Little Car Birthday

This year on birthday Andrea surprised me with a special outing.

She scheduled babysitting for our kids and we were off to who knows where! We ended up driving in a part of town I had never been before, so I definately didn't know where we were going.

We ended up stopping at a little known gem in Nashville... Lane Motor Museum! I hadn't even heard of this place before, but it was really cool.

Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee is one of the few museums in America to specialize in European cars. Approximately 150 cars and motorcycles not typically seen in the U.S. are on display.

Afterwards, we at at J.Alexandar's, which was my first time and hopefully not last!

Thank you Andrea, for such a great evening out on my birthday. It was definitely a great and wonderful surprise.

ICE Exhibit

Our neighbors were so nice to share tickets to the ICE exhibit at Opryland. Almost everything in the exhibit is made out of ice, the theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. There's even a slide made out of ice!

Christmas Day

Elijah and I tried really hard not to emphasize receiving presents this year. Instead, we really talked up the joy there is in giving presents. Abby got to pick out a present for her Daddy, Mommy and Enoch. She was so good at keeping the surprise! I think she had a lot of fun with it.

Abby woke up about 7 and came into our room, she didn't remember that it was Christmas morning. After we reminded her, she was so excited, she said, "Mommy, you get to open your present from me!" It was so precious to see that was what she was so excited about. So, Elijah and I opened our presents from her first. She knows her mommy well. When Elijah asked her what she thought I would like, she said, "food." When he asked what kind of food, she said, "pasta!" So, they got me a gift certificate to my favorite restraunt, "Maggianos!" She also knows her Daddy well. When I asked her about what to get him, she said, "a computer!" I asked for another idea and she said, "coffee." She likes to help make Daddy's coffee in the mornings on the days he works from home. So, Elijah got some Starbucks coffee and a gift card. Abby knew just what to get Enoch, too. Pacies!

I think one of Abby's favorite gifts she got was her new Children's Bible, "The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes," by Kenneth Taylor. She kept wanting Elijah to read her story after story. He asked her several times if she wanted to open another present or keep reading, but she wanted to keep reading. It was nice to be able to take time in opening presents and play with each one as it was opened.

Moni and Pawi joined us for Christmas morning, too. We had applenut coffee cake, sausage cheese balls and hot chocolate with whipped cream for breakfast. Pawi and Moni offered to buy Christmas lunch from Kroger, so I didn't have to cook!

In the afternoon, we had Christmas dinner at the Guinness home. We had such a nice time eating, visiting and playing games together.

The Saturday after Christmas, we went back to the Guinness home to have a late Christmas with their friend, Miss Franklin. It was such a joy to watch her open her presents. She especially loved the new coat we got her and the Bible on CD from the Guinness family. I really think she felt how much God loves her!

Christmas Eve

We enjoyed a small quiet Christmas at home this year. On Christmas Eve, we attended a service at church. Afterward, we had our "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party at home. Abby thought this was really fun. We spread out a blanket in the living room and had our party in there (this was really big, because Abby is usually not allowed to bring her food into the living room). I made some yummy food: shrimp bisque (thanks Barbara for the recipe), baked brie and gingersnaps, little smokies, grapes, cheese and crackers. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus before we ate the red velvet cupcakes. We also watched "White Christmas."

Throughout the season, we've also been doing an advent wreath where we light a new candle each Sunday leading up to Christmas. We've also had great fun reading one page each night of "The Advent Book." Each page of the book features a door that opens, 25 in all for each day of the season, that tell the Christmas story.

Skelton Visit

We went to visit Andrea's aunt and uncle in Colombia, TN. We enjoyed our conversation as Carmack told stories of what it was like growing up on a farm with no electricity during the great depression. Carmack is suffering with pancreatic cancer. Please pray for him and his family.

Gingerbread Party

We got together with two of Abby's friends, Grace and Ainsley, to make "Gingerbread houses." These were healthier versions, instead of candy, we used pretzels, dried fruit and chocolate chips. The girls had a great time together, we're so thankful to have good friends!

Piggy Bank Pottery

We went to "All Fired Up" with the Talley family to paint a piggy bank. The plan is for Abby to add coins to the piggy bank all year long so that next Christmas, she will have money to fill a shoebox full of toys for a needy child.

Abby and Grace had a great time giggling and laughing while painting their pottery.

Elf Yourself Disco Style

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We didn't get around to making a Christmas card this year, but we were able to Elf Ourselves again...

The guys at OfficeMax teamed up with JibJab this year to make ElfYourself much better than last year.

Check out our current video for this year above and make one of your own!

Christmas Preschool Program

Abby had several supporters who came to her Christmas program at the Mustard Seed Preschool. The children in her class sang "Silent Night" in English and in Spanish. We consider it a success, she didn't cry or try to run off the stage! Pops and Nana (Abby's maternal grandparents) drove TWO hours one way to watch her in this 15 minute program! They were so sweet to bring flowers for her after the program. Moni and Pawi (Andrea's grandparents) also came and showed their support for Abby. We all went out for ice cream after the program.

Opryland Hotel Lights

Pops and Nana and Moni and Pawi joined us as we viewed the lights at the Opryland Hotel. Remind us never to do this right before Christmas on a weekend night. The traffic was horrible and it was packed inside the hotel. Plus we went there during dinner time, bad idea, we were all hungry and the cheapest thing they had was an $8 hamburger. What we saw was beautiful, though!

Baby Jesus Bible Class

Image by Ushlambad via FlickrAbby has been helping me teach Enoch about Baby Jesus. We've been using the Palma Smiley curriculum that I had prepared for Abby last year. It is so sweet to hear her singing the songs about Jesus to him. He smiles when he hears the songs and tries to hold onto the toys (baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, angel, wiseman, camel, donkey, sheep, etc.).

Enoch @ 5 Months

Enoch is such a social little guy. He loves to watch people.

Almost every time we pick him up from the nursery at church, the teachers comment about how they've never seen a baby that smiles so much. I think he gets it from his daddy.

Christmas Cookies

We made and decorated Christmas cookies to share with Abby's preschool class.

Later we also made an extra batch to share with our neighbors. We loaded the cookies in the wagon and made deliveries to our neighbors.

Thanks Kasie Birdwell for the great recipe!