Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and hope you did too!



To kick off the season, we went to a Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio concert on Dec. 4. Chris is our favorite Christian musician, and we had been looking forward to this event for months. T gets excited when we listen to him and even has a few favorite songs by Chris (Let God Arise, Glory in the Highest, and How Can I Keep From Singing). This was a Christmas concert, so Chris performed favorites such as O Holy Night, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard On High, and many more, plus regular hits from his CD's. Louie is a wonderful evangelist and shared the story of Jesus' birth in a powerful way. T loved the concert and made it through the whole 2 and a half hours. When other members of Chris's band would sing, T would start to get restless, but as soon as Chris came back on T would just sit there mesmerized by his voice.

One of T's favorite movies is The Star of Christmas Veggietales movie. It teaches children about the real meaning of Christmas, and he watched this DVD several times throughout December. On several nights, we rode around looking at lights, which I still love to do! We also had fun decorating our house, although we did not put up outside lights this year. We took T on an overnight trip to Disney World during the Christmas season, and we all had lots of fun!

On Christmas Eve we went to Daddy's brother's house for dinner. It was very nice, and T enjoyed playing with his cousins. When we got home, I continued a tradition that my parents did with us-so T got to open one present, a pair of pajamas. On Christmas morning, we opened presents and baked a cake for Jesus. That afternoon we had a delicious dinner at Daddy's mom's house. That evening, Daddy and I told T the story of Jesus' birth. T and I had both caught a cold on Christmas, so we went to bed early.

I've been searching the internet for different traditions, and have found several that I would like to start next year. I have found wonderful activities to do with young children to teach them more about Christmas and Jesus. There are lots of neat crafts out there for preschoolers! One family writes small notes to each other and then they put the notes in the appropriate stockings. I would love to do that next year!


At first, we were terribly disappointed to not be spending Christmas in our new house. This year we had decided early on that we wouldn't be able to go to PA for Christmas because we were certain we would be in our new house. So it was a double disappointment that we ended up neither going to PA nor in our new home. It is hard to be so far away from my family, and I pray we will see each other more in the coming year.

The closer it came to Christmas, the happier I became. I really focused on what the day means, and I'm still so awestruck at the whole story. It's just so amazing!! The only begotten Son of our Father God left his dwelling place in heaven, where he had resided for all eternity past, and came down to live on earth with us and became one of us. God Almighty, the Creator of the entire world, came humbly into the world as a baby!! It's incredible!!!

I always wonder what Jesus was like at T's age....Did He cry? Did He ever throw a temper tantrum? What were His first words? I can't wait to someday find out the answers to these questions! For now, I'm happy remaining in wonderment and enjoying my relationship with Him while on earth. And I'll never cease to frequently praise Him for everything He has done for me/given to me.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!!!!!!

Hi there! I am completely new to blogging, but figured I would give it a try! I thought it would be a neat way for friends and family to stay in the loop and see what we are up to. T is getting ready to turn two next month, and I plan on starting a curriculum with him anytime between now and then. Up until now I haven't really done much structured learning with him. I talk to him alot and describe things for him. I read books to him and play lots of games with him. I've tried some different craft activities with him, but he's not real interested in them yet. T is very mechanical-He loves building puzzles, putting things together, etc. He is very high energy and right now has a pretty short attention span:)

I am looking into different curriculums for him and praying over which one will be the best fit for us. At this point, I am highly considering starting him on the Letter of the Week prep, and incorporating Bible concepts into each week.

I am happy to report that T just learned his first color-orange! Much thanks to our Christmas tree!! We have multicolored lights on it, and one night he was pointing at the different colors and I was naming them. After a few moments, I realized he would specifically point to the orange ones and say "oran." He doesn't name any of the other colors yet, but if you ask him "where's orange" he will consistently look for and point to an orange one and say "oran."

T is saying more and more every day, but alot of it I can't understand yet. It took me a while to learn that the words he says don't always sound like they are supposed to, but he knows what he is talking about. Many of his words are still unclear to me, but sometimes he'll shock me and say something perfectly. The other day he said the word "vegetable" as clear as can be! Today at a Chinese restaurant he pointed right at the waterfall and said "wafall". I didn't even know he knew what a waterfall was.

I am trying hard not to compare him to other children his age, but I sometimes still fall into that trap. I just try to remind myself that God made T special (like every child) and that he will do things when he is ready.

I am looking forward to the upcoming Christmas week! I'll be searching the internet for ideas on how to explain the birth of Jesus to a toddler. There are so many neat coloring pages, crafts, activities, etc., so this should be fun! We are going to bake a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve, which will be interesting. I wish I knew how much he already comprehends about Jesus. Every time I say to him, Remember, God made you special and he loves you very much, T gets a huge grin on his face.

I guess that's all for now. I'll try to update this blog once a week. Thanks for reading!