christmas, only calm. There would be a sensibly portioned meal with no excess of pie or fudge or stray cookie platters. There would be some restraint. What are we really teaching our children about holy days? And why are we apparently so willing to float down the raging stream of our consumerist culture?

The Earth-Shaking Magic

I certainly support the variety of traditions that people use to celebrate Christmas, but there is one very important part of Christmas that is all too often overlooked, and it applies to everyone. Brace yourselves. . . .

Christmas is the ultimate celebration of the material. Because Christmas is the time when God became man. Word to Flesh. Unfettered spirit to the hazards and joys and stresses of physical life. Think about it. Some people want to filter the material out of Christmas and morph it into some pure ethereal spirit religious day. And some people want to filter all the spiritual out of it and make it simply a holiday celebrating the purchasing power of plastic. But the power of Christmas is when spiritual and material meet. And it always has been. That is the joy of the season, that is the good news, that is the laughter and the paradox and the earth-shaking magic of Christmas. The infinite Word became a physical baby.

It wasn’t like that first Christmas was a time of quiet reflection. Mary and Joseph were on a huge last-minute trip. And she’s big pregnant on a donkey? Think of it. It sounds like the worst travel experience of all time. No room. No bed. No privacy. Baby coming. Not just any baby either — one Mary knew was the Messiah. Angels? Shepherds dropping in? You think she felt dressed for that? I doubt Mary had time to throw together a cheese platter. She was in a barn, forced to place the King of kings — her Lord — in a trough. And I doubt her livestock roommates were quite as cute as they look in the storybooks.

The truth is, that’s what it’s like when the Spiritual becomes Material. When God became Man. It’s not easy, because it turns the world upside down, a true cataclysm of joy.

If We Lose Sight

Our celebrations aren’t supposed to be smooth, effortless bits of quiet either. They should be as big and as glorious and as spiritual and as physical as we can make them.

Clearly, the attitude with which everything is done is important. If the house is full of physical holiday cheer, but Mom is yelling about the snow boots by the door, the blending has not been complete. If Christmas dinner turns out beautifully, but no one wants to be together, something has gone wrong. But the remarkable thing is that doing it all wrong, having bad attitudes, and resenting the work will not affect the power of Christmas at all. The neighbors throwing money at their children and resenting each other will not slow down anything.

That first Christmas was enough for all time, and no amount of fussing from us about all the busy work will slow it down. We can give each other stink-eyes all day long, and the world will just go on being transformed. The only thing that we can actually damage by losing sight of the point of Christmas is our children.

We Are Christmas to Our Children

Because what we do on Christmas is an acted out statement of faith. To our children, we are Christmas. We are their memories. We are the story. We are acting out both the surprised shepherds in the fields with their problems and squabbles and regular lives, and also the heavenly host that came to them singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.”

We can’t stop being the shepherds this side of glory, and God doesn’t want us to. He wants us to be the shepherds the whole way through that story. Listening, fearing, following, worshipping. We are bringing our children alongside us as we come in out of our worldly fields, smelling like sheep, to fall at the feet of an infant king in a trough, beside livestock and an exhausted teenaged mother. This is what Christmas is all about. So stay up past twelve making fudge, and do it laughing. Revel in the candy-cane carnage and sap and shopping and crunchy pine-needles in the carpet. Show your children that we serve the Word made Flesh.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

December 18th



This isn't much for today. .. it was a busy day with the Cantata followed by a nap, and then Michael and I went to the Biltmore House. Of course, there are no pictures from that since you can't take pictures in the house, but it was a lot of fun! :) I'll try to have more tomorrow. . .

Saturday, December 17, 2011

December 17th

Tonight, Lucy decided she wanted to wear a dress to "Old Church" (MRUMC), where I am playing for their cantata. Since she looked so cute, I couldn't resist getting a couple of pictures before we left. So we got out the rocking chair Pappy made for us, put it by the tree and snapped away. Before we get to tonight's photos, enjoy a walk down memory lane with me at Lucy in the rocking chair for the two Christmases before. .. I can't believe how much she's grown!!

Christmas 2009


Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

I know - where did my baby girl go???


We had some outtakes too. . . .

And got distracted by ornaments. . .

Michael snapped a couple pictures of us before we left too. . .

Friday, December 16, 2011

December 16th

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Weaverville. It was a warm day for December and Lucy wanted to go play outside when we got home. We took her tricycle down to the church parking lot to ride around. Sorry there are no pictures of that - she was a bit of a wild child on her trike, so I spent most of the time chasing behind her, making sure she didn't fall off! :)

After the trike riding, she wanted to go up and down the stairs. . which we did over and over again. . .



We took a walk up the road to say hello to the cows in the pasture across the street. Lucy wanted to get closer, but I had to explain that the barbed wire was there for a reason!


And finally, here is Lucy's favorite new face. Whenever you tell her to say, "Cheese," this is what you get!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

December 15th



Another video for today. . . this is Lucy, singing "Away in a Manger" as she "reads" her book. Her version often goes something like this:

Away in a manger
Jesus in a bed
The star in the sky
Little Lord Jesus asleep in a bed

SOO Cute!! :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

December 14th (Part 2)

Sorry the videos in the previous post are a poor quality. They looked so much better on my phone. . . oh well. School has finally ended for me and so now, maybe I will have a little time to breathe!! It has been a crazy hectic schedule since the beginning of November for me, and I thought for sure this last week of school was going to do me in for good. Fortunately, we made it through and now it's time for some holiday relaxation. :)

Since I haven't been able to get to it, here are the pictures from Lucy's program on Monday night. As you can see, the shots of her during the program aren't great because we were so far away, but you get the idea, right??

Waiting in the classroom for Ms. Dianne. . .
this is Lucy's favorite book at school!

Ms. Jenny walked in front right as I took the picture

Lucy, getting ready to wave to Mommy and Daddy again!


After the program, we let Lucy choose where we ate dinner. . .
she picked Arbys! (At least it wasn't IHOP - her new favorite)

Daddy told her to make a silly face. . .

Then she made another one. .. :)

Also, Zoey the Elf has been quite mischievous lately. . . . .




Lucy has had so much fun hunting for her every morning!!