Grace's Christmas Quotables

This has been the most fun and hectic Christmas I have had in recent memory. There is nothing like watching Grace understand the meaning of Christmas for the first time...true amazement and belief. No wonder Jesus says about children, "The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." I know He must be grinning from ear to ear this time of year watching sweet children really enjoy His Majesty.

Grace is obsessed with manger scenes. She carries the baby Jesus EVERYWHERE (she would take Him to bed if we let her). We have often commented that she seems to have adopted Him. Here are our favorite Baby Jesus moments:

-She came in from playing in the snow and said, "Brrr! My hands are cold!" Then she ran and grabbed baby Jesus and put Him in one hand and then the other while saying, "This hand is warm, and now this hand is warm."

-During dinner she squished her beans into the middle of her zucchini and said that she was putting baby Jesus in the manger.

-She will often randomly comment to us that there was an elephant in the stable with baby Jesus...who knows! Maybe so...

-The wise men may have brought gold, frankincense and myrrh, but Gracie brought Daddy's credit card to baby Jesus this week. I am not kidding, she took it out of his wallet and ran to the manger scene to give it to Him.

-We had new friends come over for a playdate this week, and when she saw them walking toward the door she grabbed baby Jesus and Mary. Before our friends could even make it into the house Grace excitedly tried to give them to her new little friend asking, "Do you want Mary or baby Jesus?" She doesn't willingly share much these days, so her comment gave me hope! Nothing like watching your little girl share Jesus with passion and fearlessness.

-And my very favorite--she told Chris, "Baby Jesus is inside of me and so is King Jesus." AMEN! Nuf said...

Isaiah 9:6 "For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

We pray that you all may know the joy and peace this Christmas that comes not from your circumstances, but only from the one true God who loves you beyond measure.

Blizzard of 2009

My friend said kiddingly today that God sent the nearly 2 feet of snow to slow us down here in hyper-paced DC...and I for one desperately needed this God-ordained adrenaline detox! I'll admit that when I heard we were supposed to get 6-12 inches of snow this weekend, I did not believe it. Call it Northern Virginia skepticism, but people in this area are WAY too skittish when it comes to snow--we get it several times every year, and yet every time more than a 1/2" is predicted the bread and milk are cleaned out from the grocery store shelves.

Friday night we headed to my parents' house for dinner, and by 9pm there were about 2", so we decided to spend the night. God has been teaching me to prioritize availability above productivity, so it was extra good for me to choose to spontaneously leave my to-do list at home to simmer. It was truly one of the most wonderful weekends I've had, and I thoroughly relished the chance to run through that much snow in the middle of a blizzard with the fam.

I tend to be more of a 'sit on the beach' kind of person, but this time I was glad to get bundled up in hideous bright purple snow gear from the 90s and run around like a kid. Very therapeutic indeed! The pictures don't do it justice--for once the weather guys grossly underestimated the severity of the storm. My cousin from Wisconsin said that it was the worst snow storm she'd ever been in, so that's saying a lot!

Five Months

I am feeling teary eyed even thinking that Lily will be five months old on Sunday! No kidding, she is still three months old in my mind. Here's another long-winded snapshot from her baby journal.

Lily, you could not have a sweeter disposition. My favorite thing right now is walking into your room when you wake up. Even if you’ve been crying, you pop your head up and give me an enormous smile. You are not a wonderful sleeper, so this is extra good because it melts away any frustration I may have over our sleep deprivation. I have a feeling you’re not eating enough, but I’m not sure there’s much I can do about this since you seem to be easily distracted and thus become disinterested in the breast or bottle after just a few minutes. You also seem to dislike most solids. My hunch—you eat to live, not live to eat, so you’re not getting enough calories to sleep for long stretches. You also have started teething big time, so everything goes in your mouth. Right now your favorite chew toy is this over-priced giraffe teether that you can’t get enough of… It's French, so I'm assuming that's the reason for the price gouging, but no joke there is no teether quite like it! The Sophie Giraffe by Vulli--looks and squeeks like a dog toy too.

At your four month checkup you measured about 25” (70th %), weighed 13 lbs. 13 oz. (56th %) and your head was about 42 cms (75th %). You aren’t rolling over yet but appear to be getting close, and you can almost support yourself sitting up. Grace thinks you are the best thing ever and can’t seem to keep her hands off you. She wants to kiss and hug and play with you all the time. You are blessed more than you know to have her as your older sister! She has nick-named you "Loot" which she proudly claims as her own personal pet name for you. Love you to the moon, my Lily-Lu.

Flour Fun

CONFESSION: So I am headed to a cookie exchange tomorrow, and I'm coming with cookies that my mom made. After 2 failed attempts with 2 different recipes and 2 HORRENDOUS flour disasters in the kitchen (and I lost a part of my mixer in the clean-up process too!), I finally called my mom asking for advice about where I could purchase 4 dozen 'homemade' cookies for tomorrow without draining the savings account, and she kindly volunteered to make some of her fabulous spritz cookies. I of course offered to help bake them with her, but I was pretty Christmas cookied out after today, so I showed up late and just put on the sprinkles, ate some dough I really didn't need, and put the baked goodies in tins. Thanks, Mom!

And the grand finale can be seen below--she did this while I was distracted feeding Lily. How you might ask? She put flour in a measuring cup and then put it up to her face and blew on it...this from a kid who only moments earlier refused to roll the cookie dough into balls because she said it made her dirty!

Thanksgiving 2009

What a wonderful day! We're here in Arizona visiting the LoGrasso side of the fam, and I tell ya I do not miss the cold today. When we lived out here I used to complain about wearing shorts on Thanksgiving, but not today. I AM THANKFUL to be able to wear shorts and enjoy the 80 degree weather. (Honestly, the weather in Northern Virginia is pretty mild, but we like to complain about it as though it's as cold as Minnesota and as hot as Florida when in reality we get only a handful of snow days a year, and it hardly ever hits 100). God has really been teaching me to rejoice in all circumstances these past few weeks (not that I should have anything to complain about). So after nearly a week of very little sleep and waking up with sick kiddos more times than I can remember, I am so thankful that God really works ALL things together for His glory and our good. Thank you, Lord, for your patience with me and for redeeming ALL things with Your grace.

Stains!

Random question--Spray & Wash is not cutting it lately for the many odd stains our clothing seems to get these days. If you have heard of any great stain-lifters, please share! Thx.

Sickies

Yes, we are still alive, but some of us just barely...Chris has been sick since the end of October with a cold that turned into bronchitis, double ear infections, a sinus infection and finally the grand finale--pneumonia! To top it off he ended up having quite an allergic reaction to some meds and has been battling hives for almost two weeks. He was sicker than I've ever seen him in the almost 10 years I've known him, but praise the Lord none of us got sick until after he was better--thank God He doesn't give us more than we can handle! Now all three of us (Grace, Lily and I) are on the end of little 'baby colds.' Hey if we all have to be sick, I guess we'd rather BEFORE the holidays.

On another note, I know many of you with toddlers love the Signing Time DVD series (super entertaining and educational), so I thought you might enjoy this as much as I do...sometimes I think Grace is nearly fluent in sign language (she is more than happy to correct me when I've used the wrong sign yet again).