We live less than a mile from the starting poing of the Great Bridge Christmas parade. At the last minute, the older five children and I bundled up, and dashed with our hot chocolate to catch it. We had alot of fun and decided that we will definitely go again next year!
Joy is thrilled that she and Noah are old enough now, that they can snuggle together without help. Noah looks happy too!
Kendal and Kelsey had been admiring this tree in our yard for a few days before they decided to photograph it. They appreciated the gold and blue contrast the most.
These are our pirates:Daniel, Mary and Anna. That is their ship. They have a well-stocked galley onboard, sleeping bags and plenty of...what are those eye pieces called???
Noah looks so cute in this hand-knitted sweater. Grandma Butler found it at a church garage sale in Atlanta. We really needed it since his first sweater shrunk this week! oops!
We've made a couple of trips out to shop for some very special folks. We filled an Operation Christmas Child box with items that Anna, Joy, Mary and I found together. And today, all eight of the children and I found gifts for two elderly persons who were on the Angel list at our church. It's always a blessing to shop for people who have so little. We won't likely meet the recipient of the Christmas child box, but we will visit the nursing home next weekend for gift giving and caroling. That will be our children's first opportunity to do this, atleast so far as they can remember.
We're still homeschooling on most days. This week the children have begun to decorate the house. We have no parties or large meals planned in our home this year at Christmas time so, they are free to decorate as they like. It looks lovely so far! Bob has promised to get out the tree and trimmings on the weekend. The little ones have already asked if the grocery store is selling eggnog yet. They are relieved to know that we will have an ample supply for our family's cozy evenings around the tree. Some nights are not so nostalgic of course. But thankfully the children tend to forget those!
We read an advent story every night. My dear friend, Tarita, loaned Bartholomew's Passage to us. It's part of the Jotham's Journey trilogy, advent story. It's historically accurate for biblical times and very exciting. The stories all culminate at the manger during the Messiah's birth. We highly recommed all three of the books. Tabitha's Travels is the third title.
We've printed our Christmas photocards, but are hesitating on writing the annual Butler family letter. That is my job...it's so difficult to communicate on one page how God has blessed our family during the year. We try to be so careful not to be boastful or leave out any important events or people. I find it very challenging. I keep looking back at the old ones to remind me of what special keepsakes they are for us. Rereading generally encourages me to continue the tradition. So, I better get busy reading. :)
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