Merry Christmas!

From our family to you and yours, we wish you the most wonderful Christmas blessings. I'd also like to share one of my favorite verses with you.  One that I think encompasses the season.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

What have we been up to this season?  Trying to abound in HOPE! 

We've been following the "Truth in the Tinsel" Advent book for this season with the kids. Each day William opens an envelope to reveal the clue for the days reading and project. He is much more excited about this than in years past -- it probably has to do with his new ability to read!

Later in the day we read a passage of the Christmas Story from scripture and talk about it. We've talked about Gabriel bringing the message to Zechariah, Mary and Joseph; the name of Jesus, the Kingdom, the stable and the manger, and baby Jesus and on December 24 we will end by talking about the Cross.

After the story, we do a craft. I will be honest -- most of them are a little to involved for Stephen and take a bit of prep work on my part. But William loves them! And I have hope that if we do this each year the discussions we have (and their abilities to pay attention) will just get better and better. It's exciting to talk about the birth of Jesus every day for a month and watch it click more with each retelling.

We hung the stockings and put up a tree. The boys had a blast decorating it; it's all so special for them. We took out our box of Christmas books and special Christmas stuffed toys to play with. 

We visited a gingerbread house at the Fairmont Hotel earlier in the month which was really fun. It's a two story house actually made of gingerbread with beautiful Christmas scenes inside. The boys loved the train that wove in and out of it.

We attended our church's cookie decorating event where the boys got completely carried away with frosting and sprinkles and ran around with all the other children until bedtime.

And last Sunday our church had a special service where the kids sang in church. You can watch it here (starts at minute 19). 

William had a winter party at his school last week which was really fun. We skipped naps so Stephen could watch his brother sing "Feliz Navidad" and "Must be Santa " with his classmates. He did a great job and even broke out in a dance at one point. And that was before he stuffed his face with cupcakes and cookies at their little party!

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas as our little family of four. (We left for Texas on Sunday.) It was a really fun day. It began with pancakes shaped like Christmas trees, followed by opening gifts -- which resulted in lots of play and fun until it was time to go ice skating. The California Academy of Science museum has an ice rink and is the cheapest option in the city (if you have a membership, which we do!) I didn't expect much from the boys and their first time skating on ice but they both did really great and I was even a bit surprised by how long William lasted. Stephen didn't last long but I think he still enjoyed the experience. And I had a blast and was so glad we could do it all together! I was very rusty myself as it's been over 8 years since I've skated!

After the sun set we went on a drive to look for Christmas lights. We didn't find very many homes that were all-decked-out as you might in the suburbs but we found enough. And what made it even better were the kid's comments about the lights -- or rather just commenting whenever a home had lights at all. Stephen especially loved saying "There's a Christmas tree" every time he saw one!

photo credits: Matthias Giezendanner

It's been a busy month but one of my favorites. Stephen is getting old enough to understand gifts and decorations and hopefully starting to understand who Baby Jesus is and the Christmas story. William is really loving all the special festive projects and outings we get to do and he still loves reading his Jesus Storybook Bible each night (which has 24 stories between creation and the birth of Jesus!)

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebration with those you love. Merry Christmas!

From our family to you and yours, we wish you the most wonderful Christmas blessings. I'd also like to share one of my favorite verses with you.  One that I think encompasses the season.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

What have we been up to this season?  Trying to abound in HOPE! 

We've been following the "Truth in the Tinsel" Advent book for this season with the kids. Each day William opens an envelope to reveal the clue for the days reading and project. He is much more excited about this than in years past -- it probably has to do with his new ability to read!

Later in the day we read a passage of the Christmas Story from scripture and talk about it. We've talked about Gabriel bringing the message to Zechariah, Mary and Joseph; the name of Jesus, the Kingdom, the stable and the manger, and baby Jesus and on December 24 we will end by talking about the Cross.

After the story, we do a craft. I will be honest -- most of them are a little to involved for Stephen and take a bit of prep work on my part. But William loves them! And I have hope that if we do this each year the discussions we have (and their abilities to pay attention) will just get better and better. It's exciting to talk about the birth of Jesus every day for a month and watch it click more with each retelling.

We hung the stockings and put up a tree. The boys had a blast decorating it; it's all so special for them. We took out our box of Christmas books and special Christmas stuffed toys to play with. 

We visited a gingerbread house at the Fairmont Hotel earlier in the month which was really fun. It's a two story house actually made of gingerbread with beautiful Christmas scenes inside. The boys loved the train that wove in and out of it.

We attended our church's cookie decorating event where the boys got completely carried away with frosting and sprinkles and ran around with all the other children until bedtime.

And last Sunday our church had a special service where the kids sang in church. You can watch it here (starts at minute 19). 

William had a winter party at his school last week which was really fun. We skipped naps so Stephen could watch his brother sing "Feliz Navidad" and "Must be Santa " with his classmates. He did a great job and even broke out in a dance at one point. And that was before he stuffed his face with cupcakes and cookies at their little party!

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas as our little family of four. (We left for Texas on Sunday.) It was a really fun day. It began with pancakes shaped like Christmas trees, followed by opening gifts -- which resulted in lots of play and fun until it was time to go ice skating. The California Academy of Science museum has an ice rink and is the cheapest option in the city (if you have a membership, which we do!) I didn't expect much from the boys and their first time skating on ice but they both did really great and I was even a bit surprised by how long William lasted. Stephen didn't last long but I think he still enjoyed the experience. And I had a blast and was so glad we could do it all together! I was very rusty myself as it's been over 8 years since I've skated!

After the sun set we went on a drive to look for Christmas lights. We didn't find very many homes that were all-decked-out as you might in the suburbs but we found enough. And what made it even better were the kid's comments about the lights -- or rather just commenting whenever a home had lights at all. Stephen especially loved saying "There's a Christmas tree" every time he saw one!

photo credits: Matthias Giezendanner

It's been a busy month but one of my favorites. Stephen is getting old enough to understand gifts and decorations and hopefully starting to understand who Baby Jesus is and the Christmas story. William is really loving all the special festive projects and outings we get to do and he still loves reading his Jesus Storybook Bible each night (which has 24 stories between creation and the birth of Jesus!)

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebration with those you love. Merry Christmas!