just alittle Christmas..

Amid all the hustle & bustle, hurry & scurry, I figured I'd sit down real quick & add alittle Christmas to my blog. I should be dressing the kids, making a list, checking it twice, packing survival snacks, & shouting "Why aren't we all in the car yet?!" We have some last minute shopping to do & are braving this busiest shopping weekend of the year, plus the kiddos. Help us, Lord!! The tree has been specially picked by Turbo & Daddy, trimmed, decorated & about 1/2 its beautiful ornaments on the lower end have perished in the hands of Viking Rowen. Apparently pretty things are extremely tempting because even banishment from the living room hasn't helped. Not that a one-yr old would even understand that.

Christmas parties for mom, dad & all our friends, o my! Another one tonight & I have no idea what I will be wearing. This has too be one of the funnest party games I've ever played! Guys against girls in who can build the best gingerbread house the fastest. Chaos, laughter, yelling, messes, candy flying, finger licking, bucket fulls of testosterone, competitiveness...

Here are some of the girls from our team with our "prize winning" house. Ahem..don't tell the guys I said that though. They were alittle jealous of the superb builders & decorators we are & claimed their own house the winner...it fell down before ours..oh wait a second..I think ours was actually smashed in a throe of competitiveness!

Decorations, decorations, decorations. Baking, cookie exchanging, card creating, conversations about Jesus' birthday, too many questions about Santa.."Mommy, Santa comes at midnight! We have to leave him a snack!", telling a friend in a singsong voice "Santa's coming, Santa's coming. I lo-ove Santa!", "Mommy, Santa lands right up there on the roof"...too many more to mention & they've all left me giggling! Mind you, we've tried to keep the focus on Jesus' birthday (which he's very excited about too & has asked if he can eat cake with Jesus on His birthday? When I answered slowly "Umm..I gu-uess you can.." he placed his little hand over his heart & said "But MOMMY, he lives faraway in my heart!") but he has watched too many shows about Santa & his imagination is off & away. No bringing it back now. I am constantly reminding him of why we are celebrating Christmas in the first place & its neat to feel my own heart FILL everytime we talk about it. It seems that as every year goes by & my relationship with the Lord deepens & grows, the true meaning of this glorious holiday, thrills me more & more! How amazing to get to celebrate the most meaningful birthday ever. How amazing the GIFT we've been given on this birthday!!

This year I've even found my very own "fireplace" to enjoy as I bake, clean, chase kids, wrap gifts, sing off-key..I got the biggest kick when I noticed something on On Demand on our cable that was called 'Yule Log'. Thinking it was something along the lines of a wanna-be fire I clicked on it & Viola! my very own fireplace..lacking the heat, but making up for that with Christmas tunes emanating from its embers! I think this has got to be one of the funniest things I've experienced this Christmas..maybe I don't get out much..or on the brighter side, maybe it doesn't take much to make me laugh:) I'm hoping each one of you is also experiencing the thrill of rejoicing in the coming Birthday Party!