Deck the Halls

 

We made these great ornaments tonight! I love my girls' creativity and I enjoy opportunities to be creative myself. 

 The most challenging part of this was obtaining the supplies. I learned that there must be a lot of people making ornaments, because only Hobby Lobby had any left. (And the ones I ordered from Amazon were late. They came today and were also not what I expected. They come in two parts with a seam in the middle. Those will be returned!) And the floor wax that all the tutorials recommended was not to be found. I risked a different one from the dollar store, and it worked!

Then we got creative with the rest of our sugar cookie dough. We had a Harry Potter snowman, a gingerbread man who was morphed into Legolas, a wreath that I decorated like a cat face, and several abstract cookies. 

Now it's time for some wrapping!

Important Obilgations

 

I didn't post last night because I was doing something very important: watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with my girls. And drinking butterbeer (not pictured). 

Christmas Sweets

 

Tonight the girls and I made Pioneer Woman's Christmas cookies from her new cookbook.  We really like how the food colored egg yolks made them have a stained glass effect.  We had fun being creative, and we had fun eating them, too!

Songs of Hope

 

Today was a day of wrapping up. Not presents, at least not yet. But wrapping up of school semesters and piano lessons for the year. Finishing tests and doing final assignments.

And we capped it off with Rebecca's piano recital. She told us she expected not to do well. She knew she could have practiced more. But when her turn finally came, she played beautifully. Her songs were lovely, and any mistakes went virtually unnoticed. 

Sometimes I feel like Rebecca when it comes to life, to walking with God. I come to my relationship with Him feeling unprepared. I know I could have spent more time with Him. Reading His Word. Communing with Him in prayer. Dwelling on Who He is. And if I let my feelings of unpreparedness prevent me from moving forward, no one will be able to hear the song He is giving me. 

  

Because Smiling's My Favorite

 

We watched one of our favorite Christmas movies tonight. I love the silly sweetness of this movie!

Seeing by the Light of Christ

 

After supper this evening, our family went on our annual "Christmas Light Seeing" excursion. Every year the girls dress in pajamas and we drive around our area looking at the beautiful lights while listening to Christmas music. At some point during our evening we will stop and pick up ice cream. 

My favorite moment of this evening was looking at some of the lights our city put up downtown. We were so confused by the lighted giant bottle of milk and a goose laying golden eggs. And then there was the Eiffel Tower. We thought these things had nothing to do with Christmas!  Until we saw the final piece of this display - a partridge in a pear tree! Now it made sense. Eight maids a-milking. Seven geese a-laying. Three French hens. We had to drive by again now that we knew what we were looking at. 

That partridge in the pear tree helped me make sense of what had seemed to be silly. Jesus is like that, too. All the seemingly random and unrelated things in my life make sense in light of Jesus. I may not be able to see it now. I may not see it this side of Heaven. But one day, I can review all of my life in light of Jesus and see how He fits everything together. Even a giant lighted bottle of milk!

The Nutcracker

 

Today my three ballerinas and I went to see The Royal Ballet performance of The Nutcracker at our local movie theater. Although the performance was beautiful, I know I will enjoy their performance next week even more!