Guess who reached a new milestone New Year's Eve?

Besides standing in the past week or so...

Cosette has taken her first:

Yes, she's probably carrying her "lovey" (size 0-6 month sleepsack) in her mouth.

to sum it up

Hot Husband + Google + screwdriver + needle-nose pliers + baking soda + vinegar + metal hanger (untwisted with a small hook on the end) + boiling water

=

one unclogged shower drain


Three cheers for the Honey!

February '07 flashback

"Help me, please."

wanna try my pacifier?

different tastes

My Favorite Bedtime Snack Last Year:

Peanut Butter on a warm English Muffin



My Favorite Bedtime Snack This Year:

Melted Mozzarella on a warm English Muffin
with salt & pepper

Costco sells excellent mozzarella. Mmmmm...

the boy at 13 months

A Driving Tale on Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day
A Timeline

I'm no writer, but
I am a woman of details
that I quickly forget if I don't write them down.

For Example:

Husband: Remember when we did this & that?

Me: Really? I don't remember that!

Husband: Do you remember when this & that happened?

Me: Nope.

We had a splendid day on Christmas with extended family. Below is an outline of our activities.

9:50 a.m. -- Drive 45 miles northwest to Dad & Mom's home. Running late (should have left at 9:00 a.m.), so call only to find out that:

Older Sister

• Older Sister overslept too, except she has a 150 mile drive (3 hours).
• Younger Sister & Brother-in-Law are tired from a long weekend of Christmas activities and will arrive late. (They live a couple miles from Dad & Mom's.)

Dad with Nephew & Son





10:40 a.m. -- Arrive at Dad & Mom's home and are first ones there.

• Figure out with family that we can all go to Uncle & Aunt's home for Christmas dinner and come back to Dad & Mom's home to exchange gifts.
• Have nice morning eating cinnamon rolls with Dad, Mom, little brother, and kids.
• It starts snowing.
• Cosette naps.
• Brother-in-Law arrives with Nephew to deliver gift from everyone to Dad & Mom (a grill).
• Nephew & Son each open one gift--dinosaurs.

12:50 p.m. --Drive 60 miles northeast to Uncle & Aunt's home through snow on country roads.

• Daughter is awake and screams with hunger during last 20 minutes of drive.
• Oops! Forgot to bring any food along for Daughter. She gets appetizers and table food and is satisfied.
• Arrive last even though we left first. Parents & Younger Sister have SUV & truck.
• Have wonderful time visiting with Uncle T, Aunt G, Uncle J, Uncle L, Grandma, and Cousins M, S, & T.
• Older Sister arrives in time for delicious dinner of turkey breast, ham, corn, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, snicker salad, and more.
• Grandma opens her gifts along with a few for the kids. Everyone else draws various $10 gift cards that they contributed.

6:00 p.m. -- Drive 60 miles southwest to Dad & Mom's home through more snow.

• Son & Daughter fall asleep in the car.
• Arrive first and wait only about 5 minutes for Dad or Mom to arrive with a key to the house.
• Open gifts from under the tree. Son & Nephew really enjoy this part.
• Eat pie.
• Enjoy visiting with family.

Younger Sister with Niece

9 something p.m. -- Drive 45 miles southeast toward home in snow. See lots of cars in ditches and slide around a bit a few times while zooming along the freeway.

• Son & Daughter slept.
  
• (I don't mind sliding a bit when stopping or spinning tires when accelerating. But I do mind general loss of control when simply driving straight forward.)
• Made it home safely.
• Went to bed.

Next day:

• Finish Christmas advent story since day before was busy.

Praising God for sending the Christ for the first advent as we eagerly anticipate his second advent.

extreme close-up

She's 13 months now.

stair climber

standing

the pretender

These days Henri's favorite activity is pretending. Here are some of the things he imagines.

Henri:

• pretends to make coffee and serve it to the whole family. Notice the toys in the carafe above (that's the coffee). Yes! I let him play with the actual coffee maker. I'll probably regret it after he breaks it, but I don't let him turn it on.
  
• pretends to be a doctor or the patient. His arm, tummy, or leg are usually broken and he makes some spitting sound effects, which means something is breaking.
• pretends to be Spiderman. He's not exactly sure what Spiderman does, but he got a Spiderman backpack and has seen a few scenes of the first movie with his cousin while I skipped through the scary parts. Now he sees Spiderman everywhere in stores, and he wanted a Spiderman costume at Halloween. He plays "Spiderman" with his cousin, Chase (who was Spiderman for Halloween). Since he needed new pajamas, I broke down last month and bought him the Spiderman pajamas he happens to be wearing in the picture above.
• pretends various adventures with his "people" (who came with his Lincoln Log set) & puppets.
• pretends to feed, discipline, bath, and put down for a nap Bernard (his bear). See below.

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
We finally decorated our Christmas Tree

2 weeks after we brought it into our living room.
Can you say "procrastinator"?

16 years ago, part 4

Here's the final part to the fire that happened in my family's home when I was 14.

My parents moved out of this home about a year and a half ago.

Here's the side porch that we used 99% of the time to enter & leave the house. There's the garage to the left too.

I've been telling this story from my perspective. I'm sure there are many more things and emotions that my parents had to go through that I don't know about.

Some positive outcomes of the fire:

• The house was beautiful upon completion, just how my mom and dad wanted it.
• I used to be afraid of my house burning down and losing all of my belongings. I used to argue with my mom when she tried to give away or throw out ANY of my toys or belongings. Since my parents worked for everything they owned, I'm sure it was harder for them than it was for me at age 14. However, I found out that it wasn't hard for me to lose everything.
• In some ways, it drew us closer as a family, helping us all realize how important we were to one another.
• Seeing how God worked things out for our good.
  

Some Negatives:

• Losing our beloved cats. I was just a little sad about the finches.
• Seeing the stress on my parents to have to work with the insurance company and make a million decisions in a short amount of time.

My parents sold this home in the Summer of 2006. I took some pictures of it the day they moved out. My parents have pictures of the house after the fire, but I don't have any of those scanned into a computer. I searched & SEARCHED my computer for pictures of the house, and this is what I found.

good pictures?

We were given a new camera for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad!). Johnny just brought the new camera home as he had it delivered to his office.

Just LOOK at the great pictures we have been taking this evening. Here's Henri in the bathtub.
We actually did get some pretty impressive shots (at least compared to our old camera). Johnny was playing with the settings hence the lovely artistic shot above. I'm just not going to show you tonight's pictures because most of them are of me looking my very best as Johnny would NOT STOP taking pictures. Cosette was napping; Henri was in the bathtub, so pictures of me cooking and bathing Henri were the shots of the evening.

Then he had to go to work at the mall tonight, so I was free from having to be his test model. Whew!

shut-ins

Because the kids are sick. Just look at this poor baby:


Didn't she just have a cold? The last one didn't turn her face red. This one hit her like a train wreck. One day she's fine, and the next she's oozing...you know. Cosette just LOVES getting her nose wiped. She starts crying as soon as she sees me going for the tissue. No fever, and she's generally happy even though she's gotten up crying nearly every 30-60 minutes the past two nights.

But that's okay. This forces me to:

• Work on addressing Christmas cards. (Johnny decided the picture was fine, so I have no Photoshopped version to post of our family picture.)
  
• Update our finances.
• Launder Henri's bedding since he vomited yesterday.
  
• Not shower.
  
• Stay in my pajamas all day.
• Post a blog entry.

What's that I hear? Ahh, the sound of a crying 1-year old, waking up from her nap. Where's that new box of tissue?

Wanted: Real Estate Agent

Strangely,

• Our listing expired from the MLS Monday night, which our Realtor notified us of THAT DAY. (We had already renewed once with him verbally, so we didn't exactly know when the listing was expiring).
  

• Our home is still for sale to us, but not to the rest of the world. We were not planning on taking it off the market, but we began wondering if we should take it off for the holidays.
  
• I think we're looking for a new Realtor.
• But we haven't started interviewing them yet.
• Qualifications: knows about our neighborhood or is willing to do what it takes to learn about it, isn't afraid of our area, good marketer, preferably has experience doing short sales, and does what our last real estate agent didn't do on a regular basis: communicates with us.

Know any good ones? For those of you who know us, e-mail or call us about it. Thanks!

And the winner is:

Thanks everyone for voting and helping us decide on a family picture! We really appreciated your e-mails, thoughts, and comments.

Wow, maybe we should put up a vote on the blog for every indecisive moment we have.

But we have a lot of those.

Thanks again!

Times up! Help us decide! Times up!

Using the timer on our camera, we snapped some family pictures yesterday afternoon for Christmas. It surprised me that we actually got some that we're all happy with.

We like and dislike parts of the two pictures below, but we'd both be happy with either too. What a nice predicament to be in!

We can't decide! Help us! Please! Vote!

Please vote on the sidebar, but feel free to leave your comments so that we know why you voted the way you did.

Johnny is planning on cropping and doing his thing with them in Photoshop, but here are the two raw photos:

2214

2216

the boy

Daddy Daughter

Pictures?

I haven't used our camera in days, but I've been meaning to. Sorry Mom and Dad and all the rest of the family on the west coast.

How about some pictures from last week Tuesday (11/28) to cheer up the post?

Aunt Alice sent some gifts in the mail for Cosette's birthday and some things for Henri too. While Henri was digging the construction site pop-up book, Cosette was most interested in climbing on top of the box the packages came in and sitting there.

Our next project is to get a family picture for Christmas. Nothing fancy. Probably just setting the timer on our camera and hoping for the best.

I spent yesterday evening following Cosette up and down our stairs. She loves climbing up and down them, and we've been trying to get her used to turning around and sliding down on her tummy. I'll remind her to turn around and go feet first, and she'll rock back and forth moving out her feet, seemingly confused as to how to accomplish the task at hand.

While I climbed stairs with Cosette, Johnny & Henri shoveled our sidewalks and sled down the hill in our backyard.

We're also trying to get Henri & Cosette used to sleeping in the same room at night. It's the 2nd night and so far so good. They did wake up a little earlier than usual this morning and at the same time. Cosette's been sleeping in a pack 'n' play for a year now either in our room or the room with our computer, and I'd love for her to sleep in her crib.

Part 4 of my family's house fire is almost done.

16 years ago, part 3

The Clean Up

I think it was the next day when my sisters and I met my mom at the laundry. She had piles and piles of clothes and shoes for us, and it all needed to be washed before we could wear them.

They smelled really bad, and I had never smelled anything quite like it. As I think of it, I can remember the smell today.

We sent our clothes through the washing machines and dryers. The black smoke stains were difficult to get out. They still smelled dreadful, but something had happened to our clothes. They were brittle, and tore and broke with the slightest movement.

Thus ended our attempts to salvage our clothes. We went shopping instead. And we did a lot of shopping after that for months and months, but not just for clothes. The house was deemed repairable, and my parents needed to shop for new furniture, new upholstery, new window treatments, new wallpaper, new carpet, new millwork, new appliances, new counter-tops and cabinets and plumbing and more.

Eventually, we all came together in a house that was given to us to stay in while our house was being repaired. It was a 2 bedroom split-level house with an unfinished basement. My parents used one bedroom, and my siblings and I shared the other. My parents bought new mattresses, and we slept on them on the floor.

I remember my mom laboring and crying over lists for the insurance company, having to list EVERYTHING that they owned and give a dollar value to it. I remember going through our blackened house, having to decide what was salvageable and what needed to go into the dumpster. Clothes, stuffed animals, books, pictures that were on display, furniture in the kitchen (kitchen table & chairs) & my brother's room were all tossed into the dumpster. Anything made of paper or fabric were most affected by the smoke and needed to be thrown out.

The house was so black on the inside. Except for the broken windows and some smoke marks, it looked almost normal on the outside. My 3-year old brother soon refused to go into the house, calling it the "yucky house."

One night I remember driving by our home on the way to the rental house, and I thought I saw a light in the house for a moment as we drove by. I told my mom; we turned around and went into the black house. We could not see the light when we went inside, and we walked around to see if any of the lights had been left on. When we reached the front set of stairs and stood underneath the light bulb in the stairwell, I looked up and saw that it was on. The blackness absorbed all of the light so that we could not see it until we saw the bulb itself. It was very strange.

After all our belongings were removed from our home, workers came in and gutted it. All the newer sheetrock walls came down and the carpets and flooring thrown out. In the burned areas, they removed the walls and floor. I think ALL the structure of the walls were good and just the flat surfaces were removed. I don't remember if the walls in the unburned areas, which may have been plaster were taken down. But all the wallpaper was removed, and the entire house was wallpapered. Even the ceilings were wallpapered in some of the rooms. It was all very Victorian.

Then they repaired walls and floors and ceilings. They installed the new millwork, cabinets, appliances, wallpaper, and flooring. I remember the men who wallpapered were really good and fast, but they were there for days. Lots of wallpaper, I tell you! One of these men was very funny and would do back flips in our yard, which was so neat to me.

Everything had to be replaced as it was in the house, according to the Insurance policy. The cabinets and millwork looked EXACTLY the same as they had before, only my mom changed the colors.

I wanted my room to be have yellow wallpaper with pink carpet, and that's what my younger sister and I got (we shared a room). No, I would not choose this today.

Four months after the fire, we moved back into our home.

Some recent pictures of the house and answers to your questions to come.

16 years ago, part 2

The Fire in our Home that Night

The firefighters waited. The house was closed up. Not a window was open and there were at least 2 other propane tank heaters in the house. They were waiting for the oxygen to run out and the fire to mostly put itself out. Going into the house meant possibly more fire and bringing in the hoses.

My mom went over to the house when the firetrucks arrived; my siblings and I stayed at our neighbors.

At some point, the firefighters went into the house, putting the rest of the flames out. They never brought in hoses. They threw my brother's burning toys out his window upstairs. Only the kitchen, stairs, upstairs bathroom, and brother's room burned. Everything else was black with smoke. The other heaters never caught fire.

The firefighters brought out our cats and two finches who didn't make it. The cats were on the other side of the house from the fire, laying next to each other with their noses by the front door. Our black lab, Dakota, was outside in the kennel and just fine.

The fire had stayed in the kitchen and shot up the stairs. My shoes were melted near the kitchen door, but not burned. At the top of the stairs was the bathroom to the left, my brother's room straight ahead, and the door to the right leading to a large closet and all the girls' bedrooms. The door on the right was closed. We didn't have hallways in this house. You had to walk through rooms to get to my parents room and the other set of stairs. Both my room and my brother's room had two sets of doors. I think my parent's bedroom door had also shut as my brother's room's 2nd door led to the other set of stairs and then to their room. And I remember that when the home was being restored, they couldn't re-stain my parents' door and had to paint it instead.

My dad got a message at work about his home being on fire, and showed up during this time. He had driven 30+ miles crying, believing that his family was gone. I'm sure he was relieved to find we were all okay.

My parents came back to our neighbors and filled us in and told us about the cats and birds. I'm sure I cried. We began making phone calls to find people to stay with. My sisters and I each went to different friend's homes so that we could go to school with them the next day and wear their clothes and shoes. This would leave my parents undistracted in figuring out where to go from there.

I stayed at my friend Jessie's house. Her family took care of me for a few days. I don't remember how long. And I went to school with her the next day, sharing the story with my friends. It was all so grievous and shocking that I didn't know how to respond, but we were all okay and besides our cats & birds, I didn't yet know what we had and hadn't lost.

More to come.

16 years ago, part 1

on a Monday, December 2nd just after 5:00pm, my family's home caught fire.

Many of you know the story. We were all home except for my dad, who was working. My mom, sisters, 3 year old brother, and I all made it out of the house unharmed.

My big sister (17) was making soup for us in the kitchen. My younger sister (11) and I (14) were huddled under blankets while lying on the couch watching television. I was holding one of our cats, Libby. My mom was napping upstairs with our other cat, Mittens. My brother was napping in his room.

Our furnace had gone out, and propane heaters were brought inside to help keep us warm. Snow was on the ground outside. We were all huddled under blankets except for my big sis who was cooking.

A family friend had just stopped by to change the propane tank on the heater in the kitchen near the stairs. He was gone now.

I don't remember what I heard. I remember my big sister screaming, and the flickering glow coming from the kitchen. I held onto my cat as my younger sis and I ran into the kitchen. The entire propane tank was a tower of flame and the window curtains were already on fire.

We lived in an old Victorian home that had two sets of stairs, one that came down into the kitchen, and another on the opposite side of the house near the original front door that we never used. It was at this point that I think I remember seeing my mom coming down the kitchen stairs and then running back up them. I'm not sure she could go down those ones because of the flames.

My frightened cat bolted out of my arms and back into the living room. I ran after her, searching under the couches, but I couldn't find her.

Meanwhile, my younger sister had run outside in the snow without shoes to our detached garage. The garage door had been left open, thankfully. She used the phone in there to call 911.

I knew I had to get out of the house (thanks to everything I learned in school through fire drills). I got up off of the floor and ran out the door without my shoes, which were right by the door. As soon as I stepped outside I met my big sister, and I said, "Brandon!" (my brother). I started to go back in. Just then my mom came out the door, carrying Brandon, her purse and car keys.

We all got in our mini-van and drove to our neighbors' home where we would watch for the fire department to come.

At our neighbors' and using their phone, my mom tried to get a hold of my dad. This was before cell phones, and as an electrician, my dad could be anywhere. I'm not sure if she called his company or the site he was at or the Electricians' Union. But eventually, she talked with someone who would try to deliver a message to my dad.

Twenty minutes later. The fire department still hadn't come. We lived on 3 acres of land, but we lived in town, less than a mile from the fire department. My mom called 911 again, and the operator said that they didn't get a good address the first time.

Soon after three large fire trucks barreled into our long horseshoe driveway. One of the trucks got stuck in a snowbank at the end of our driveway.

The firefighters did


nothing


for a while, but waited.


To be continued.




This was probably the most memorable experience of my life outside of my wedding and giving birth to my children.

What's yours?

sharing is caring, even during discipline, right?

When Henri gets a timeout, he has to sit on our steps. We've encountered a problem with our now mobile daughter going to visit him during his timeouts.

Another typical preschooler problem we deal with daily is teaching Henri how to share toys and other items with his sister and friends.

While Henri was in a timeout this morning, I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, and Henri announced, "Mama, look! I'm sharing my timeout with Cosette!"

I peaked over the counter and there was Henri smiling proudly with his arm around his sister who was sitting next to him on the step.

He emphasized his sharing a second time, "See? I'm sharing with Cosette my timeout! Yes, I am."

Uh, not quite what I had in mind.

fly away mouse

Upon coming home from church yesterday, I noticed a mouse walking across the alley on the snow. It started scampering up our driveway toward our garage, so Johnny tried to scare it away. The mouse kept coming anyway. Then Johnny scooped it into his two gloved hands and tossed it high up into the air and across the alley into the empty lot behind our home. The mouse landed in the snow and waited a bit before running under a dead bush weed in the snow.

Stay away mouse. Stay far away.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Warning: This post is full of random thoughts. Some may think it too quirky or way too long.

We have a tree, a Balsam I think. And it's fragrance is wonderful.

Then there was the trip to get the tree. Our Realtor's office was giving away trees about 20 miles away from our home yesterday morning, which means our family braved the snow storm that arrived with a flurry. Because a free tree is worth the risk. At least I'd call driving through a snow storm risky; Johnny calls it fun.

And as Johnny knows all too well, driving in snow storms is one of the things I love doing the least. I love it the least, as my high school choir director used to correct his students when they said that they hated something. "Don't say you hate it," he'd lecture with a grin on his face. "Say, you love it the least." And most of the students would roll their eyes at him. The rest of us choir nerds would giggle. Yes, I was a choir junkie, but when you are completely inept when it comes to sports, you've got to love something! Phy-Ed was my worst class and usually ended in embarrassment for me...every day...and I really did TRY (sometimes), which is why I was so mortified over my inability to throw, kick, or serve a ball.

Then when I got to college and began a minor in music, I realized how not talented I was when it came to sight-singing and ear-training, and I had to drop it or stress out. I chose the former.

Math, now math, that's where I could EXCEL! Well, only algebra, and with a calculator. Don't you dare make me add, subtract, multiply, or divide in my head! That's Johnny's forte, which is why I carry a calculator in my purse. And calculus is above my head, which is why I didn't like it.

So I'm not coordinated, which is why I think I can't drive Johnny's manual transmission car. I just can't move that many feet and hands at the same time. When I'm behind the wheel of my automatic car in a snowstorm, I freeze up. And when Johnny's driving through the storm, I'm very tense in the passenger seat, but I'm comforted that my very capable and coordinated husband is driving. I feel tense, but safe. We plow through our alley at top speeds while Johnny cheers and tries to get Henri to cheer with him. We slide through the streets, and Johnny says, "Wheeeeeee!" I close my eyes, wishing and sometimes saying out loud how I wish we would have left our home earlier before the storm began.

***UPDATE***
I should mention that Johnny doesn't mess around in the snow when he's driving with the kids and I. We have to keep the car moving through the alley in order to get our mid-size car through the drifts. And by sliding, I mean the usual sliding that happens on slick streets, not the sliding that happens from crazy driving on slick streets.
***POST CONTINUED***

And Johnny's, "Wheeeeee!" reminds me how he enjoys going down hill really fast on rollerblades, on his bike, or on skis. This is why he mountain bikes. I broke my wrist when I fell off of my bike while going down hill on a trail during high school. We used to rollerblade on our streets together before our kids came along. When we got to a hill, he'd rush up and down it a few times while a creeped my way down it. I'm out of control when skiing, so I've stopped doing that. Johnny does not enjoy walking or hiking (too slow), but sometimes he'll come with me or I'll agree to jog with him. But when hiking, he must have the right shoes with him because sand in his sandals is a big no, no. And sometimes we'll bike together with the kiddos in the bike trailer, but I slow way down on the hills.

Back to getting the tree...

While on the freeway to get the tree, we saw a SUV in front of us do a 360 degree turn and crash into the median than bounce back & 360 the other way where he stopped on the side of the road. Whew!

The parking lot to our Realtor's office was full of snow already, and I was regretting wearing my open-heeled sneakers. We went inside for snacks and a picture with Santa. It was waaaaaaayyyy past Cosette's nap time, so she cried while on Santa's lap. We didn't plan to have the kids sit with Santa, but Henri wanted the candy cane Santa was giving out to each child that sat with him. Since Henri couldn't enjoy the other homemade treats (cookies & brownies--Henri has an egg allergy), Santa became his BFF.

The trees were all the same kind and all wrapped up, but hey, free tree, right? And I wasn't about to be picky. I asked our very tall Realtor for a short, scrawny tree. (The scrawnier ones are easier to decorate, I think. And I've been into short trees for the past couple of years...maybe it was the hefty price of the taller trees that influenced that desire, but don't we usually desire what we CAN'T have? Like a digital SLR? But that's another story.) Good thing I grabbed those bungy cords right before we left to hold the trunk down. The tree stuck out of the back of our trunk as we drove home. And we made it home safe & sound, tree in tact.

The tree is up in our living room. The branches needed to settle. Today I was busy doing other chores, so tomorrow I hope I will trim the tree, but I've been known to put off such things.

Johnny put Chistmas lights on our house this evening. We had only one strand of icicle lights left that still worked (except one small section in the middle), which was just enough to cover the roof above our front door. Hooray the lights are up! And my loving husband puts them up for me each year when I know he'd rather not. Unless I can figure out if the other strands need a new fuse or bulb, I think that's all we'll have outside this year. Since we're trying to sell our home, I'm not about to invest in more outdoor lights if we end up in an apartment a year from now. Do I hear Johnny cheering in the background?

Henri was soooooo excited to help Johnny shovel as soon as the snow began falling. He actually asked if they could go outside for the last snowfall we had, which didn't stick. Outside this morning, Henri detoured off the sidewalk often and into the snow, so his pants were soaked when it was time to leave for church.













In his closet, Henri was out of pants that matched his shirt (the jogging pants just weren't going to work with the button-down shirt), but we scraped up a pair from the drying rack in the basement just in time for us to head to church.

Then I peaked outside this evening as Johnny was hanging the Christmas lights. Henri had his shovel and was traipsing through the snow without snowpants again. Hoping that his blue size 2 snowpants would fit my almost 4-year-old who was wearing this years size 4 camo green & black coat, I called Henri in. Success! They mostly fit! Good enough! They didn't match (I've been kicking myself about not picking up snowpants, gloves, and hat last year on clearance when I got his coat), but they fit. Note to self, next time find a coat on clearance that matches son's navy snowpants, mittens, hat, and scarf. His boots are gray.

We're a little behind on the traditions as usual. Our Christmas advent calendar & devotionals start on December 1st, and I haven't pulled them out yet. So we'll start a little late, but we're always a little late. Plus we're still working out the traditions. We want our kids to enjoy our Christmas traditions while learning that God the Son became a man two thousand years ago to take our just punishment, paying our fine so that we can be cleansed and forgiven and live happily with, delighting in, and loving God forever.

Merry Christmas!