Advent Day 11: Gingerbread House

We made a gingerbread house today. We skyped with my parents, and Santa came to visit our neighborhood. Micah got a little present and a candy cane from Santa. My mom was wondering how we have time to do everything when she heard we were doing gingerbread houses today. My answer at first was that nothing else gets done, which is mostly true. But also true is the fact that we haven't completed everything. The sugar cookies from yesterday did not get decorated today. We still have some dough to roll, cook, and decorate. But the gingerbread house was simple because it was a $10 kit, which I think, like my friend Shannon says, is worth every penny for the massive headache they save. Everything is included in the kit, and this year even the house was already put together. Micah got a little hopped up on sugar today. :)








Bible Reading:
Genesis 1
Isaiah 1:18
Psalm 51:1-10

Advent Day 10: Make Christmas Cookies

We have already made a couple different kinds, but today was the actual activity on the card, so we made sugar cookies. Micah really enjoys baking. We only did one batch together because even though he tries to be careful, some angel heads or Christmas tree branches would break off. He likes to ... (I'm being very nice, usually it's "He MUST") do it all himself. He's four. We'll decorate them together tomorrow.

Reading:

Matthew 1:22-23

Isaiah 7: 10-15

John 1:14

Advent Day 9: Make Cinnamon Ornaments

I got the idea to do this advent activity thing on the blog Not That You Asked. I have followed her since Micah was born because she and I gave birth to baby boys within days of each other. She is a very gifted writer and I love reading her blog entries, though I have never met her and I rarely leave a comment so she knows nothing of me. Her first advent day with her kids was to make cinnamon ornaments, so I copied this from her. They are super simple, and they made our house smell delicious for two days! It's just 4.12 oz of cinnamon and 3/4 cup of applesauce. You mix that together, roll it out and cut it into shapes. Use a straw to poke a hole in the top and then dry them out in the oven at 200 degrees for a couple hours, or lay them on the counter all day. Decorate, or just tie a ribbon through and hang them up! Micah enjoyed it. Dave hoped to eat them, and then thought 'what fun is it to make cinnamon ornaments if you're not allowed to eat them?', so we made "make Christmas cookies" day number 10.

My camera battery is dead and I don't know where the charger is, so I'm a little worried that the rest of my photo entries are going to have to be from phone.

Reading:

Isaiah 9:6-7

Revelation 19:1-16

1 Timothy 6:11-16

Francess

With all this advent posting, and since Micah is the only one of our kids into the advent thing, I keep forgetting to post pictures of sweet Francess Jane! Here are some pictures of my cutie pie. (Oh, I have plenty, and of course I can't decide which is the cutest, so you get a few shots of the same thing!)

Below is a picture of Micah from January 2007 (when he was about 3 months old). I can't believe how much they look alike!

Advent Day 8: Write a letter to Santa

I grew up receiving presents from Santa, but he wasn't a huge deal in our house. I always knew what Christmas was really about, but I loved the magic of Christmas with Santa. We are teaching our family that Jesus is the real reason that we celebrate Christmas, but Santa is fun. We will teach how the idea of Santa got started, with St. Nicholas. We will still have gifts from Santa under our tree and we will visit Santa for photos.

So today, we tried to get Micah to tell us what he wanted for Christmas to make a list for Santa. Luckily, when we had gone shopping a few weeks ago, we took some pictures of things he thought he might like to ask Santa for. So we went through those photos and also tried to get him to think of things on his own, and came up with a list. He wasn't really into it. I think he thinks he'll show Santa the pictures on Daddy's phone when we go to visit him.

Bible Reading:

Matthew 25:31-46

Advent Day 7: Watch a Christmas movie

Today Micah was supposed to come with Frankie and myself to book club and then we were going to drive around to see Christmas lights, but last night he woke up with a bit of a fever and a headache, so we changed our plans. He stayed home from everything today: mom's group, preschool and book club. But, he got to watch Rudolph during the day with me and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas after dinner with Daddy. Our cards are getting a little mixed up, but he's really enjoying this advent season. We were reading a Christmas story last night (Bisquit's Christmas Eve) and halfway through the book he snuggled up to me and giggled and said "I can't wait for Christmas!" He's getting really excited. I am too because I'm excited to see the joy of Christmas through the eyes of a child again.

Bible Reading:

Exodus 25

Advent Day 6: Outdoor Lights

I'm so glad I have a smart child. We were having a nice, lazy morning today. We were reading Christmas stories from the boxes we had our Christmas decorations stored in, then we were eating some breakfast at about 10:15 and Micah said "After breakfast I'm going to get dressed so I can go to swimming lessons." I jumped up, looked at the clock, and said "oh! we have to get going!!" Swimming lessons start at 10:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays! Surprisingly, we got there just a little bit late. I'm glad Micah knows what days of the week he has swimming since his mom doesn't pay attention.

So we were supposed to do something else today, but I would have needed to go to the store and I didn't get there. It was a pretty nice day, though, and Frankie took a good long nap this afternoon, so Micah and I put up the outdoor lights on the house and one tree. When David got home, he put the rest of the lights up. I love when the lights are up. Probably the hardest thing for me being in the states is having to wait until after Thanksgiving (at the very END of November) to decorate for Christmas, put up the lights, and listen to Christmas music. David made a slight concession this year to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving since we got a little bit of snow. It put him in the Christmas spirit. If it hadn't been icy and cold, he may have even put up the lights. I just think the Christmas lights are so pretty. I'm glad we have them up!

Bible Reading:

Acts 20:35 (NLT) "And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

1 John 4:10 (NLT) "This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

Day 5: Make Paper Snowflakes

We had a slight incident that prevented us from going about our normal Sunday activities. Getting into the car to go to church, Micah slammed the door on his finger. It looked pretty bad to us, so we took him to the emergency room. They took some x-rays and it looked like it had a tiny fracture, so he gets to wear a brace for the next couple of days.


I tried to take a couple pictures of him with his broken finger, but we were both laughing really hard at his posing for the photo. It did hurt him, but he's a tough kid and it doesn't look that bad anymore.


I'm glad today was an easy activity. We had to catch up from yesterday because we didn't decorate the tree yesterday when we were supposed to. We did that today. We also made paper snowflakes. I don't remember the last time I've made paper snowflakes, so I was thinking "how hard can it be? You just make some folds in a piece of paper and cut into it." Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. This was the first "snowflake."



Snowflakes really aren't rectangular, so I realized I should look it up online how to fold the paper. After looking it up, I found a good video tutorial and made a few with Micah before bedtime. Then I saw a friend on Facebook who was making lots of snowflakes today and looked at the tutorial she used, and I just had to make a few more after Micah went to bed. They turned out quite a bit better!





Today's Bible Reading:
Matthew 4:12-17
Isaiah 9:1-3
Matthew 5:14-16

Day 4: Decorate Christmas Tree

Yesterday was a busy day. We had our tree but David had some work to do and couldn't set the tree up earlier in the day, so we set it up last night and decorated the next day.




We watched The Grinch while we decorated, but once it was over Micah was totally into helping put the ornaments on the tree. I was surprised, because he usually isn't interested in them. There are ornaments that we've gotten for him each year. When we were first married I didn't like all the old ornaments that David had brought with him to decorate our tree, ornaments from his childhood. His mother had kept track of his ornaments from each year and kept them in a box for him to take with him when he got married. Now, when we decorate our tree, I kind of like some of the unique and cute ornaments that come out. I like how they bring character to our tree. Of course, some of the homemade (ie. the spaghetti-puppy-santa) ornaments remain in the box year after year, but there are some neat ones that Micah now likes.





Bible Reading:

Mark 9:33-37 (New International Version, ©2010)

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

³⁶ He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Advent Day 3: Giving Tree

Today we went to our city hall and chose a gift tag off the Giving Tree. Our church has giving trees to choose tags from as well, but we thought it would be nice to chose something from our city (since the church we attend is not in our city). It didn't seem like there were a lot of tags to choose from, and it might be that a lot of people had the same idea and already got their tags. There were some choices of big ticket items, like a bike or a scooter, or a girl one for "anything Justin Bieber" but we chose the 5 year old boy who wanted Optimus Prime (the Transformer leader).

This was something David wanted as a kid and never got it. He and Micah will go out in search of it tomorrow to bring joy to the five year old boy this Christmas.

Today's reading was Luke 2:1-20

Day 2: Go choose our Christmas tree!

Maybe some year we will go cut a tree down. I assume it would be from a U-Cut farm and not from the mountains (like in National Lampoon's Christmas vacation). But this year our card said to go out today to pick our Christmas tree and since we have friends who own a market and they sell trees there, we purchased one from Harbor Greens.

I love my family! Aren't they adorable?!

The Bible reading plan we are doing is from a Bible app we have on our Palm Pre smartphones. Here's a link for an article that the app hit a marker of 10 million downloads. It's a great app!

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/19/bible-app-hits-10-million-downloads/

(This reading was a little heavy for Micah to sit through so instead we read from his kid's Bible)

The reading today was Matthew 1.

Matthew 1 (New International Version, ©2010)

Matthew 1
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12 After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,
Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Advent Day 1

For the Christmas season this year I got the idea from another blogger to make it special by doing meaningful activities everyday. I have been meaning to do this every year since Micah was tiny, but I think this year is when it will actually mean something more to him and he'll get it. The activities might be something small like cutting paper snowflakes, watching a Christmas movie and eating popcorn, or baking Christmas cookies. Or it could be something bigger like picking out the Christmas tree, going to see The Nutcracker, or going to Zoolights.

Today was Day 1. The card in the envelope said to choose a favorite Christmas carol and dance and sing along.

He is going to be singing Joy To The World with his Sunday School class at church on the 12th so he's been practicing that song. We danced and sang along to the Veggie Tales version because I just got the CD for free from Amazon here (may only be good through today).

The card inside the envelope also has a Scripture passage relating to the birth of Jesus. Today we read Luke 2:21-40.

Luke 2:21-40 (New International Version, ©2010)

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Jesus Presented in the Temple

²² When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]}), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”^{b]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]}

²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss^{c]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[c]} your servant in peace.
³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

³⁶ There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.^{d]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">[d]} She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸ Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹ When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰ And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Advent Conspiracy

Last year our church got involved with this idea called Advent Conspiracy. If you don't watch the video (but please do!), it's about giving more "presence" instead of getting wrapped up in the stress of the Christmas season. The website says it best:

"Christmas can [still] change the world.

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.

So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.

And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?

Welcome to Advent Conspiracy."

I'm thankful for my parents' families, who have for years given to charities instead of exchanging Christmas presents. Whoever is hosting the Christmas dinner gets to choose which charity to give toward and presents the organization to the family. We also do a little five or ten dollar gift exchange and have some fun with that. There are so many opportunities to give to people in need during the Christmas season. This year Micah and I purchased some toys and hygiene items for Operation Christmas Child boxes, so we gave one for a boy and one for a girl. Our church took a mission trip this past summer to a village in Bolivia, so we are raising money to dig a well for clean water for that village. Our church also has "giving trees" that we can use to give towards to help families in our area, purchase things from World Vision for people in need, or help with the International Justice Mission. All are very worthy causes and powerfully help people who are less fortunate.

We're still working on what it means to us to spend less, give more, worship fully and love all. We have so much to be thankful for.

3 Months

Francess is smiling a lot for us now, and has even started to giggle a little bit. It's pretty funny the things you do to make a baby laugh.

Snow!

Monday, November 22nd brought a nice bunch of snow for our enjoyment! Schools and businesses shut down for the entire week. Everyone got a really long Thanksgiving holiday break!

This is as about as far as Frankie made it. As soon as I took her outside she wanted back in for her nap. I'm sure there will come a day that she will appreciate the snow. :)

Micah enjoyed himself.... on top of our bushes!

He met a friend. The night before, when it was perfect packing snow, Micah and Dave went out to cover the pipes and then they made a snowman. It was blustery, cold and dark when they made him, but he stayed standing until the day after Thanksgiving.

November 2010

The leaves fell and blew around our yard, which is so small that it seems almost unnecessary to rake, but it's important to do. We had been putting it off for a while, but finally we went out and did it. It was a cold day, but it was a good thing we did it when we did because a few days later we got a bunch of snow. Micah had fun raking and then jumping into the pile we gathered.

Micah helped me rake the leaves

And he ran and jumped into the huge pile from our huge yard.

Frankie stayed warm inside

Brotherly love

I don't think this picture can get any bigger - it's taken from my phone. But I had to put it up so you can see Frankie's cute smile and Micah's big hugs for her. Every morning he always wants to sit in the chair and hold her and he always asks me to take a picture. He loves his little sister and he's such a good, protective big brother. I love these little cuties. :)

***Edited: I did make this picture bigger!

October happenings

Micah loved the pumpkin patch. We spent a few days there when we could in October. There were some beautiful, sunny fall days to enjoy there.

One day when we were there we met up with a classmate of Micah's from his preschool. It just so happened to be "Addie" Micah's most talked about classmate. I think it's a little crush. The past couple of weeks she's been on vacation and so his teachers tell me he asks about her all the time. I believe it because he talks to me about her too, that maybe the mountain we see is where Addie is on "baycation." She's actually at DisneyLand. She's a cutie, but I think it's a little too early for my liking.

Micah's preschool had a costume parade and concert for the parents on the Thursday before Halloween. It was the funniest and cutest thing to see all the little 3 and 4 year old kids dressed up in their costumes and singing their pumpkin or spider songs. They sang 3 verses of the itsy-bitsy spider and I just couldn't stop laughing. The first verse was "The teensy-weensy spider" and they all sang it in their highest-pitch voices so you really couldn't understand what they were singing until they got to "The middle-sized spider" when they used their regular voices. Then they went to the "BIG HUMONGOUS SPIDER" and Micah was so into it with his face and actions. He was front and center, loud and proud. He made everyone laugh when after one of the songs about little critters and apple fritters he said the teachers were the little critters. Micah dressed as a doctor for his costume parade at school. He also had a costume party for a friend's birthday party and dressed as the doctor then too. For Halloween he was a lion. Frankie was an adorable little pink kitty cat.

Canadian Thanksgiving:

These pictures must have been the calm before the storm. Here they are waiting for their food.

One of our (and our friend's) favorite fall traditions is celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with all of our friends. For the Americans that read this blog, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving the same way, with a huge feast - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, yummy rolls, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and any other favorite dishes that I am forgetting! In Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday of October, which happens to be Columbus Day in the States. We celebrated a few weeks late so it wouldn't conflict with Micah's birthday party.

It is always super crazy but everyone loves it. This year we had 13 adults and (I think) 10 kids. I was slightly out of it with a newborn and may just be blocking it from my memory because of the chaos of it all. Our house is a fine size, but never feels big enough for that many people. I wish we had taken more pictures but I was stuck nursing my baby, or trying to keep the massive amounts of children from killing each other or destroying my home, or I was making sure all of the adults were getting hot food. It always stresses me out, but this year I made it as easy as possible. I made the stuffing in the crockpot, David took care of the turkey, I made a cranberry sauce and an apple crisp the night before, and everyone else took care of everything else. Actually, I also made a chocolate pecan sweet potato pie because the person who was going to bring the pies ended up not being able to come. I'm so thankful for my amazing husband who calmly took care of cleaning, setting up the table and taking care of the turkey while I was stuck nursing most of the day. I crashed into bed as soon as everyone left, but I always love having a little bit of "home" celebrated with my friends.