Christmas Part One

This has been such a busy Christmas season. Lots of doctors appointments, it seems to have arrived quickly with the late Thanksgiving, a cold that seemed to linger after Thanksgiving, ... My grand plans for Christmas have not all happened. But I think that's ok. Instead of all the crafts, baking, doing, we've had a lot of quieter time (well as quiet as it gets around here :) Instead of baking tons, we baked some. Instead of getting carried away with the good idea fairy for advent, we've read the New Testament each morning with James, we're memorizing Luke 2, and reading Jesse Tree each night.

We did Operation Christmas Child- which the kids look forward to each year- and we adopted a child for our church's Winter Wonderland. The kids really enjoyed helping pick out presents for the little boy. Instead of being in a Christmas play, we watched another church's Christmas program. Instead of going to see a big lights display, we've enjoyed our neighbor's Christmas lights. Instead of decorating a tree, we hung the kids' ornaments on a string in the living room.  Instead of elaborate crafts (not that we ever do elaborate, the kids have really enjoyed making presents for each other, friends, and family on their own. And that's really where we are right now. And all of it is ok- I think God wants to meet us where we are. I read a super blog about the shepherds and how God announced His most wonderful gift not to the fine people in the temple but to the tired, poor shepherds. He doesn't want a production, our fanciest, our pinterest worthy, but our hearts. 

One of my favorite memories of this Christmas will be Baby (I mean Big Girl) C's "I found baby Jesus" over and over as she looks at Bibles or Christmas books.