All about Christmas!

I saw these ornaments earlier in the year and thought they would make great gifts. But they were a little overpriced so I started searching the net and found the Tiny Tots and Polka Dots site. Erin's were much more affordable and made great Christmas gifts for the boys' teachers.
I recommend that you check out her site. She has lots of cute items that would make wonderful gifts throughout the year. Erin even hand delivered my ornaments and was sweet enough to put a rush on my order. I will definitely be ordering from her again!

Here is another idea if you are crafty. Leah Belle made some with a friend over Thanksgiving. I am very impressed with how professional they look - these girls are talented!
You can find step by step instructions for the ornaments here. I am going to attempt to make some next year.

A side note...
If you like to do a Christmas countdown with your kids I would like to recommend a great book to you. Last December Lisa Whelchel spoke at our church's Christmas brunch about Christmas traditions. Afterwards I bought The ADVENTure of Christmas book and received a free advent calendar.

I saved it to use this season and we have all learned so much! Lisa writes about the meanings of various Christmas practices and symbols to help us keep this busy season focused on Christ. You can buy the book on Lisa's site and right now get the calendar for free. Definitely a must have! Check out the book here.

I have not posted the boys' picture with Santa this year so since this post has a Christmas feel to it I will do it here.
We love this sweet man! He comes here from Canada every year to play Santa. He is so gentle, patient and makes each child feel special. Over the past nine years one of our boys has taken a picture with him - that is except for one regrettable year. In 2001 I thought I should go to the "other" mall that goes all out in decorating for Christmas. Boy was that a mistake Jeremy will not let me live down! That is the only year that M. cried in his Santa picture. The Santa at that mall was not full of Christmas spirit or maybe he was having a bad day, but we did not have a good Santa experience. When we put the pictures on the mantle each year Jeremy always threatens to photo shop the bad Santa (as he calls him) out. Don't tell him this, but if I knew it would work I would let him do it!

Cold weather = no school?

I recently read Mary Beth Chapman's Christmas letter that she posted on her blog. Here is a part that really touched me:

As I anticipate Christmas 2008, I have many thoughts flying through my heart and head. The last several days, my mind has not been able to stop thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Pregnant and scared, knowing that the baby she was carrying eventually would pay the ultimate price of His life. How would I have lived differently if I knew that my time with Maria was going to be this short? Regretfully, I would have lived much differently. I would have purposely hugged and kissed more. I would have tried to memorize and lock away in my heart certain smells and smiles. I would have colored more and worked less. I would have laughed more and fussed less. Bedtime wouldn’t have become a chore to check off the list of things to get done. Instead it would have been more of an opportunity to listen about the day and offer whatever words were needed. The swimming pool wouldn’t have been too cold to swim in. The flowers in the garden would have all been picked, and definitely more ice cream would have been consumed!

Umm - Jesus keep this hurting mother's words close to my heart. Help me remember that each day is a gift with my family. Please continue to keep this precious family on my heart as they continue this journey of healing.

The same day that I read this beautiful letter was also our first bad weather day at school (Dec. 17th). I do not think it was a coincidence that I was reminded of cherishing each moment with my boys. Since it was just cold (high was 25 - cold for us!) and there was no snow to play in (maybe an over cautious Superintendent? But in his defense we did wake up to ice yet it was gone by 10 am.) we enjoyed our day inside. It was a PJ kind of day, where we spent the morning cuddling on the couch watching Christmas movies and in the afternoon made Tiger Butter for teachers and neighbors. We ended the day with a pot of stick to your ribs Texas chili for dinner. Fun, fun day!

Cute Gift Idea

On Tuesday my Bible study group had a wrap up party for the SHAPE series (next week I will share about the study). We decided to turn it into a Diaper/Wipe shower for two of the girls who are having babies in April. My friend Ivey made the ladies a cute travel wipes case. Karen, don't look, well you can look, but know that you will be getting one when your little one arrives. So do not make one for yourself!

Photo courtesty of Cover Me Cute

I found a blog through goo*gle that had a tutorial of how to make these - so I thought I would share. The blog is called Infarrantly Creative and not only does she have the wipes cover tutorial but she has many other crafty tutorials that she has posted.

If you are not crafty but you would like to give this as a gift - you are still in luck. I found a store called Cover Me Cute that sells them (the pic above is in their product line) along with other really cute baby gifts.

I am planning to make a couple in the next few weeks, so I will let you know how easy or difficult they are for someone who is a little craft challenged like me.