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| Books, |
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| Books, |
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| And more Books! My kids love them just like JR and I. We opened these on Christmas Eve. Thank you Uncle Jeff, Aunt Vicky, and Cousins Kira and Aiden! |
Christmas Morning
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| We lit our advent candles and read the last chapter in our Advent storybook. This year we read Bartholomew's passage. It was probably a little advanced for the kids but it was the beginning a of great tradition. We were amazed with how much Olivia is able to pick up and understand. Our other advent tradition has been to open an advent calendar that has little pieces of a nativity scene to be set up each day. These activities have provided lots of anticipation as we approach Christmas day. |
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| A Christmas morning tradition for our family is to have a birthday cake for Jesus. Why not start out the day with a celebration and a little sugar?! :) |
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| Olivia is opening the gift that Jesus wants for his birthday. |
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| And that gift is YOU! Jesus wants you (or your heart as we learned from the Donutlady) for his birthday. That is why we celebrate Christmas. Jesus came down to earth as a human to know us and love us. And then he would die and be raised from the dead so that we could have a personal relationship with God. Jesus is my beloved. He wants to be yours too! |
We left home briefly to greet some of our homeless "friends". This past summer we started joining a group called Burrito Bikers every other Saturday to fix/serve breakfast burritos, coffee, water and other goodies. Usually we serve them on the sidewalk near the City Center Park in downtown Greensboro but this morning, the Methodist Church downtown was hosting a hot, sit down meal. They had lots of volunteers but we went to socialize and spread some joy with them this on this Christmas morning. This has been such a good service outreach for us as a family. Our friends adore the kids and their smiling faces. We are learning to talk with and get to know people that are a bit different from us and don't smell so good. I am not sure the kids even notice.
On the way home, we stopped to see a nativity. It is set up by Greensboro College. As part of our approaching Christmas traditions, we went through several drive-through and walk through nativities. So many different ways to consider the events of the Christmas story.
Once we were back home, the kids opened their stockings. They are always so much fun! (JR and I opened ours last night after the kids went to bed. A nice new tradition I think. :) )
Then we headed to the gifts under the tree. Ezra was napping by this point if you are wondering why he was absent from the pictures.
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| There will lots of art fun in the days to come in our house. :) Gabe and Olivia were so excited when they saw this set up by the tree. |
