What it's about

It's beginning to to look a lot like Christmas around here! We got back into town late Monday night after driving 13 hours. The weather greeted us as soon as we hit Michigan and hasn't let up. It has been snowing for almost 3 days straight and is bitter cold. Olivia still goes out for recess everyday. And the kids have been outside playing in the snow most days too. Because of all the snow, it doesn't look like Josh will get the lights up on the outside of the house. It's just too icy on the roof and way to cold to be out there that long. The snow has also caused a delay in the purchase of our Christmas tree. We are hoping to get out of the house tomorrow and pick one out.

Of course the snow puts me right in the "mood" for Christmas, but the season of Advent has brought the expectancy of the season to a new high for me. As a family, we are reading scripture at dinner to really emphasis to the kids why we celebrate Jesus' birth and explain the sacrifice that He made for us. It's nice to see the kids retaining information and understanding Christmas for the true reason for celebration. All the information may be used against us, especially by our oldest. Here's Olivia's story:

I know, scary picture, but hang with me. Since we've been back from vacation, she's been exhausted. She told me every morning that she didn't want to go to school because she's so tired. These comments result in me telling her that in the afternoon she'll need to take a nap. At 2 o'clock every day, I've told her, "Olivia, you need to take a nap today. Remember how tired you've been?" To which she whines, "Yeeeeesssss!" About 30 minutes later, she pops her head out of the room to come out. This infuriates me for two reasons. One, she's tired and NEEDS to sleep. Two, she's disobeying me, and I can't seem to do anything or give her any consequence that makes her take a nap.

Thursday I told her, "If you don't take a nap today, you won't get to watch the next Christmas special that's on and you'll go right to bed." "Ok." She says. I think to myself, "This is going to work, she'll never want to miss TV." One hour later she comes out with her head down waiting for the blow. I say, "I guess you're not watching the next Christmas special." Her response, with as much attitude as you can imagine, "Well, you know what? I don't care about Christmas specials, they're not important. They aren't what Christmas is about. It's about God. All I care about is God, He's important."

I was silent. After I caught my breath from my daughter sticking it to me, I stuck it to her, "Well, if God is most important to you, than you should obey mommy, because that's what God asks kids to do. That's what makes him happy."

I got the last word that time, may be the only time.

A tree, all lit up and covered in snow.

Snow build up on the newspaper boxes (not mail boxes, b/c we have to go to the post office to pick up our mail).

We were testing the lights and Gideon thought they were great. I only had to tell him twice to take them out of his mouth.

Bean in the snow.