Holiday Happenings

With Thanksgiving being so late this year and an ice storm in the middle of it, this December seemed to go by faster than others.  It was full of things I loved doing as a family and some of our traditions are really starting to become real traditions.  Now that I have been a mom for 4 Christmas seasons, I have come to realize that we don't need to do every Christmas tradition and advent idea out there to make the season magical and meaningful.  We may not even be able to get to all our chosen traditions each year (we skipped outdoor lights and treats for the neighbors to name just a couple).  This year, I just did what I thought we had the capacity for and it was really enjoyable for everyone. 

After starting our decorating by putting up the nativity scene first, the girls helped me decorate the tree. We had so much fun talking about some of the special ornaments, like their "Baby's First Christmas" ones.

They kept running over to get the next one to hang up and we surprisingly only broke one in the process.  We skipped putting the glass ornament balls on this year and the tree looked just as beautiful.

Haven hosted a little Christmas PJ party for a few friends while all their big siblings were at school.  It was nice for these 4 girls to get to play together without the big kids coming up with all the ideas.  Here she is excitedly waiting for everyone to come over.  On a sidenote, in December Haven started doing this funny crooked smile, so she is like that in all the Christmas pictures.  Not sure where she got it from, but it cracks me up!

In her matching PJs with sisters, Emi and Averly.

Amelia and Lily who were too busy playing to pose for me.

We let a couple boys in because they are such cute little brothers - Caleb and Will.

One day, the girls made some easy DIY glitter ornaments which turned out pretty cute.

  During the first week of December, an icestorm hit and DFW was basically shut down for a few days.  The first day was fun and we dug out our winter gear and ran outside to play.  By the third day we were getting burned out on drinking hot chocolate and having fires and we were over it!  We are true Texans, especially my Anna! 

 

 I helped to coordinate the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree at my church again this year.  I'm so proud of the generosity of our smallish church.  We were able to sponsor over 90 angels from the neighborhoods around our church.  We tried to involve the girls as much as possible by telling them why I was calling people, having them help shop for and wrap gifts, praying for the children and even delivering gifts to a couple families.   

I just want to share one particular testimony that came out of our Angel Tree program this year because it is good to share what God is doing!  When a team delivered gifts to a family with two boys, the boys expressed interest in attending our church. A couple from church has been picking them up and bringing them to our church for almost a month now.  Their father is getting out of prison in mid-February and the boys said they want to be "ready for him".  He has been sending them letters telling them about how he found Christ and his life has changed.  The oldest boy is in high school and has recently quit doing drugs because of the letters from his dad and from going to church.  The President of Prison Fellowship found out about this story and read it to a group of wardens from around the country - when they heard it they cheered out loud!  Seventy percent of children with parents in prison will end up there themselves.  I believe that because of the power of Christ in this family's life, these boys will not have that fate.  That is a reason to cheer!       

 Making cookies!

 

 

This is how I found Caleb one morning after he was alone with his sisters for a couple minutes.  He is a good sport and I'm sure will have to endure being dressed up by them a lot more in the future!  And he makes a really cute reindeer.

We went to a singing Christmas tree program and the girls loved it.  Even busy little Haven sat still enough to watch the whole thing.

No tears when we went to see Santa this year!  (please notice Haven's crooked smile and chopped of bangs thanks to Anna :)

After all the busyness of Christmas, Brad and I needed to get away for a day to do something fun!  After brunch at one of our Fort Worth favorites, Brewed, we went iceskating at a temporary outdoor rink.  We made a bet on who would fall first since we hadn't been in years, but neither of us did! 

I was going to take Anna to see the Nutcracker for the first time, but it was cancelled due to the ice storm.  They ended up rescheduling it for after Christmas, but it was still just as magical for her.  Bless her little excited heart, she could not stop telling me things during the whole performance.  It didn't bother me at all because I could tell she was just expressing her enthusiasm for what she was watching.  Here are just a few things I jotted down:

- Right when the music began, she started moving around and told me "it's making me dance!".

- When it started snowing during the dance of the sugar plum fairy she whispered "that's not real snow, just salt"

-During the dance of the angels, again she whispered "those aren't real angels, just people in angel suits. They are beautiful".

- When the Arabian dancers came out, she said "don't you think he should put a shirt on".

I can't wait to go again next year and bring Haven with us!