What Christmas Looked Like In Our Home

Christmas Eve at OBC

Would you believe that until about 3:00 p.m. on Christmas Day, our kids were either eating, sleeping, talking to family, or opening presents? They are much loved. And, well, they take a while to open presents.

Every once in a while we got the camera out, so here's what it looked like.

The Christmas tree the night before

Christmas morning

The kids had bananas in their stockings. Josiah took the bait :)

Sarah with her first present of the day.

Josiah liked the key ring a LOT more once he realized it was a flashlight.

Wind chimes, just like at Papa and Goggin's

Josiah's present to Sarah was purple sparkly nail polish.
It was purple, it was sparkly, and it was nail polish. He's a good gift giver already. 

Thanks, buddy!

What could be in the big box Sarah got for Josiah?

A Patriots balloon!

They each got water bottles just like Emily's

It was a lovely Christmas for all! After nap time (but no naps, unfortunately!) we went to the Everson's home and shared a yummy Christmas dinner with their kind family and the Dennens. The kids were worn out by the end of the day! But a special moment was still to come.

Before Sarah brushed her teeth we all sat down on the floor upstairs and talked through the Christmas story one last time. This year Sarah understood most of what occurs in the story, and it was such a joy to retell it one more time before bed. We finished with a rousing rendition of Go Tell It On the Mountain, a family favorite since Sarah sang it with the children's choir at church. Jesus Christ is, indeed, born!

Delivery Day

It's not what you're thinking.

Or at least not what I was thinking when Dave announced that Delivery Day was upon us :)

It seems that Delivery Day is what Dave called the reminder he put on his calendar. It was to remind him of the day that we bought our house. And even more specifically, the day that we have pizza delivered to the address that we bought on December 23, 2010.

The tradition began on that very first day. We signed for the house in the morning and Dave found our Christmas tree in the garage where we were storing about half of our things. In the evening we went to our mostly empty home (the estate of the previous owner left several items at our request) to set up the Christmas tree and have pizza delivered to our new address. It was another couple of weeks before we moved in, but that was a special night eating pizza on the coffee table in the living room by the Christmas tree.

We celebrate this day to remember how good the Lord has been to us. Dave told the story to Sarah as we ate our pizza in the living room and we had a special time of prayer before we ate, thanking the Lord for giving us a home and helping us to keep it up. We also asked Him to help us use it well, to use it for His glory.

So happy Delivery Day and Merry Christmas!

Crisis or Comfort?

We had a problem. For the last several weeks anytime Sarah cried, Josiah would aggressively come over and start hitting her. Not only did I have a sad Sarah to comfort, but then I had to discipline Josiah, and often discipline Sarah for retaliating. It was overwhelming- I couldn't rightly do it all at the same time!

While Dave was home over the Thanksgiving break he saw the same senerio play out a few times, but at least we could divide and conquer to comfort and reprimand. And then it hit us. (Pun intended!) He was trying to comfort her.

Sarah has always had a compassionate heart when it comes to Josiah's sadness. Early on we taught her to pat his back when he was sad. And it was that pat on the back that he was trying to imitate.

So we taught him to gently rub Sarah's back and now we are good to go. It was a grand misunderstanding that has turned into a much appreciated act of kindness. And also a reminder to us as parents- we've got to rely on the Lord, because there is often so much more at play than our eyes can see!