Daddy's Home!

Dad didn't really go anywhere.  It's just that he's off for the next two weeks and we are so excited to wake up and have dad around to play with!  

Emilie practicing her volleyball skills. 

Pretty Emilie

Aubrie made a picnic on the couch today.  She loves pretending she's going to the store, "Bye mom.  I'm going to Target!"She likes to carry around a purse or things like this basket and "go places."  Hopefully Santa will bring some more toys to help us pretend play!

Not sharing with Emilie.

I have lots of projects to do since dad is home to help out.  One of them was to paint the kitchen.  Our entire house is painted all the same color, which I like.  But several rooms I want different colors.  I found a picture in a magazine and tried to copy it and I came pretty close.  We hope to one day change the counter tops.  I LOVE the new color.  It's light blue, but can look somewhat grey. There is my man in the picture making some hot tea.  :) 

We had a great church service on Sunday.  Our pastor talked about Mary's call to birth Jesus.  What a gal that Mary was.  That was a pretty difficult calling.  I hope that I will know when God is calling me to do something great.  Mary was just an ordinary woman and I am just an ordinary mom.  We have to remember that, like Mary, our ordinariness doesn't exclude us from the call of God. 

I must admit.  This Christmas season has been exciting and a little hard all at the same time.  Aubrie is at the age where she understands what is going on.  We have come to realize that a lot of families celebrate Christmas differently and we didn't seem to be aware of it until it's time to teach our children about Christmas.  Adam and I both grew up believing in Santa Clause AND celebrating Christmas as Christ's Birth.  We have decided to do the same with our girls. 

We have an Elf on the Shelf that Aubrie finds every morning.  Aubrie named him Elf.  He watches her and then flies to Santa every night to tell him if she's been good.  She doesn't really understand that as much as she likes to just find him every morning.

She reads books about Santa and watches movies with him in it.  We let her enjoy Santa just like she enjoys all the other characters from story books and movies at this age.  We don't think he'll harm her.  She doesn't need to know he is fake, just like she doesn't need to know that Elmo is really a puppet with Kevin Clash's hand making him talk.  It is so good for her to have an imagination and enjoy her childhood.

But most importantly, we teach her that Christmas is a time that we celebrate Jesus' birth.  His birth is a wonderful story that leads to many other stories about His life on Earth and all the events that lead up to His death on the cross.  It is a reality and every day in our house we talk about God, Jesus, and the bible.  Every day in our house, His life is celebrated, and we are thankful. 

I guess it has been hard because I know that Aubrie and Emilie may be told by another kid at a young age that Santa isn't real and I really hope they can hold on to the magic for awhile.  Do you remember when you found out?  Or who told you?  They have their whole lives to figure out the harsh realities of this world and we want them to be imaginative and creative. 

I just wanted to share with you the struggles that have been going on in my mind and I'm happy with our choice. With all this said, I hope your family has a wonderful Christmas...no matter how you celebrate it!

Love to all!

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