A little extra Christmas cheer

is filling up our house this year.

Happy 3 months, my dear!

and now we'd like to say...

Merry Christmas to all,

and to all a good night!

Celebrating the Christ of Christmas

I write today to encourage you to join me this Christmas to strive to see past the commercialism of the season and focus on the Christ, the Savior, who is worthy of all of the attention of this holiday and every day.  We know that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season", but we have to try extra hard - especially this day and age - to keep Him at the center of our festivities and the focus of our celebration.   

A few practical ways I believe may help us do this:

• Listen to the words of those familiar carols with new ears.  And then try to sing them with a voice proclaiming the glorious truths found in so many of them. . . 
  

A few examples:

Hark the herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled"

Through Christ, we - wretched sinners - have been reconciled to a Holy God!! 

 Unbelievable!!  So sing it loud!! :)

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appears

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Emmanuel - "God with us" - HAS come!!  

We don't have to mourn in slavery to sin anymore!!

Yes...Rejoice!!

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing...

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love!

Our King of truth and grace DOES rule the world

and WILL MAKE the nations prove His glories...

So please - if you are indeed a child of God - 

do not be one of those who sings

 this song as if you have no joy.

• Listen to this CD.  This Andrew Peterson Christmas album has become one of our family favorites.  It begins with Old Testament prophecies of the promised Messiah, and the songs express a bit of what it must have been like to be in "lonely exile", longing for a Savior.  And, at last, Messiah came, unglamorous and lowly, to save His people from their sins . . . Behold, the Lamb of God!  

click HERE to order

• Peruse this book.  Although I have not read this book in it's entirety, I have picked it up on occasion and been blessed by what I have read.  Noel Piper presents practical ways to keep Christ central in all of your celebrations, and not just at Christmastime.  If you were not blessed to have a mother like mine who made it her goal to keep Christ the focus of our family celebrations, or if you are looking for ideas to come up with new traditions, or looking to tweak old ones, I definitely think you should get this book. 
  

  click HERE to order

So, my prayer for myself and for you is that we celebrate CHRIST this Christmas . . . and nothing less!

Merry Christmas ~

from our family to yours!

Being a mother of two is nothing short of a full-time job (hence such infrequent blog posts.  I have sat down many times to try to at least get some recent pictures up, only to be summoned away from the computer. :)  I have found God's grace so faithful in those moments of meltdowns and and frustrations and so sweet in those peaceful times when everyone is content and happy (or sleeping:).  Being a mother is a gift of joy and sanctification.  I pray not to waste those hard moments, and that God will indeed use them to sanctify me and chip away those parts of me that still do not reflect His image.  And in those moments when I think to myself, "This is the life!" I want my heart to always overflow with humble gratitude knowing that every good gift is from above (James 1:17).  I want to be quick to give God the glory, from whom all blessings flow.   

As my husband told me last night, (something to this affect...quotation marks can be risky:) "On the Potter's wheel is right where I want to be."  My heart totally agreed.  I know that whatever the Lord daily allots for me - whether difficult or delightful - is for His utmost glory and my greatest good; what He ordains is being used by Him to mold me into what He desires me to be.  

The familiar promises of Romans 8:28 - "And we know God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose" - and Philippians 1:6 - "being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the Day of Christ Jesus" - bring such sweet comfort and smiles, even if I feel like crying...or if I do cry...I can know the tears are not in vain.  God uses them in His kind, wise way to accomplish His purpose and will for each of us.  

Well, time was allowed today ... so here are a few recent pics of the kiddos.  They are both growing so much each day, and I am so thankful to get to be their "Mommy"!  

John David in his "game day" uniform...

we have greatly been enjoying watching Bama this season!

Clean and cuddly :)

Sweet smiles

Ready for Disney World!  Claire already loves Minnie Mouse :) 

Our big boy no longer sleeps with his paci - we tied it 

to balloons and sent it soaring in the sky!

"Bye-bye paci!" John David cheered.

He was pumped about the idea...until naptime came.

He's doing great now and has only asked for it a few times since. 

(sorry the pictures aren't clear; of course my camera

battery was dead on the day of the "launching".

These were taken with David's phone.) 

"Up, up and away!" 

We watched the pacifier and balloons fly

 until we couldn't see them anymore.

I must say, it really was a cool experience :)

ROLL TIDE!!!

Grateful Reflecting

Recently, David and I have done much reflecting on the grace and faithfulness of the Lord in our lives over the past year.  November 14th marked one year since our John David was diagnosed with high-functioning autism.  Throughout this past year of praying for and seeking to be a student of our son, we are convinced that John David has Asperger's syndrome. (You can click HERE for a definition.) He is doing so well, and we daily praise the Lord for providing the resources and services that have so greatly benefited our son.  Much of what has helped John David has simply been the education of David and I in this area.  Oh, and we have so much yet to learn!  But we praise the Lord for giving John David to us and count it a high privilege to be his parents.  The other day I told David that - if we weren't John David's parents - I would be envious of anyone else who got to be!  He is such a blessing to us and I cannot imagine life without him . . . I cannot imagine him being any other way.  John David is so unique, and his uniqueness is nothing short of endearing.  

So this Thanksgiving, we are especially giving thanks to our kind Heavenly Father for our children, and the grace He is providing us to parent them.  We could not be parents for one moment without this sufficient grace, nor without the wisdom that God's promises to provide when we ask Him (James 1:5).  

If you would like to reflect with us on this time last year, click Thanksgiving 2008.

Below are a few pictures from yesterday . . . 

A Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day 

at Granny and Pop's house

John David - wet after throwing rocks in the pond - 

and "Buddy" the dog, 

who has sat on my grandparent's fireplace as long as I can remember :)

Little Miss Claire, communing with her great-grandparents . . .

My younger brother, Kameron, with his sweet fiance, Olivia 

I'm so thankful for my family!