NOEL

Daddy and I have a "tradition" of sorts around Christmas. I have these little wooden letters that spell the word "NOEL"Every year, I put these letters out as decoration. Have you ever noticed what Noel spells backwards? Every year, Daddy switches the letters when I'm not looking. I then switch them back when he's not looking. This goes on for as long as my Christmas decorations are out.C knows that we have this little thing going. This morning he was downstairs before me. When I got down, I noticed that he had gotten in on our thing. I knew for sure that it was him, because well.... just check the picture.He had spelled it wrong. I think it's cute that he has gotten in on it. So now there will be 3 of us trying to out do the others with changing the letters. Maybe when K is old enough she'll play along too. Fun!

Bob and Larry (and K's tree)

In a previous post I mentioned that we have a Bob and Larry nativity. My blog-savvy friend said she would like to see it. So here is a picture-just for her. Isn't it cute?Then, while we were at Wal-Mart today, I got K a tree for her room. C has one for his room. It is from my college days. Remember the little ones we used to set up in our college dorm? That's the one. Well of course, K wanted one. I had seen a pink one at W-M that I thought would be cute. It was--until I saw the price! $20. Even the W-M dude said "Wow I didn't know they were that much." So I found a silver one that was smaller and more in my price range $8.88 (ever wonder, why .88???) But it had no ornaments on it. So we got pretty pink balls and she picked out some white snowflake thingys. Thank goodness it came already strung with lights. So K helped me decorate it and we'll put it in her room tonight. I think it's kinda gaudily-pretty. The first picture isn't the best picture of the tree, but I really liked K's smile in it. The second picture shows the tree a little better, but K isn't looking at the camera. I can't win for losing.

Baby Jesus

Saturday we decorated for Christmas. I discovered that we have at least 6 manger scenes. Two are magnets, 2 are little people, 1 is Larry & Bob, and one is my very nice procelin that goes high up on the TV cabinet. I let the kids put up and play with all except the last.In the midst of decorating, the 2 sets of little people got in my way. I asked C to help me move them to the trunk so that they were out of the way. He set up one set and I set up the other. Once we were both done, I noticed something interesting. In the set that I had set up, my animals, shepehards, and wise men were facing out--looking at you the viewer. In the set that C had set up, he had all the partcipants facing Baby Jesus. Isn't that interesting? That's where our focus should be this time of year, but sometimes we get easily sidetracked. Something very simple, and I'm sure he had no idea-it was the logical placement to him-but it stuck with me. Let's keep our focus where it should be this year--on Baby Jesus.

Thanksgiving

I've been dying to blog for the past few days but haven't had time! I'll try to cover all our Thanksgiving weekend activities.

The Tuesday night before Thanksgiving our church hosts their midweek service and calls it a "Pie and Praise" service. We start with songs and testimony time in the audotorium and then go to the Fellowship hall for pies and desserts. It's a fun time! While we were eating, we got to talking to some friends and found out that they would be 'just them' for turkey day. So on a whim, we decided to get together for the day. We call this family our kids "Indiana grandparents." They are a great family. So that's where we went on Thursday.

Thursday morning we had a "Thanksgiving" breakfast of cinnamon rolls. YUMMO!

We headed to our friends house about 1:30 and were there for a few hours. We had a yummy meal (the homemade rolls were the best-even better than Sister Shubert's). It was a good time. On our way home, K fell asleep and even slept a few more minutes on the couch after we got home. We spent the evening planning Daddy's route for the good deals the next morning.

Daddy got up before 5 am to head out Friday morning. He started at Wal-Mart and has since said he will never go to W-M again the day after T-giving. But he got what we wanted there. In fact, he got most of what we wanted that day. At 8:30 we met him at McD's for breakfast and then we all went out to JCPenney's. C had a pix appointment for his 6 year pictures and Daddy and K did some more shopping. We finished up in time to have lunch back at home. That afternoon, I started putting up Christmas decorations.

Saturday was the day that the kiddies have been talking about for awhile. They were so excited to put the tree up. They both helped and loved putting the ornaments on. We did have to re-arrange some-K kept putting them all on the same branch. I think it turned out very nice. We even played outside for a few minutes while Daddy put up our decorations outside-4 white spiral trees in the front yard.

All in all, it was a very busy, very productive, and very fun Thanksgiving weekend. Hope everyone had a great day!

Wedding bells

Our friends M and Green Socks are getting married in July. July 4th to be exact. Our preacher thinks it's funny that they are getting married on Independence Day. You'd have to know my preacher. Anyway. This past Sunday morning as I was on my way to pick up the kiddies from their classes, M stopped me and asked if it would be alright if C was in their wedding-as the ring bearer. I said sure. C and Green Socks are good friends; both my kids really like the both of them. I think the both of them really like my kids too. But I asked if M and Green Socks would "officially" ask C that night--themselves. Sure.

Funny side note, as we were leaving church that morning, M's dad stopped us and said "C, I hear you are going to be in a wedding." C is going "huh?" and I'm going "Shhh!" We quickly changed it to "I hear your birthday is soon!" and C was none the wiser.

So that night, C was officially asked to be in the wedding and he said yes. Later as they were singing a song during the service, C slipped over to them and said "I changed my mind. I don't want to be in your wedding. I'm too shy." What?!?! I heard all this after the service--I was in nursery that night. On the way home, we talked to C and explained what it all entailed. I don't think he was too sure what his part would be. And I told him that he is not shy. :) I told him it was a privilege to be in a wedding and the reason he was asked was because he is a good friend of the 2 of them.

So after we got home, I had C call M and tell her "I would be happy to be in your wedding." She got such a kick out of the whole thing. Now he is all kinds of excited. I have heard nothing but "wedding, wedding, wedding" Now I have to listen to this for the next 8 months. Oh dear!