Family Gift Exchange

"After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." Matthew 2:11

We started our family gift exchange tonight with the passage in Matthew 2 concerning the birth of Christ and specifically the visit from the wisemen. We tried to explain to Carter (2.5 yrs) and Turner (11 mons) the significance of the visit and gifts they brought and how this was part of why we exchange gifts at Christmastime.

A friend had suggested to me using this passage and the three gifts of the wisemen (gold, frankincense and myrrh) as a model - so we started last year by giving 3 gifts to each child. This year the boys each got a pair of pajamas, a chair and a new toy. It was simple and fun!

I am challenged this year to remember who we worship and why we celebrate!

The Shoveling Teletubby!

Christmas Tradition: Decorating the tree

Growing up one of my favorite Christmas traditions was going with the family to one of the local tree farms and picking out a fresh Christmas tree then taking it home to decorate it.

We would get home, set it up (some years this was more challenging than others if I remember correctly...), turn on the Christmas tunes and get out the ornaments (we had LOTS of ornaments as it was my grandma Turner's tradition to buy us an ornament - or two or three each Christmas).

This year it was time to start Carter on the family tradition. So we loaded up and headed to Russ's market to buy a tree (much cheaper than the local tree farm and a bit quicker too!), got it set up fairly quickly and then after Turner was in bed we started decorating. It was a fun time. Carter loved getting the ornaments out of the boxes and deciding where they should go on the tree (which at times was hard for mommy to not what it my way - but I decided having all the tractors by each other and the planes together and the basketball players lined up was ok!) - but maybe more than that - Carter loved getting to eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate for the first time!!

The Pointer

Turner is all about pointing right now.
He points at lights, people, food, shoes, any and everything!
It is pretty cute!

Here he is pointing at momma!!

Snow Day!

Carter has anxiously awaited snow all winter.
These are some pictures from our first accumulation (Dec 3rd)!
He was SO EXCITED to walk around in it in his boots!!!
Then it snowed this week and it was too cold to go out - boy was he bummed!

11 Months Old

Our baby is almost one! Today he hit the eleven month mark!








New accomplishments this month!

-Standing up and letting go (no steps yet)
-Definitely can say Carter (Ca-ta) very clearly!
-Becoming a true Daddy's boy!
-Eating more and more real food.
-Saying and waving "nigh-nigh" and "bye-bye"!

Happy 11 Months, TW!
We love you!

Carter attemping "Away in a manger"

TAKE ONE:





We'll keep working on this one and see if we can get it by the end of the Christmas season!