Photo-A-Day Holiday Edition: Day 29, The Last Day

Twenty-nine days of our life in photos. This ended up being a bit more work than I anticipated, but when I flipped through all the photos today it kinda seemed worth it.

What says Christmas morning more than a little boy in his Christmas pjs and his new remote control fire truck?
He had a good day. Said 'thank you' after every gift and sometime before when he thought it was high time for him to open something.  He snuggled with his Gramma. He danced with his cousins and somehow survived the day on crackers & guacamole. Santa dropped off the final gift...a book about Jesus's birthday.
Merry Christmas!

Photo-A-Day Holiday Edition: Days 21-28

The final days of our Photo-A-Day project...

Day 21: Fudge-a-licious   

150 pieces of fudge got made & packaged up for Isaac's teachers today.
Creme de mente, peanut butter, peppermint cream & cake batter fudge.
Yummmmmmmmm.

Day 22: Hand Print Art

A couple times a year I bust out the paints and we make a mother-son hand print art project.
It's a fun way to see how much he has grown.
His cute little fingers aren't so short & pudgy any more..
*Sniff*

Day 23: Fa-La-La

This is the Christmas CD compilation on the passenger seat right now.
That's right...classic Amy Grant, Pink Martini, Duck Dynasty & Casting Crowns are all getting equal play.
Not sure what that says about the depth of my musical taste. :)

Day 24: Gingerbread Fail

I planned ahead and bought a pre-fab gingerbread house for us to put together.
Then I nearly lost my salvation trying to put the dumb thing together.
So...we made gingerbread patios and enjoy every morsel. 

Day 25: Cuzzies on the Lord's side

It was an impromptu Cuzzie Christmas this afternoon.
Aren't they just the cutest kids of all time?!

Day 26: HARK! The Herald Donkey...?

I don't know why he thinks this is so funny, but he replaces the singing angel with a donkey every time.
Now, when you push it, the donkey sings "Away in a Manger"...and that is weird...and I'll admit, pretty hilarious. :)

Day 27: School Choir

He's been practicing "Go Tell It On The Mountain" for months with his preschool class to sing during the school pageant. He even took over the roll of choir director!  But as soon as he saw me in the audience he froze. I ended up in the choir pit with him (without my camera) singing the song into a table leg with him because, apparently it looked like a microphone. So the big school performance ended up with just one (awkward) photo with his sweet teacher. 

Day 28: Christmas Eve

He curled up in my bed and grabbed my Bible and my heart melted.

One more day to go...

Joseph's Heart

I seriously love Christmas. I love the lights. I love the giving. I love the awe. The awe of God's promise fulfilled through Mary and her baby, and the total miracle of it all.  But my heart goes out to Joseph...because I want to be the forever parent I think he was.  He was chosen to be the earthly & forever father to God's son. I'm certain he was chosen not because he had the skills to do the job, but he had the heart to obey; he would have to daily cry out to the One who chose him to do the seemingly impossible: give up everything to raise the sinless son of God and trust in Grace to not screw up!

What did his heart do that night the angel visited? Did it break for the family shame his sweetheart would now carry? Did his mind immediately calculate the financial and social cost to such obedience?  Would his new carpentry business ever thrive under such controversy? Surely he would be shunned. Would he EVER be able to support his family? Did he have to force his feet to walk in blind faith until his heart could follow?

When the infant-Jesus cried through the night, through his exhaustion did Joseph sing Psalms over his tiny son? "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His mercies endure forever" (Ps 107:1)

Did he take boy-Jesus fishing in the early hours of the day and discussing & memorizing the Torah. (Deut 6:7)

Did his heart pause when his son asked to hear the stories again about Great-Great Grampa King David? (Isa 11:1)

Did he spend hours in the shop after hours with his teenage son building cabinets & shelves for the widows, single moms & orphans in Nazareth? "Hold the saw like this, son. Watch your fingers. If we finish early, we'll still have time to check on Widow Jacobson's roof." (Deut 10:18)

Did his blood boil when the other children made fun of his 'different' son? Yet, he would have to choose to model grace, forgiveness & compassion. "Come with me, son. I know it hurts, but they don't know what they are doing. Let's pray their hearts change soon."  (2 Chron 6: 36-39)

While singing the Passover prayer to his other children, did Joseph's heart silently bow to the Sacrificial Lamb who was sitting at his own dining table? (Ex 12)

Was it with Joseph's final breaths that he took his oldest son's hands "My son, there are extra shekels in the workshop. Make sure your mother is well cared for. I'm so very proud of you." Jesus learned from someone to care so deeply for his mother. (John 19:26-27)

The night before His crucifixion, was it Jesus’ first response to run to his Heavenly Father in prayer because he had seen his earthly father so often do the same? (Luke 22:41-44)

Every day Joseph had to choose: What's best for this child who has a plan so much bigger than I could ever dream? He has been given to me for this time on Earth alone; how do I, in every encounter with my child, model what our Heavenly Father would do? Jesus told his disciples "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." (John 5:19). I by no means want to devalue the majesty of that statement, but there is a part of me that wonders, was Jesus’ earthly father accurately able to model what he saw HIS Heavenly Father do to his own forever son? Was it through his forever father that the Christ child saw His Eternal Father first? Surely, in the early years, Jesus copied his daddy who was so earnestly seeking to follow the Lord.  What an impact that must have made! It’s this heart…Joseph’s heart…that I want to have as I parent my child on this earth.

Joseph's Lullaby, By Mercy Me

Photo-A-Day Holiday Edition: Days 11-20

Continuation of our Photo-A-Day Holiday Edition project...

Day 11: Christmas Wreaths

Every year for the last eight years (has it been that long?!) a group of friends get together to make our own Christmas wreaths. The music plays in the background. The kids play around the Christmas tree. The guys talk football. The ladies chat while being creative. There is food & needles & laughter everywhere. I look forward to the first weekend in December for this very event...it's good ol' fashioned wassailing meets Pinterest. :)

Day 12: First Christmas Cards

Our first Christmas cards of the year arrived today! One local and one from Europe.
Love that we have so many friends & family over this Earth!

Day 13: Work Tunes

I started a new job the week of Thanksgiving and thankfully my lovely new co-workers don't mind a little Christmas music playing in the background. Everything I need is in this corner of my desk...Pandora Christmas on the ipod included.

Day 14: Hospital Follow Up

Isaac took charge of his clinic paperwork today at our 6 week hospital followup.
We left with a clean bill of health. Praise the Lord!

**The photos that are NOT being shown for this day are the ones my sneaky little boy took while playing with Momma's phone in a public restroom, just out of my reach. Lord help me if the Cloud gets hacked again **

Day 15: Christmas Cookies

No actual cookies ended up being made, but the dough was THOROUGHLY rolled out, shaped, re-shaped and snitched by my little chef. 

Day 16: Joseph's Owie

I've officially lost count of how many nativities we have in the house.
This is our newest and currently most played with...Isaac signs/asks "owie?" for Joseph's head covering. :)
I suppose it does look a bit like a band-aid.

Day 17: In "A Mood"

He was in a bit of a mood on the Santa Train.
Grammas are good at fixing those.

Day 18: Quiet Sunday Morning

We needed a quiet day at home
Thankful for live streaming & podcasts from church.

Day 19: My Helper

He was supposed to be helping me clean the car...

Day 20: Mad Rush

The Christmas cards FINALLY arrived today.
Excited that we get to send our Christmas Greetings to 18 states and 3 countries.

Stay tuned for more...

Santa Train

I grew up with some pretty awesome experiences with Santa, so I've been chomping at the bit to introduce Isaac to the man in red. There is some kind of parenting rite of passage when it comes to Santa--how to introduce the concept, the actual person, have fun with it and still keep the focus on Christ. Last year Santa mailed a book about Jesus's birthday to Gramma's house so we could read it together on Christmas morning. We know how much Santa loves Jesus, so it was fun to have that experience.  But we didn't actually get to SEE Santa. Conveniently, the Santa Train was in our neck of the woods this weekend, so we hopped on board, sang some carols, ate some cookies, and stood in line...a lot.  For some reason Isaac was...how shall we say...in a bit of a mood today (ahem), so it took some extra work to get him to smile for just about anything. He tolerated Santa. He didn't give him any gruff, but also didn't give him much to work with. Thankfully, Santa is a patient man and has seen his fair share of moody four year-olds. Especially, ones who decide to be in a perfectly happy state as soon as we get back in the car to drive home. (What the heck?)  In the end, it was this momma who was more excited about the Santa Train than the little human, but we tried...and got the photo for the record books.   

Singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Munching on cookies & coco in the snack car.
Fast forward 30 seconds and all three of our drinks were on the ground and four strangers were on their knees helping us mop the train floor. God bless them all.

For a first photo with Santa, I suppose this isn't so bad.
Clearly he was merely tolerating the experience. :)

Thank you, Santa.
  We'll see (evidence of) you soon!

Photo-A-Day Holiday Edition: Days 6-10

Continuation of our Photo-A-Day Holiday Edition project...

Day 6:  Christmas Lights

So thankful for our 'lawn dude' who also puts up our Christmas lights every year.
I love the beauty of a lit up house without the risk of getting up on the roof!

Day 7:  Toy Drive

We picked two tween girls to shop for this year so it was a bit of a challenge for this little boy to shop with focus. But we prayed right in the middle of Target and asked Jesus to show us what to buy and we talked about the joy of blessing others while we shopped. I think we ended up with a perfect set of presents (Isaac approved, of course). We pray that E age 11 & B  age 10 deeply feel our Lord's love for them through these gifts. 

Day 8: Peter Pan

I put the boy to bed, left the dishes in the sink and curled up to watch Peter Pan...then promptly fell asleep.
Who makes TV specials that go until 10pm??

Day 9: Red Velvet Cake

The family recipe for red velvet cake has been passed down since my great-great grandmother. This was my first go at making it myself, and Isaac's too making him the sixth generation to craft this bit of yumminess.

Day 10: Tiny Tots Symphony

My intent was to show this picture of my boy so engrossed in the music of our second annual trip to the Seattle Symphony Tiny Tots Holiday Concert, but then...

...he smiled like THIS when we met up with an old college friend and rode the Holiday Carousel downtown.
That smile was too much for me to pass up!
(Thank you Risa for snapping our picture!)

Stay tuned for more...

The Tree Farm

I purposely got rid of my artificial tree last year to force us to get a real one at the Christmas Tree Farm this year. (We went last year, but came home without a tree).  The snow gods smiled upon Seattle earlier that morning for, what may be, the only "snow fall" we get this season...it was only an inch. (Don't laugh) In theory it was the perfect day to get our tree with Gramma, but it was WICKED cold and we rushed through pretty quick to get home & warm. 

Poor Isaac looked like a pack mule once I got him all bundled up. I kid you not...by the time I layered him up and put on his hat, boots & gloves, he fell face first onto the floor! (Think A Christmas Story). Sorry, buddy. This momma hates being cold so I'd rather you be extra toasty and look like a blue & green marshmallow than get the pneumonia again. Besides, you're cute!

Trying to stay warm with Gramma.

A spin around the farm on the choo-choo was a BIG hit! (but still cold)

Handmade hat by our friend Ashley at The Sequin Turtle
Go Pack Go!

Photo from our photog-friend Cassandra

It was cold and beautiful and fun and rushed and Christmas-y. I'm glad we had the experience. I'm even gladder for warm homes, hot cider and snugly little boys on the couch.