"Receiving Christ" Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Our pastor had a great sermon on Christmas Eve this year. He talked about how our culture tends to say that the real meaning of Christmas is about "giving." He challenged that idea in that the real meaning of Christmas is really about "receiving." That we have One True Giver ...who gave us EVERYTHING by giving us His Son so that we may be forgiven and have eternal life and RECEIVE Him as our Savior. Our main job at Christmas and every day is to RECEIVE Him and to KEEP receiving Him every day! Everything else that we give is really a reflection of the true Giver. He talked about how we should all have that "childlike" faith and be better at RECEIVING this GIFT of His Son. Children are AWESOME at receiving gifts (let me tell you). :) They don't say "Oh no - you shouldn't have. I don't deserve that. No thank you. You keep it." They don't get stressed out around the holidays...because they aren't worried about how many gifts to buy, and what's on the best sale, and what amazing meal they should prepare. Nope. Children just take it ALLL in. They get so excited about the coming of the gifts...they open their arms with no hesitation, no embarrassment, no delay....and sometimes they even forget to say "thank you." I loved the picture that this painted to me since our three girls are at a GREAT age for loving Christmas time...and so I can see all the joy and excitement and thrill they get from receiving a gift. Makes me wish I had that same joy, excitement, and thrill all the time when I think about RECEIVING the Ultimate Gift of Jesus. I don't need to be ashamed. I don't need to hold back. I just need to open my arms to Him like my girls do with no abandon. Receiving isn't always easy....like when I had to receive help when the girls were babies...it was hard...but I knew then, that I had a great need and that I HAD to except help or I would die! Seriously! :) And I think it's very similar with receiving Christ. It's not easy to take that step...until we recognize our NEED for Him...and just hold out our arms and say "THANK YOU JESUS!!!" God is seriously sooo amazing and sooo crazy about us! We are so so blessed!!!!

So yes, we have so much to celebrate this Christmas....and we had such a fun time celebrating this year with the girls because they really do show so much joy and excitement! We celebrated last Friday with Ryan's side of the family since Shane and Jody are with Jody's family today. And then we skyped Christmas with my family last night (THANK God for skype!!) and then we celebrated with just the girls and Ryan and I last night...and then had Kim and Kathy over for brunch and some more presents today. It was such a great Christmas! Hope you all had a great one too and that you're truly able to RECEIVE the gift of His Son this year and always. Just like I want our girls to get better at saying "thank you" after receiving a gift, I hope to get better at thanking Jesus by the way I choose to live each day. Merry Christmas everyone!

Em, Addy, ad Hailey by "their" Christmas trees.

The girls' new favorite "snack" after naps. Hot "Chalk - O - Latte" as they call it. :)

Grandpa and Grandma's dog Pepper also got a gift from the girls this year - a stylin' Christmas outfit to keep her warm. :)

Santa brought the girls new shake cups for Christmas. :) Which was funny because since we wanted to have shakes on Christmas Eve night, we had "Santa" come a little early with just one gift, the shake cups, in their stockings. We said Santa was going to make another trip that night but he only had time to drop off these cups. OH man....it was so funny b/c the girls were thrilled w/ their cups...but they were MORE concerned that Santa didn't put anything in our stockings!! They felt so bad for us and were asking so many questions about why he forgot to put something in our stockings. Even in the morning, the girls ran downstairs to see if Santa came to fill their stockings, and the first stocking they checked was mine! My little sweeties...

Christmas Eve tradition: New PJ's...with tutus of course. :) Winter Wonderland in our front yard

A GREAT Surprise...

sunshine and WARMTH!!! A couple weeks ago, Ryan said we were going to our friends house for dinner with a few other couple friends. I knew he was up to something cuz he never plans stuff like this! But the guys wanted to get us all together so they could give us an envelope...with an itinerary for THE LADIES to go to Naples, Florida!!! It was sooo amazing. I LOVE the sun and what a great gift to get some sunshine and good quality time w/ my mom friends. We were most excited for the warmth....and then also that we'd be able to have complete conversations without interruptions from our lovely kiddos! Poor Andrea ended up not being able to make it since she had a 3 month old...guess we'll just have to go again sometime!!! :) :) :)

My friends Jenn, me, Heidi, and Desirae (We stayed at Desirae's in-laws condo in Naples - it was so great!)

Lovin' the sun at South Beach in Marco Island
Ready for a night out on the town...
And not only did our guys send us to Florida in the dead of winter, but they also surprised us with flowers delivered to the condo door! THEY ARE KEEPERS!!!!!!

Yes, we took a picture of our luggage. We were just so proud of ourselves that we didn't have to check ANY baggage. :)

And here we are making our sad faces because we didn't want to leave the relaxation and sunshine. :)

So we had to buy this palm tree necklace to remind us of the warmth when we got back to our 7 degree blizzard. :)

BUT...of course we missed our amazing hubbies and children.....and it definitely doesn't feel like Christmas in Florida.....so it's nice to be back. We met four ladies from WI in their fifties at the airport who were also on a girls trip. They do it annually and said we should too!!! :) They were so cute and fun and I HOPE we can do that too! THANKS FOR A SUPER FUN, REFRESHING TRIP BOYS!!!!

Christmas Time

Hi everyone! I really do love this time of year! Although, yes, it always feels busy and crazy...that's why I loved this devotional that I read this morning from Proverbs 31 Ministries that I'll share with you. She talked about remembering to take time to unwrap His presence during this Christmas season....

Unwrapping His Christmas Presence 7 Dec 2010 Renee Swope “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you will call Him Immanuel, God with us.” Isaiah 7:14 (NIV) Plans for the perfect Christmas danced across the stage of my mind. My mom, my brother and my husband's parents were coming to see us. Plus my dad and his wife would be here Christmas day, and JJ’s brother and family were coming too. Inviting our out-of-town families to our home for the holidays for the first time was a dream come true. The fact that they could all come at some point between Christmas and New Years was just short of a miracle. I'm so embarrassed to admit this, but by the time everyone got here I couldn’t wait for them to leave. In the midst of all the preparations, I'd gotten tangled up in Christmas lights and unrealistic expectations. It all started when my husband and sons petitioned for blinking colored lights on the tree. We don’t do colored lights on the tree. I am a “white lights” kind of girl, I insisted. But then JJ suggested our decorating decisions should be a “family activity” that year. Who was this man and why had he not brought this up in pre-marriage counseling? I wondered. The control freak in me started to freak out. Don’t get in the way of my perfect Christmas with white lights that make me and my home feel peaceful. Further attempts to have the perfect house, perfect menu and perfect table settings were stealing my holiday joy. This being my first time hosting a holiday dinner, I'd failed to notice that my Christmas place mats didn’t coordinate with my everyday cloth napkins, and I didn’t have festive napkin rings. Worst of all, I didn’t know how to cook a turkey. In the midst of all the holiday obligations I’d placed on myself, I experienced one of my worst Christmas days ever. I had a house full of people, but an oh-so-empty heart. As I walked through my living room picking up wrapping paper, I wondered why my dreams of the “perfect Christmas” hadn’t come true. Many of the elements seemed to be in place: kids running around with remote control cars, adults on the couch snoring to the tune of Jingle Bells, and grown men playing sidewalk hockey in the driveway. We’d lit Advent candles and set out the nativities. Still, something was missing. Trying to escape the holiday noise, I went upstairs to my bedroom and sat down on the floor in my walk-in closet. Taking a deep breath, I opened my Bible to read the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2. Slowly, I let each word remind me of that first Christmas night and God’s promise that came true in Bethlehem. “She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger...” Luke 2:7 (NIV). A cross reference led me to Isaiah 7:14: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and you will call him Immanuel, God with us.” Closing my eyes, I pictured Mary wrapping baby Jesus. Her hands carefully folding each corner of cloth. Like a beautiful bow on the perfect Christmas gift, she placed a kiss on his forehead. That’s when I realized what had been missing. In the hustle and bustle of creating the perfect Christmas, I’d forgotten to unwrap the perfect gift, the most important gift of all, the gift of Immanuel, God with us. Bowing my head, I opened my hands and my heart, and unwrapped God’s presence in my closet that day. I invited Jesus to bring calm to my anxious heart. To bring His perspective to my expectations and to help me enjoy the gifts of my family that were waiting downstairs. Simply pausing to acknowledge and thank Jesus for being with me brought peace to my heart unlike anything white lights and matching table settings could ever bestow. It ended up being the perfect Christmas after all! Dear Lord, no matter how busy life gets or how lonely I feel this Christmas, I want to unwrap the gift of Your presence each day. Help me to see You, hear Your voice speak to my heart, and pay attention when You lead me with Your peace and perspective. I seek Your purpose in all of my plans. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Emily, Addy, Hailey

This pic cracks me up. Emily and Hailey at 6:30 in the morning...prefer to be out of their footie jammies, in their underwear, ON the table, deep into putting together a princess puzzle...and check out the weather outside. :)

O Christmas tree. Speaking of unwrapping His presence this time of year, I should have thought more about that when Ryan and I began to put up our Christmas tree this year. Normally I look forward to putting the tree up but this year, I DREADED it! Last year, our pre-lit Christmas tree all of the sudden became only "pre-lit" on the BOTTOM branch. The rest of the entire tree lights wouldn't work. And we would need extreme patience and a LOT of free time to unwind all the pre-lit lights or check for one million fuses, so we just put some more on top of it...and it'll just work have to work. :) Christmas isn't about the Christmas tree anyway, right? So no need to get in a tizzy over it. :)
I LOVE CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!! This is a tradition that I always did growing up and I think my girls are going to want this tradition as well since they LOVE eating them. I think I'm going to have to double the batch next year though as we ALREADY finished off ALL of the cookies and we didn't even give any away! Oops!!
Hailey - eating the frosting by the spoonful...
Em's bowl of frosting all gone...I don't see very much on her cookie...
Addy
Here the neighbor girls came over to help make Christmas chocolate pretzels. Mmm....those are ALMOST gone. :) :)
And, the girls have just been funny lately. I try to remember their sayings but since they say so many, I can't keep up or remember them all cuz they come and go so fast! :) Here's a few random ones:

I'm playing house with the girls and Emily is pretending to be "Dad." She said she just got back from work and I asked her what she did at work today. She said "I sat in my black chair..." "What else did you do?" "I checked my 'puter..." "uh huh..." "I ate my lunch..and the end!" Funny how that's what she thinks Ryan does all day. :)

Ryan was putting Hailey to bed and she said "Dad, why you have to go to work tomorrow?"

"Because honey, if I didn't go to work, we wouldn't have any money."

Hailey: "But you have some money in your wallet."

"Yea, I need to make sure it keeps coming though."

Hailey: I have some green and purple money in my purse Dad."

At the dinner table I said "Addison, honey, you're eating too fast. Slow down..."

Hailey: "Or you'll get a TICKET!!"

Em: Can I stay up ALL night Mom?

"I don't think so Tim."

Em: MOOOOoooom! You just called me TIMMMM!!!

"No hun, it's just a saying."

Em: "No - it's Grandpa's name!" (Grandpa's name is really Kim!) :) :)

3 year pics - taken in our yard

Addison Lee

Hailey Grace

Emily Ann

Addison, Hailey, Emily
Hailey, Addy, Em
Emily, Addy, Hailey
Hailey, Addy, Emily
Addy, Emily, Hailey