Christmas Eve

Since Jon and I have been married, my family had been spending Christmas Eve at our house. Jon grew up eating enchiladas on Christmas day, and I grew up eating ham. We normally eat Christmas dinner at my parents house, so we've taken Jon's enchilada tradition and moved it to Christmas Eve. This year, my parents and Patrick came over to spend the evening with us. We had a great time celebrating.

Jon tried to get out of "Santa" duty by falling asleep with Nash. Hehe.

I begin shopping for Christmas 364 days before the big day. I had about 85% of my Christmas shopping for the kids finished by Thanksgiving, which is great. I buy things when they're on sale or clearance, and save them all year long. It's lots of fun and saves me lots of money. I, however, wrap pretty much nothing before Christmas Eve, and I wrap almost EVERYTHING individually (socks, undershirts, etc.). We had a pretty late night, but we had a great time putting things together and getting it all ready for the morning.

Advent Conspiracy

Our church participated in Advent Conspiracy this year. The idea was to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all during the holiday season.

We regularly read the story of Jesus' birth to Shea from The Big Picture Story Bible and talked with her about it regularly during the month of December. We also explained that Christmas was when we celebrated Jesus' birthday. I don't think that she really had any idea of what was going on, but she'll hopefully catch on someday. I think that next year, we'll try reading Luke 2 to her every night before bed. I tried this year, but I had a hard time keeping her interested. On the other hand, she loved the story in her "Bible book."

As part of the advent conspiracy, we were challenged to spend less. I'm normally quite a bargain hunter. Like I said in my previous post, I shop all year long for Christmas. I enjoy showing my love with gifts. These gifts don't need to be expensive, but thoughtful. For example, I love surpising Jon with a box of Hot Tamales from time to time. That's an inexpensive gift, but also a thoughtful way to show my love. When I'm shopping for Christmas, I don't try to show my love by how much I spend, but I enjoy purchasing something that I know my loved one will really enjoy. Jon loves the Simpson's and isn't crazy about the ornaments that I like on our tree, so I got him a Homer Simpson Christmas ornament. Jon loved the maple candy we had when we visited Vermont for his cousin's wedding, so I found some at Fresh Market and stuffed it in his stocking. He also is HUGE Star Wars fan (our dog is named after Princess Leia), so when I saw a Star Wars bobble head on clearance at TJ Maxx, I thought of him and got it. Those are some inexpensive gifts that I hope were thoughtful and showed my husband how much I think of him. He seemed to be genuinely excited about receiving them, and I was able to express my love and appreciation for him with gifts.

My problem this year was that I kept finding bargains for things that I knew my children would enjoy. Even with thoughtful, inexpensive gifts, there has to be a stopping point, and I did eventually stop. I was so sad about saying no to the keyboard w/ microphone that I saw at Target and the Disney princess dolls that were on sale for $5.99 at the Disney store, but I did it. Shea didn't miss those things at all, and she was more than happy with what she did receive. I have a lot more to learn about cutting back, but I am learning.

December Pictures

We got our tree on an incredibly cold night the week after Thanksgiving.

Ten days after we put the tree up, it finally had all the lights and ornaments up on it.

Nash puts absolutely EVERYTHING in his mouth. Despite our best efforts, he pooped pine needles many times during the month of December.

Say CHEEEEEESE!

Jon with his baby boy!


They really love each other!

Shea's Christmas Program

Shea's preschool does a Christmas program every year. It lasts about five minutes and provides loads of entertainment. Shea was the letter "J" this year, and she was supposed to say, "J is for Jesus, the holiest one." I think that she mumbled something close to that when it was her turn. :) Here's some pictures from the program:

Small Group Christmas Celebration

We had a grown-up Christmas party with our small group and another small group in our church, which was super nice to do. We also decided that we wanted to do something "Christmassy" with the kids, so we had another party. :) We ate good food, the kids did Christmas crafts, and we sang some Christmas carols. It was a lot of fun.


Left: Ella, Shea and Lauren making Christmas ornaments.
Right: Heather helping Isaiah with his ornament.

Ella, Shea, Lauren, and Joanna

Quinn playing with Ella's beads. Good future blackmail material. :)

One big mess!

Getting even bigger!

This picture just makes me laugh. Angie and Bryan, y'all are awesome!

Cousins

Shea adores her cousins, Emma and Bess. They have a ball together. Here's some more pics from their last visit.

The three princesses. That's pretty much what they wear most of the time they're together.

Nini reading to the girls. Notice, Shea and Bess are now fairies instead of princesses.

Shea and Bess.


Emma, Bess, and Shea

Shea and Emma.

Nash: 8 months

Nash is eight months old now! He's got one tooth, and he's still eating about 1 jar of baby food each day. He's still a champion nurser, and I have yet to get a full night's sleep since he was born. He's pulling up and army-crawling to get around. He squeals with delight, and we're just having more and more fun with him as he's getting older.

Shea and Her Baby Dolls

Shea loves playing "mommy" to her baby dolls. She reads to them and takes care of them. We cannot keep blankets out because they inevitably become homemade doll beds. She makes pallets for her dolls all over the place and tucks them in "bed." She'll then whisper to us, "Shhhh, baby sleeping." She's also been known to "nurse" her dolls (she did this with a doll in the church nursery a few weeks ago), and she even disciplines them. It's so cute to watch her as she plays and imagines.

Shea Family Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Day was the first in a long time in which all of my immediate family celebrated together. It was also the first Thanksgivingthat Jon and I have spent in Memphis during our 6.5 years of marriage. We had a fabulous time hanging out with my family.

Emma and Bess came over on Tuesday to play with Shea.

Papa with Nash after dinner Wednesday night.

Some Rock Band on Wednesday night.

Papa reading to his granddaughters while Sara sings. :)

With my blessing, Jon played football Thursday morning while I cooked and watched the kids. (I would've played too if I hadn't broken my toe.) After an eventful morning, this is what Jon, Shea, Nash, and Leia did during the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day.

My family has some obsession with Rock Band.

They all love it. It's complete chaos when we get it out.

Nash wants them to stop playing the music at "Nini volume." He was trying to sleep.

Uncle Patrick came to say goodbye to the girls, and this is what happened. :)

Me with my baby brother.

After all the fun with her cousins Thanksgiving weekend, here's Shea on the way home from Nini and Papa's house on Sunday afternoon.