The Christmas Joy

I thought I loved Christmas before I was a mother. But Oh My do I love it even more now. I treasure each new tradition, each joyful Merry Christmas, each tree we turn over in our advent calendar, each Happy Birthday Jesus song we sing. I love my fridge covered in Christmas cards. I love baking. I love shopping (online ;) ) and decorating and watching White Christmas and Elf. Sometimes I worry about trying to balance all the fun secular parts of Christmas with the birth of Christ. OUR SAVIOR WHO WAS BORN TO DIE FOR ME! I try to stress everyday why we celebrate and explaining the meaning behind the traditions we have chosen. This year I find myself anticipating the birth of Christ even more. Because as I have teaching Noah about Jesus each day I fall more in love with Him myself. I think the message Christ is teaching me this Christmas is JOY. He wants to bring joy to all of us. Joy in salvation. Joy in loving and serving each other. Joy in raising little ones. Joy in life, a life abundant. So I think He is pleased with the joy that surrounds this season.

I have to share one of my favorite joyful moments of Christmas this year (so far). Our neighborhood love holidays. (Last year I took you on a Christmas light tour , here.And told you stories about the Halloween craziness,here and here.) The lights go up and on right after the Thanksgiving leftovers are wrapped up and in the fridge. They are beautiful and in extreme excess! Noah particularly loves them. Saturday night we were coming home from going out to eat with our parents and I had been alerted via texts and Facebook that Santa was in our neighborhood. But these sighting had been around five and it was now eight. I didn't think He would have stuck around that long. But sure enough there he was sitting in a rocking chair near his sleigh in the front yard of a house all lit up. Santa was passing out candy canes to kids driving around. It was so sweet. Noah loved it! Tonight after a trip to our Publix (side story: Our bag boy tonight was the sweetest ever! All the big car carts were being cleaned so Noah was in the back of a regular cart and Miller was up front. So at the check out he got another buggy for our groceries. On the way to the car he asked me if I had had a good day. Like he really cared and wanted to know. We had a conversation about Christmas shopping online. He was so nice! Just one more experience to cement my love for Publix!) we were driving home looking at lights and Santa was out again! How sweet is that? I love this "Santa". When I got home I boxed up some leftover treats, tied a bow on it, and wrote a little thank you note and drove back down to Santa. He had gone in for a break but his little helpers were out. And guess what.... they had Auburn hats on. To some this may not sound like a big deal. But here in Tuscaloosa it is. I always knew Santa was an Auburn fan :) Good people. Spreading the Christmas Joy!

The Baking

I have been baking up a storm around here! I baked some treats for Noah's teachers this week and tried out some new recipes from plainchicken.blogspot.com.

Peppermint Brownie BitesWhite Chocolate Peppermint PopcornMy Chocolate Chip CookiesTreat Boxes for Noah's Teachers

Everything I tried was great. On Saturday we had our parents over for the annual cookie party!Papa is serious about his cookie decorating :) Noah always has a blast basking in the attention of his grandparents. The baking isn't quite done yet. I still need to make some treats for the neighbors and then some reindeer chow for Santa's reindeer and some cookies for Santa himself on Christmas Eve. I love baking! It is one of my favorite things about the Christmas season. What are some of your go to Christmas treat goodies?

The New Favorite Thing

Lately our night time schedule allows for this.

It is my new favorite thing!

The P---s Talk

Y'all! Noah is obsessed with p---ses. He asks us all the time if so and so has one. He talks about them all the time! I don't know what to do about it. I don't really have experience in this area. I have two sisters. I didn't know what a p---s was until my sixth grade sex education class. (Okay, not really. But you understand....) Look I can't even type the word out. When he asked us after his Christmas party if Santa had one or where is Lighting McQueen's p---s, it was funny and a cute little three year old thing to laugh about when he is older. A story to tell at his rehearsal dinner (who am I kidding, I couldn't say p---s out loud in front of all those people!)But now it is out of control! It is all the time. Tonight I was so afraid that he was going to ask the bag boy who helped us out to the car about it. Please help me Moms of boys......How do I handle this???

The Christmas Card Attempts

Yes. I haven't sent my Christmas Cards yet. I haven't created them yet. But today I did take some pictures.

Surely there are some in here to use. I even had some fun with the editing program. Which should I use?

The Three Year Old

Time flies. It really does. The other night this cold hard fact hit my heart.

Hard.

So I climbed in bed with Noah to cuddle a little bit. He was still awake and we talked for a long time. I'm not sure how well practiced you are at conversing with a three year old but it can be interesting. He told me a story about building a house out of grass and it blowing away with Charlie and Miller and all of us in it. He asked me what day he was going to die. He told me he wanted to show Jesus his new Cars bouncy ball. He asked me where Lighting McQueen's p---s (sorry I just can't type that word!) was. He told me when he grew up he was going to drive my car and I would sit in his car seat not the sider (passenger seat). He told me he loved me. He told me when he got big he would still want to rock a song. He asked if he could sleep in my bed. Tonight I was looking at his hands and thinking about how one day they won't be so tiny. They will be bigger than mine.

I love him.

With every fiber of my being.

And I never ever want to forget this age. In the moments when I think I do, when I want to pull out my hair and scream "why can't you just obey me?!", I think about those nights in the green rocking chair. And tickle fights. And hours upon hours of stories. And the first time he told me he loved me. His first steps. And the fear I try to push down. The fear about how he will grow up and no longer need me. No longer want to rock a song or even drive my car. And it makes cherish even the "time outs". And give him another cookie.

The Birthday Boy

This little man is turning one tomorrow! It seems like he has bringing joy and laughter to our lives much longer. Xander has been such a blessing to our family. He is a constant reminder to me what God can do in our hearts and lives. I always feel like Noah's birthdays are just as meaningful to me as his mother as they are to him. It serves as a reminder of his birth and the year of being his mother. And so Xander's birthday celebrates both this sweet little boy and all the things he means to Emily. There is just something about watching your baby sister grow and mature through being a mother! I love them both so very much. And pride just fills me up when I look at their faces. We celebrated Xander last week at a party at A2 the church Emily has been attending with Griffin's family. It was a great party. Xander loves bouncy balls, hence the theme and decorations. Guests took home bouncy balls as favors. Cupcakes had gum balls on them. Dot confetti and garland was made to decorate. And his smash cake had little icing balls and matched the invitation exactly. Look at his party hat! He really enjoyed his yummy cake. Mmm Xan Man.... Aunt Banana loves you!

The Bible Study

Two things:

1)For a couple of months I have been dying to join a women's Bible study. There were some at church that were already in progress or that met during the mornings (which won't fit my working mom schedule). I began to really pray about an opportunity for study with other women who are also craving a study and a group of women to pray with and commune with. And kept hearing or feeling I guess the same thing. If you don't have one....create one.

2) I added a counter to my blog two weeks ago because my curiosity had been peaked by a few emails I had received about being added to a fashionable mommy blog list and some asking me to host giveaways. I thought they were just crazy. I don't have "readers". Well it turns out I am getting around 500 hits a week. Now that's not a lot in the grand scheme of the internet. But it is more than the ten people I figured were reading.

When I put these two things together I really feel like God was telling me what I needed to do.Surely there are other busy women out there who are craving the same insight and encouragement Bible Studies can bring reading this blog. So beginning in January I am going to be hosting a Bible Study on my blog. I am also going to invite several of my neighbors to a face to face meeting every other week. These two groups will not be sharing with each other but I would like to use the same study. I am still praying about it but I think I will be using this book. The online format will be something like spending two weeks on each week of study. I will probably post a discussion on the week's homework and have interactive questions. Most of our discussion will take place on the comment portion. Expanding the time spent on each section should allow for lots of time to get the "homework" done or for new people to join and catch up. I am hoping for some scripture memorization. I will be setting up a separate "page" for the Bible Study. I am hoping that the sharing will be something that I don't necessarily "lead" but facilitate.

I'd love for you to leave a comment to this post if you think you'd like to join up. And what you think about the book. I'd like to start discussion on the first week of the book on January 15th. So you have a month to decide.

The Four Month Old

Miller turned four months old Friday! I am having a hard time writing this post because he is such a contradictory little baby. He is joyful and laughing and blowing bubbles and giggling one minute and then just like that he can be wailing. So any sweeping statement like, "He is such a happy baby" or "he is not a happy baby" isn't really the truth. He loves being at home on his schedule. He doesn't adapt well to change. And he loves his mommy. He has turned into a bit of a momma's boy. He loves being talked to and played with. He is growing like a weed. Everything went well at the doctor's office. He weighed in at 15lbs and 8oz. And measured 28 inches. Dr. Pettitt was impressed with his strength and said he could model for Gerber. He is wearing 6 month clothing. He is beautiful and my favorite thing to do these days is just to hold him and make him laugh. He just adores Noah. He gives the sweet ladies in the church nursery fits. They think he is adorable but he will cry and cry! He fights sleep unless it is in his own crib with his Spikes, paci and a short rock in green chair. He takes two long naps (2-3 hours) and a cat nap in the evening. He is just starting cereal. I love him like crazy! That is about all I can say without bursting into tears, as our days are numbered. Both of our hearts are soon to be broken. On his fifth month birthday to be exact. But I am hoping the National Championship Game will cheer us up! Here are the pictures!!

Miller at four months....

And just to keep it real...

To celebrate four months here are four things you may not know about Miller...

1. I love to stand up. I can see better that way.

2. I love to pretend to be an airplane. It makes me laugh.

3. I love my new oatmeal cereal. Its yummy.

4. I find the Christmas Tree to be fascinating.