our christmas tidbits

What fun it is to watch the excitment and understanding of christmas unfold in little ones. i feel like all 3 have a good understanding (for their age) of jesus' birth, christmas being his b-day, all part of God's plan, etc. it's been fun and rewarding teaching them things this year. and also doing the other stuff, like bake cookies, sing songs, open cards together, drive around looking at lights, and so on. the boys play "manger scene", where one is joseph, one mary, and the other whoever they decide to be (shepherd, sheep, angel). poor brad always gets stuck being mary :) do you think they need a sister? :) We did a fun project, where they could pick out gifts they wanted to give from the samaritans purse catalog. they each picked 2 things. ben couldn't decide. that was a decision of the year for him! then adam came to the computer with me and watched me check all the stuff they picked and send it off. we also went to the columbia food bank (thanks for the idea daniele!) and delivered some grocery items. they enjoyed that. we first went to the store and i set the basket down and let them "load it" with canned things. after the basket was too full, i said "that's enough, let's go deliver these now!" inside the food bank they had everything lined up in cupboards, it was neat to see. they took time to explain how it all works.

i finished my parents calendar! We surprised them by letting the kids give it a week early. some of my favorite months....

The summer months:

December:

and the Baking theme: next year there will be 2 more babies, i need a bigger calendar :)

We had our first of 6 family get togethers on Saturday. My dads side, at my parents house. Here's Great grandma giving the kids gifts...

Actually, we bagged one of the 6 get togethers today and played in snow instead...Adam could not get enough of the snomobiling..

Ben liked it ok...and Brad....Well he didn't want to go!

My favorite song line this Christmas is from Little Drummer Boy: "I have no gift to bring (pa rup pa pum pum), that's fit to give a king....." How true. Enjoy your celebrations this Christmas, remembering that our King was born!!