It's hard to take pictures with 2 year old twins...

but on thanksgiving day, it was my husband who was causing the problems.

Well this one it was Marcus and Eli...

And Marcus again...

And again (isn't his frowning ability impressive?)

And again...

Finally, we settled with this one and moved on with life.

 I was wondering why my sister kept having to take picture after picture. It was Marcus' fault. And my curtains are very green in these pictures aren't they? 

You should see the pictures my mother-in-law tried to take many years ago with Marcus and his two brothers. It was like this but with three adult males acting like children and I thought toddlers were bad.... and well toddlers are awful too.

Tomorrow I'll show you the toddler edition. Eli, Emerson, and their cousin Hannah. 

It's washing day...

For Eli's blanket and Emerson's piggy.

Cue, epic meltdown times two. With cries of "Piggy, piiiggggyyyyy" & "blankie, blankie"

Poor kids, I hope they wash and dry quickly.

Do your kids freak out when it's time to wash their security item?

Ministry...

Today, I met the newest little member of my congregation at just a few hours old. Mama and baby doing amazing. He was so tiny and perfect. It's funny how quickly you forget how small a newborn is (and how small mine must have been considering this little guy was almost 8lbs compared to their 3lbs).

Then on Saturday I'll officiate my second funeral and we'll say good-bye to another member of the congregation. The cycle of life and death.

I feel blessed and humbled t to pay witness, offer blessings, and prayers in both events.

Both life changing...

The celebration of a new life just beginning, and the celebration and remembering of 89 years well lived.

Nativity Scenes...

I love Nativity Scenes. Especially, because there are so many that are so unique. In another life (A life where I had unlimited resources) I would have made a point to collect a scene from each country I've been too. However, since all of my international traveling thus far has been on a student's budget that didn't happen.

Here are the three I currently have in my possession.

This is the scene I've had the longest. It's an expensive set from Wal-mart I think. We got it the first year we were married and it's been a part of our Decembers for the last 9 years.

This is the Willow Tree Nativity Scene that my mother-in-law bought me several years ago.

I love it and that camel is the one that Emerson couldn't stop kissing.

This one is probably my favorite. I had it made by a local artist in 2005 while I was in Zimbabwe. It's made out of the stone that's so prevalent in the country (my brain isn't working right now so I can't remember what it's called, anyone know?)  and was hand carved just for me. The price was astounding to me too, only $20 for a hand carved set. I think it's so unique and I love it. 

"Bubba did it"...

This is Emerson's new favorite thing to say. Poor Eli he's speaking skills aren't quite as advanced as his sisters at this point and he gets blamed for everything. I just had this conversation with Emerson as she brought me a broken ornament off the tree.

Emmy: Here mama, tree.

Me: Uh oh Emmy, it's broken we're not suppose to touch the tree.

Emmy: Oh gosh... (this is also new it cracks me up).

Me: Emmy did you break it?

Emmy: No bubba did it.

haha I have no idea who actually broke the ornament but anytime I find a mess, a tipped over table, something moved that they know not to touch, lately it's been, "bubba did it."

Poor Eli he better learn to defend himself soon.

Oh Christmas tree...

Before I really start my post, Marcus has been dissecting the song O Christmas Tree. The line "Thy leaves are so unchanging" really bothers him. He argues that pine trees don't have leaves they have pine needles to that line in the song is not only unnecessary it's also wrong. Plus, he thinks the whole song is dumb... In my opinion it's way better than the 1984 song called, "Do they know it's Christmastime" which has brilliant lines like, "and there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas" the whole song is so incredibly dumb. P.S. I live in CA and there won't be any snow here this Christmas either.

Okay, now onto the real point, but I think I could do an entire post of bad Christmas songs. We went shopping for our Christmas tree finally. Eli and Emmy ran around the Christmas tree yard say, "this one, this one, this one" and pointing to a million different trees. We eventually picked on and brought it home.

Eli helped Marcus cut the tree, bring it inside, and then water it.

In fact they both had a great time watering it. They didn't want to stop. 

Then it was time to decorate. When we first turned on the lights for some reason Emmy kept trying to blow them out like a candle it was adorable. 

Then on with the ornaments. First they both just sort of tossed them in the tree. Then we showed them how to hang them on the branches so they were all really low and in one spot. 

Emmy putting on another ornament.  

Sometimes at home she likes to dress herself and I let her. She seems to think the bottoms that come with dresses make suitable pants. Whatever works for the girl I suppose. 

Christmas Countdown with Books...

Last year, somewhere on the internet I saw the idea of wrapping 24 children's books and unwrapping and reading one each night to countdown to Christmas. (This year that idea is all over pinterest as well).

At that point in time I had exactly 3 children's Christmas books to my name and didn't have the money to go buy 22 more, but I did hold onto the idea for this year and put it in to action. I had 14 books that I owned and my MIL bought a few, and also let us borrow some from her collection to fill out the days. The rest was easy...

All the books ready to be wrapped. I probably spent way more time than necessary planning the order in which they would open the books. But there were a few days that I had specific books in mind. For example on December 13th we celebrate St. Lucia's day and so we're reading a book about her and the celebration on the 12th night in preparation. 

Then I wrapped them all up and put a number tag on them. I follow a blog called Clean Mama. She's doing the same thing with her kids and created these adorable tags that you can download and print for free. If you haven't ever looked at her blog or her etsy site you should. It's adorable. I've ordered a couple of things from etsy, including a custom made worship planning sheet to use when planning my sunday services. Seriously, her blog and site are amazing I love it. Go check it out immediately. (She also often has freebies like these cute tags).

All the books go under the small tree in our family room. Eli and Emerson got to open the first one tonight. They are finally starting to grasp the concept of unwrapping. 

And they did a good job sharing the job. Although when Emmy finished unwrapping this one she immediately headed to the tree and said, "I another one." Once I told her we were going to read the new book she was fine. We all climbed onto our couch in front of the Christmas tree and read the book. 

Then we took the tag, punched a hole in it and hung it on our countdown tree. By Christmas the whole tree will be filled with count down numbers (Sorry for the bad picture the lighting and shadow were not being my friend).

I'm so in love with this new tradition and I hope we can continue it forever haha (I asked Marcus if I could have an adult version with 24 novels for me he didn't think that was a very good idea).

And in case anyone is interested here's our list of books and the days we'll read them. We'll read the book on the 25th first thing in the morning before church.

1. The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman

2. The Christmas Story with Holly Babes
3. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Adapted by Rick Bunsen
4. A Night in Santa's Great Big Bag by Kristin Kladstrup and Time Jessell
5. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
6. Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas by Julia Rawlinson
7. The Last Straw by Fredrick H. Thury
8. The Story of Christmas by Patricia A. Pingry
9. Elf A Short Story of a Tall Tale As Told by David Berenbaum by Buddy Hobbs
10. The Little Christmas Tree Illustrated by Susanna Ronchi
11. Ten Christmas Lights Illustrated by Jo Parry
12. Lucia Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde
13.  Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Jane Chapman and Karma Wilsom
14. Biscuit's Christmas Eve by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
15. Santa's Toy Shop By Al Dempster
16. My Christmas Stocking Filled with God's Love
17. The Christmas Story
18. Zeek the Christmas Tree Mouse by Richard H. Schneider
19. What's Coming for Christmas by Kate Banks
20. The Mitten by Jan Brett
21. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
22. Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
23. The Animals' Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum
24. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
25. Today is Christmas by P.K. Hallinan

CLEAN MAMA: Holiday Gift and Advent Labels - Freebie