Christmas Joys

Oh, we have had so many over the past week and a half.  Lots of family time, lots of love, lots of wonderful gifts, lots and lots and lots of food!  There are so many pictures I want to share that I'll need to upload them to an online gallery.  And I'm trying to get a plug-in to work with iPhoto and have had zero luck.  I'm quite the bulldog here, and won't let it alone until I figure it out.  SO, in an effort to at least post SOMEthing here before the old year fades away, I'm sharing some of the family pictures that were taken at various celebrations.

The picture above was taken with Jmk's family.  (sounds weird to say that, because they are truly my family too.  But, for clarity's sake, I'll say Jmk's family).  We were at SueSue's house on Christmas Eve Eve.


And the following picture was taken on the Saturday after Christmas at MooMoo and GaGa's house when we had everyone in "my" family in town at one time!  Even though Poodle's eyes are closed, it's really the best picture of the bunch, because my big ole head was covering up Jmk's in all the other pics.  Besides, I love how Audrey is studying the leaf.  It's sweet.
Excuse the lack of cropping on this one.  It needs it, but I haven't had time to edit any of the pictures taken over the past couple of weeks.  Well, except for the one up top.  I had to edit that one.  Jmk knows why.  Stinker.  ;-)

I do hope everyone's Christmas was joyous and focused on the Greatest Gift.  And I pray that you all have a 2009 filled with many blessings.

Here Comes Santa Claus...

He was visiting at the place where we go to eat after church a couple of times a month.  And Poodle was ALL about it this year.  She wasn't interested in being any where near the jolly guy before now.  But, this year, she brought her list to him (which contained the same 3 things that she has been asking for for the past 6 months) and was ready for action.

Tooter, on the other hand, is still in that stage where he really isn't so sure why this fellow who only shows half of his face and dresses in an extraordinary amount of red wants to be all up in his kool-aid.  Notice, if you will, the death grip on GaGa's tie and the look of mass confusion and dislike.  Or is that disdain?  He had on the cutest little Santa vest that came from Eli's boys' closets.  But he was velcro'd to GaGa.  There was no convincing him to turn around for the camera.  No how.  No way.

The fun traditions of Christmas are so much more fun when little ones are involved.  We are so grateful to have these bunchkins.

But, of course, it is most important to remember that while Santa needs a list to know what we want and elves to get us what we need and magical reindeer to deliver it all...  Jesus does not.  And THAT is where I hope we truly focus this season.

Words to warm a heart

When GaGa says to us "You have some good kids".  He has no idea how that brought my heart to its knees.

SNOW DAY!!!

Oh, my goodness, oh my soul.  We got sho'nuff snow today.  Started with sleet, turned to REAL snow for a couple of hours, and then sleeted again.  But, good golly, I turned those kids into full-on popsicles for as long as I could!
I mean, really, how often does it snow around these parts?

Yep.  I *so* cancelled school today.

Here are some video links for you:
Snow Angel
Playing Around

Hope y'all enjoy those as much as we enjoyed playing in the white stuff.  Oh, and yes, we did build a little 8 inch snowman.  He was fabulous, but didn't last long enough for a picture.  He fell victim to his maker's idea to jump on top of him.  Sad for the snowman.  Barrel of laughs for the maker.

Always Learning

This past weekend, my mom, Poodle, and I took in a couple of Nutcrackers.  We have two good ballet schools in our area who put on the Nutcracker (we have 3 good schools, but the third one is a Christian school and they don't do the "real" Nutcracker).  So, I bought tickets to one, and Mom bought tickets to the other.  Both were good, and they were different from each other.  One was in a small auditorium, one was in the large performance hall in our downtown area.  One was slightly abbreviated with some sections taken out of the 1st act and Sugar Plum's dance.  One used a celtic version of the music during small parts of the party scene.  (I kid you not.  It was......  different).

Poodle with Arabian - this sweet girl (who is a beautiful, seriously talented dancer) goes to our church.

What I've finally come to peace with in my mind is that I need to quit criticizing others' take on the Nutcracker.  The staging and choreography and casting and overall vision of this ballet will be different inside of each company.  There are as many versions of this ballet as there are versions of pizza.

MooMoo and Poodle at the Sunday performance.

And, I've been in a lot of different versions myself.  I guess the ones I'm going to be most comfortable with, though, are the ones that I was in last.  The ones that Miss Jozia staged.  Very classic, very traditional.  And close to my heart AND my active memory banks.

So, from here on out, I'm going to try my best, when asked about a certain school's/company's version of the Nutcracker, to just give a generous description of it.  I don't have to like it or appreciate it.  Because for those children who are in it, it's the only Nutcracker they know.  And that is the one that is close to THEIR heart.

Although, I'm sorry, as much as I enjoy celtic music, it doesn't belong in a ballet based on a story set in Nuremburg, Germany.  I'm just saying.

Poodle takes a picture with Clara.  You'd think she had met Queen Elizabeth.  But WAY better.

Baby Blues

I'm getting pictures off of the camera(s) and saw this one from Thanksgiving night. This is SueSue.
The best Mother-in-law in the world.








Is there any doubt where Jmk and the kids get their gorgeous blue eyes?

The Centrality of the Home

Voddie Baucham, Jr.

Hat tip to Patti Monroe for this (passed on to her from her daughter Joanna).  This was a huge message that was actually delivered to an audience of Southern Baptist pastors.  I had an easy time listening to it, and that might have been because I was listening to it from a MacBook.  Patti said that she had to subscribe to iPod to download it.  Do what you have to do to listen to it.  I guess it was about 20-25 minutes in length.  I'm not sure, because I had to start and stop a bunch of times because of the kiddos.  It's worth it!!!  Go listen!!!

Here's the link to listen to the message.