Christmas Memories 2009

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Our new Christmas song
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I have so many pics of Christmas day that is was hard to choose just a few to post here. So I'm just posting this video right now because it captures so well how Tess reacted the whole day ~ fully engaged with every present! (It took forever for her to open her gifts because every time she opened a new one she wanted to stop and play with it for awhile ~ and I don't blame her!) I was concerned she may become a little overwhelmed with everything so we saved one present for the evening after nap & dinner. We gave her a wooden train set in the morning which she really enjoyed and we knew she would enjoy this gift also...we just didn't realize she would bust out singing a song that she learned from somewhere ~even if it is just "twinkle twinkle little star" over and over again. Twinkle Twinkle isn't one of the songs we sing a lot so she has picked it up from somewhere...Sesame Street or Sunday School (that's a good combo right?!?) Anyway, she got her guitar which she already had, and was a one woman show! Watch her debut music video by clicking here!

Christmas Eve = Christmas Eve Service &
New PJS!

Both Brent & I grew up in the preachers house, which meant one of the things we always attended was the Christmas Eve service. It is no different these days except now we have a little person in tow and I'm married to the preacher!

Dad getting Tess ready!

Tess is very comfortable at church..practicing with the praise team.

Tess and her buddy Cara...Tess is one week older than Cara!

This was the best I could get of these two wiggle worms.
It was after the service and we had 2 tired girls on our hands.

My friend Angela had a tradition of giving her family all new pjs on Christmas Eve to wear on Christmas day. Several years before we moved she began to include Brent & I in this tradition. It was always fun to see what type of jammies she had chosen for us. I thought it was a great idea so after we moved away I began doing the Christmas Eve pj thing!

Tess loving her new footie pjs!

So the evening came to an end...quiet and still...anticipating the next day!

Global Warming !!

God showered us with beautiful snow Friday and Saturday. It snowed pretty heavy Friday night and all day Sat. It was beautiful and we loved being snowed in (our city is not well prepared for this amount of snow so as of today~Sunday~none of our neighborhood or nearby roads have been plowed ~ and we live downtown!) My parents are laughing at us now, they live in Maine! We did go out today after digging out a little...I should say after my husband dug out~someone had to take the pictures. Tess loved being outside and helping daddy shovel. We were going to make a snowman but the snow was too fluffy, so instead she walked up and down the sidewalk helping in her own special way! She didn't want to come in but after about an hour or so outside she picked her shovel up and dumped snow all over her face and down her coat ~ time to warm up and take a nap. If you've ever had to get a toddler ready to go outside in the snow you know that it is exhausting and you're sweating by the time you get outside so I was ready for the nap part! I have a feeling the snow will be here for a couple of days so we may have a white Christmas after all!

The Best Part is the Dough

Every year some ladies at my church bake cookies and this year Tess & I were invited to join them. I thought it would be a fun Christmas tradition and Tess had a ball (literally, notice the rolled dough on the table in the first pic) I gave her a pile of her own dough and let her do whatever she wanted with it. She rolled, poked, tasted & carried around the dough ball in hot pads saying "it's hot" and made a big mess! It was fun and the cookies were yummy! We decorated some and brought them home to daddy. What a fun day watching my little girl explore something new ~ cookie dough! Thanks ladies for allowing us to take part in your "cookie day!"

This is why we celebrate!

Forget the malls, the hustle and bustle of people trying to find the "perfect" gift, the overwhelming amount of Santas & sleighs (don't roll your eyes, I'm not a Santa hater...just think that his image has TAKEN OVER the season with little to no reference of the real Saint Nicholas.) How we progressed from the story of a Godly man helping those in need to the image we see today is interesting and you can read it here but I digress. I'm not on a "get rid of Santa" crusade, I just know that when my almost 2 yr. old can easily identify Santa because he is EVERYWHERE, we may have to work harder at showing her images of what we believe to be the reason behind the Christmas season, the birth of our Savior! Thus the picture. I try and talk about the scene on our table to her, we point to Mary the mommie, Joseph the daddy, and all the animals and then we come to the baby...Emmanuel....God WITH us....JESUS!! I pray one day my little one will come to understand the significance of this birth. A birth unlike any other. A baby unlike any other. A Redeemer, a Messiah, a King, a Lamb! This is the reason we celebrate!