It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Quick update... not much time to write these days (you will see why.)

Is it just me, or do you have to completely destroy your house in order to decorate it for the holidays? I mean, we had Rubbermaids, tissue paper, scraps of wrapping paper, wire ornament hooks, and you can't even see all the faux tree needles all over the carpet.

I would include an "AFTER" picture, but it still pretty much looks the same most of the time. It's never really clean long enough to grab the camera.

My kitchen table during crafts this week. Jack loves getting to apply the glitter and glue himself and let's just say he is very generous with both. It takes days for his little pools of glue to dry.




We borrowed some Christmas lights and put them on the house... another first for us! Yes, on the same day... we finally chunked the Halloween pumpkin. I guess it was time? Jack Everett enjoyed being in charge of testing each strand of lights before we used it. He would cheer each time he'd test them and they actually lit up. Jack thought it was so awesome (and scary) that Daddy could jump off the roof without a ladder. When we were finished, I had forgotten how tacky Christmas lights look during the day, but alas, we match the rest of the neighborhood. Now all we need is a huge inflatable Christmas character. Don't worry, I'm only kidding.

"Here is my little Christmas Bell,

with its chain of green and red.

It reminds me to be good and sweet

from its place above my bed.

I tear one chain off every night

and count them one by one.

For when the last chain is gone

then Baby Jesus comes!"

(This was our Kid's Quest craft... and yes, Jack already got one day ahead of himself on the chain removal.)



Jack finished decorating his little tree for his bedroom. He loves it. He sometimes turns it off on his own. He is so afraid it will "run out of batteries" before Christmas. He used his blue and gold Mardi Gras beads to decorate it. He especially loves his Lightning McQueen, Sally, and SuperDog ornaments from Mamaw and Pops. I love this little tradition and am glad we started it. He also has a nativity on the table under the tree. I often find the animals mixed from other nativities around the house, gathered around his tiny Baby Jesus.

Here is proof that for a short glorious time all the lights we put up actually worked. About an hour later, they all went out except for about one foot up the column. That's how they look as I type this.

You know, just reading all this makes me realize what a big deal we make of Christmas. It IS a big deal. Our pastor once said, "Our children value what we celebrate." If we celebrate touchdowns more than grades, we reveal to them what we value more. For us, celebrating Christ's birth is so worth the time, the trouble, the effort, the mess... We want the boys to see that our family celebrates the greatest gift the world has ever been given. I just pray that someday he realizes that this gift was also for HIM personally... that Christ's death was a gift for Jack. All he has to do is receive it.