God's gifts from celebrating the birth of Christ

What a joy to celebrate Christmas with family, friends, and our church body.

From our week of anticipating and celebrating Christmas...

- More snow and Adrianna's second snow day
- Adrianna and Abel working together to make a peg board picture


- Rusty cuddling with the kids' toys
- The evidence of Adrianna and Abel playing so nicely together while I showered
- Adrianna having a grand time cutting apart the grocery bags
- Abel's tow truck rides
- More fun playing in the snow



- Greeting the kids with gluten-free pumpkin doughnut when they came in from the cold 




- Adrianna making her own "I Spy" page
 - Getting to watch Adrianna present her "Christmas in Ethiopia" poster to her class
- Adrianna wrapping Christmas presents for the first time
- Adrianna decorating Ruthie

- Making snow flakes with Adrianna
- Abel and Scott playing soccer ball catch
- Acting out the Christmas story with our nativity set


- Abel playing with the little boy I will be watching a few hours a day and showing him how to use his play mat
- Abel making his food into a train
- Finishing the Christmas story the next night, and Abel understanding what to do better the second time

- Adrianna helping in so many ways and being so excited about playing with the baby

 - Having a craft morning with the kids while the baby slept


- The kids using the nativity set with our "church"
- Making masking tape Christmas pictures (as seen on Play at home mom)
- Scott's "sleeping Abel" picture
- Running errands with my mother-in-law

- "More tickles, Dad?"
- Sharing the Jesse Tree Journey (www.aholyexperience.com) with Grandma
- "Count down to Jesus' birthday?"
- The entertainment of an empty laundry basket
- Playing with the word tiles with Adrianna, and realizing that she can read most of them now
- Making coconut milk ice cream with the kids
- Adrianna playing "fishing," and her preparing the fish for us to eat
- Heading for a concert with my in-laws, and finding out it was canceled as we arrived there
... And driving around to see Christmas lights, instead

- Waking to hearing the Adrianna and Abel singing Christmas carols together through the monitor

- Adrianna dressing up for Christmas Eve
- Experiencing a local Christmas Eve tradition
... And being so cold

- Remembering again a Christmas Eve
... And thinking on the sacrificial gift of one earthly father and one Heavenly Father

 - Sharing Christmas with the kids
... And thinking how much Abel has changed since last Christmas







- "Mommy, where's my phone??"




 - Scott surprising me with some much-needed sun glasses
- Having Scott's parents over for our traditional Christmas breakfast

- Attending church on the day we celebrate Jesus's earth coming

- Opening presents with Scott's parents










- Adrianna giving scratches while listening to her stories
- The day after Christmas breakfast: pumpkin pie and craft project
- Scott, Adrianna, and Abel staying all day in pajamas

- Adrianna and Abel making a "take it to the dump" game with Abel's new tractor from his great-grandparents
- Adrianna and Scott doing Wii bowling
- Adrianna coming up with her own plan for how to use craft foam
- Finding Adrianna's picture on the bathroom wall

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Abel!

Image
We are praising God this morning!  After two unsuccessful court dates, we passed court in Ethiopia today! And what verse should I read this morning, but Psalm 34:3... "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together."    (When I read it, I was hoping beyond hope that I would be able to post it on here after we passed court!) Now we are finally allowed to introduce our son to you!  His name is Abel (which means "breath").  We love his name and are so excited to raise our son in the legacy of the Biblical Abel, a faithful and righteous man, and the first prophet (Luke 11:46-51). These are the pictures I have been longing to share.  The first is the referral picture -- the first glimpse we got of our little boy. Here are the pictures we took of us with Abel's picture, which we put together on a ring to send to him.  (We're hoping he'll get to see those now that we have passed court!) The following are ones that families traveling t
Read more

Brotherly love

Image
For the two years we journeyed through the adoption paperwork and waiting, we wondered how Adrianna would adjust to the big sister role.  Almost five years with Mom and Dad to yourself is a long time for a kid to get used to being the only child.  Thankfully, God has been preparing that little girl for great things. Just last week, Adrianna and I had a precious chat at her grandparents' house.  "Hey Beautiful," I told her as she walked by.  "Did you know that you're beautiful?" I asked her.  "Yes.  You always tell me that!"  I picked her up, so that I could look at her in the eyes.  "Did you know what makes you beautiful?"  "Umm..."  "It's God shining through you," I explained. She looked at me seriously, considering what I said, and exploded with words, "I've asked Jesus into my heart like 16 times -- sometimes in my bed and this one time during room time..."  "You know what?"  I asked he
Read more

Teaching supplies

Image
I have an inkling that teaching supplies do not spark a wide-eyed wonder in most of the readers of this blog.  I also have a feeling that most people would wonder why I "wasted" my time, staying up until 1:00 am on Friday night and working another three hours on Saturday morning to reorganize the aforementioned supplies. Well, teaching supplies do spark wide-eyed wonder in me -- always have.  And over the years that my supplies have been in my garage, they have gone through times where they have become very hard to reach -- through the layer of lawn mowers, ladders, strollers, spare chairs, and so forth.  The whole reason I have these supplies (and have added to them from garage sale finds over the years) is to use with my children and with children whom I teach.  Having all these goodies available while teaching Adrianna and her friends preschool over the last two years has been invaluable.   But it reached the point with my supplies where that layer in front of them was
Read more