Special Visits

So far this has been a fun December for our family. We put up our tree and baked lots of cookies. (Although the cookies don't last as long as I would like them too!) Braylen made some goodies as part of a homework assignment, and I appreciated his help very much. He did not like going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients, but that is part of baking, right? I like it when my 13 year old son takes a Home EC class!

I have only two more gifts to buy--hooray! I decided I like sending Christmas cards too much to stop this year, so they will be mailed out by the end of the week...I hope! To help us remember why we are celebrating Christmas, we are reading an advent devotional every night at supper. It quiets the boys from making all of their noise...at least for a few minutes. This week we are gearing up to spend Christmas with my family, and we might even get some snow very soon.

With all of the December rush-rush taking place, we did have a sickness crop up yesterday. Poor Aaron...he was struck with a very nasty stomach virus. It has been years since one of our kids has been hit this hard with gastroenteritis. Today is his day to recover, so he's playing lots of games on the iPad and we have plans to work on a special Christmas craft later this afternoon. I am praying fervently that this virus does not spread. It's the week before Christmas!

We had two special Christmas visits this month--Aaron rode the Polar Express with his cousins, and he and Kaleb visited Santa's Cottage. Since these types of outings will soon be ending for our family, it makes me cherish them all the more.

He drank hot chocolate, saw Santa, and came home with a jingle bell from the Polar Express.
Thank you Aunt Pam!

When Aaron sat on Santa's lap, Santa asked him if he might become a police officer someday like his daddy. He also knew where Aaron goes to church, and he said he needs to work on doing what his mommy says the first time she asks! How did Santa know all of these things? Because he's Santa! Kaleb humored us and took a turn with Santa too. When he couldn't think of a gift he wanted, Santa told him he would bring him a Barbie doll. Kaleb said that was okay, he would just take it out to the backyard and use it for target practice with his airsoft gun. Oh, my!

The countdown to Christmas continues!