Hallelujah, hallelujah
Heaven’s love reaching down to save the world
Hallelujah, hallelujah, son of God, servant King
Here with us, You’re here with us

Jesus, the Christ, born in Bethlehem
A baby born to save, to save the souls of man
(Lyrics from Joy Williams Here with Us)

Merry Christmas!

 

“A baby born to save, to save the souls of man”, what a beautiful picture of Christmas! What a miraculous day Christmas represents, when you think that Jesus, the very Son of God, was born a tiny helpless infant. And for what purpose? To live and die so that those who are dead can live again! This is the miracle of Christmas.

The Christmas Eve service – I love this simple church service. And this year was especially memorable because Carlos and Sam read the advent passage before Stephen lit the candle. Sam read the scripture in Chinese and then Carlos in English. It was beautiful! This simple truth, “a baby born to save” proclaimed in two languages…..beautiful! And I was reminded that this Gospel will reach every corner of the earth.

We came home and had our “nod to our French heritage” dinner, croissants with cheese and cold cuts. It was very simple and tasty!! The kids, were of course, crazy with excitement!

Christmas Eve

 

 

Sam opening his very first Christmas gift

This year’s Christmas Eve gift was socks…..not super exciting, but really needed by everyone!

 

 

Annual reading of the “Prince’s Poison Cup”

Then the little kids got their bed stuff and brought it down to the living room for their annual campout. And once they were all comfy, Stephen read the “Prince’s Poison Cup” while I cleaned up the kitchen. I love this tradition of Stephen reading to the kids!

Is he cute or what!!?!?

 

 

 

 

 

Carlos was having a tough time, so after Stephen finished reading I asked him to come into the kitchen and spend time with me while I cleaned and prepped the turkey. It was time well spent and by the turkey was done, he was in a much better frame of mind. And we got to talk about turkey innards…..gross!! Nothing like bonding of blood and guts!

It took the kids a LONG time to finally fall asleep. It was almost mid-night before Natalie was asleep. But finally they were all snoring away and Santa AND the Tooth Fairy were able to make a visit!! Yes, the Tooth Fairy. Natalie lost yet another tooth earlier in the evening!!

I think one of my favorite parts of Christmas is bringing down all the gifts and placing them under the tree…….something so fun to see all of these surprises waiting for the excited faces in the morning. We keep gifts to a minimum for each kid, but when you are multiplying by 6 the gifts pile up……literally!! What a picture of abundance those gifts represent. God has provided abundantly for us, not just stuff, but His gifts to us……..redemption, salvation, grace, love, trials (yes, a gift wrapped in black), beauty, family, food, water……so much.

4 A.M ……giggling voices float up the steps……..yeah, too early kids. Go back to sleep. 7:45 is more manageable!! Well for most of us…..I’m not sure Sam was ready to start Christmas morning quite yet, haha. After a few necessary things like starting the cinnamon rolls, making a cup of tea and taking a family picture under the tree, it was time for gift unwrapping!

Christmas Morning

 

This year we decided it would be really fun for the kids to draw names and make a gift for each other. So at the beginning of December we put all the names in a bowl and they each drew one out. And amazingly they all kept it a secret whose name they had drawn! One at a time I took them to the fabric store……I had already decided that they would make each other a no-sew-fleece-tie-blanket. Some kids took more convincing than others, but eventually they all came around and picked out some really great fleece prints. I took Ben out first. We had a great time and he was very easy to lead down the path of making a blanket. He had drawn Carlos, so when we got to JoAnn fabrics he started checking out all the possibilities. Nothing really fit other than he thought Carlos would like blue……and then we found the VT pint……and Ben was sold…..this was perfect for Carlos.

Ben working on the blanket for Carlos

We made Carlos’ blanket very big, so it took me a Ben several evenings of work before it was finished, but it was super fun working together……and he did all the cutting and I did the tying.

 

 

 

When I took Natalie out (she had Jeremiah), she just couldn’t find the right pattern, until……yep she found Star Wars.

Jeremiah was SO happy with his blanket

I wanted to be sure this was the material she wanted to get so I said, “is this the one you like Natalie?” She looked at me and replied, “No I don’t like it, but Jeremiah will!!” Love that heart…..always looking out for the interest of others.

 

 

 

 

Jeremiah drew Jadyn and he picked out a super cute pint with fairies (the closest thing we could find to a princess).

See that smile? She LOVED it

Jeremiah was my hardest “sell”. He didn’t want to make a blanket but wanted to make a craft for Jadyn. And he wondered around JoAnn’s craft side for quite a while and finally decided to buy wooden letters spelling out her name and paint them…….but thankfully they were all out of the Y letters. So finally he said he would look at the fleece and see if he wanted to do the blanket!

Carlos was not happy about the name he drew. God has a way of bringing things into our lives to “work” on those tough areas…….and this was good for Carlos. He has a hard time thinking of others, what they like because he is pretty self-involved. But he picked out some really pretty fleece and made a very nice blanket for Natalie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam drew Ben’s name. I knew shopping with Sam would take time…….and yep I was right, we looked at lots of fleece patterns.

Doing the cutting

Finally Sam decided on a blue print with airplanes for one side and a soccer ball pint for the other side. He really wanted to make a pillow, but after 15 minutes of trying to explain that making a pillow and the blanket would make the blanket too small, I finally said you can only make a blanket and we will talk about the pillow after Christmas! Haha. Felt like a meanie, but I knew Ben would be really sad if he didn’t get a blanket.

 

 

 

 

So many choices!

Jadyn and I went shopping last. She had a great time going out with me……talking and talking! She loved all the material at JoAnn’s……especially the sparking sequins. And she was very sad that she could not make Sam’s blanket out of sequin material. And yes, she threw a bit of a fit because she wanted pink sequins! So mostly I picked out the material, oh well, she’s 3 and has lots of years to learn.

 

 

 

This was a fun, but exhausting project! I’m really glad each of the kids had an opportunity to make something for their siblings…..especially something that will last for years to come. The first gift each of the kids opened this morning was their sibling gift. And tonight, they are all sleeping snuggly under their warm blanket!!

She was so excited about EVERY gift

Each year one of the kids has just the best time opening gifts and this year, that was Jadyn. She loudly exclaimed how each gift was “my favorite” and was so excited about each one! It was so sweet to watch! She wore her princess dress, crown and magic wand all.day.long. oh and her sparkly boots too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Man and his Princess!

Carlos really liked his soccer ball, the world cup t-shirt from Aunt Michelle and the $15 gift card from Stephen’s parents. Jeremiah’s favorite gifts were the roller blades and remote controlled helicopter. Sam’s favorite gift was the gift certificate to the Golden Wok Chinese restaurant across from school. Natalie liked the doll sent by Aunt Michelle and her rollerblades.

 

Ben was a bit disappointed because

Opening his Papi gift

apparently he really wanted a remote controlled car, but he spent all morning playing with his matchbox car track, so I think in the end he was pretty content. I love my new flatware! It’s beautiful and abundant! But a close second is my Whirly

Opening gifts is fun even when you are “old”

Pop popcorn maker! We tried it out tonight and the popcorn was delicious!! Stephen’s favorite gift was a card game called Ratuki.

Give me five……nope ten!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gift Card = shopping trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 4:30 we ate some tasty turkey (and the trimmings) and then played games and watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 before going to bed.

And now I sit reflecting on this special day…….a gift. Some days are gifts wrapped in black. Some days are gifts wrapped in joy. Some days are gifts wrapped in peace. Today was a gift wrapped in Hallelujah a savior has been born.