Making Spirits Bright!

Celebrating the Christmas season is one of my favorite things to do, especially since Noah is at the age where he can understand it all. 

 

Noah was so persistent this year to decorate for Christmas.  He started asking us immediately after Thanksgiving when we were going to get out all the decorations...Cody and I put him off as long as we could.  We at least made it to December 1st before anything Christmas came out of the attic.  Cody tackled the outside lights on one of the warm days.  He decorated the house with icicle lights, a blow-up Nativity, lighted reindeer and two white trees and a row of red and white candy canes.

 

We took a break in decorating for about a week.  And for all those seven days, Noah asked every day, "When are we getting a tree?"  So we caved and got us a real tree.  (Momma don't want no fake tree...)  The tree looked straight when we bought it, but once we got it home and in the stand, it was so crooked!  It wouldn't stand up.  It kept falling over!  So Cody jerry-rigged the tree by bolting it into the wall with a ratchet strap.  (My idea.)  Noah LOVED decorating it.  He oo-ed and aw-ed at the all the pretty ornaments.  So cute.

 

 

Look up close at Noah's smile.  That is the definition of pure joy and wonderment!

 

We enjoyed Grinch Punch while watching The Grinch.  That was one of Noah's Advent activities.

 

Noah's Pre-K homework was to make and write a Christmas postcard to someone he loved.  He chose Great-Grandma Stoner in Wisconsin.  What a sweet surprise in the mailbox!!

 

 

Noah wrote a long letter to Santa...asking for three gifts - Hero Factory Robots, The Imaginext Castle and the "green guy", or also known as the ogre.  He asked for three because the wise men brought three gifts.  If you ask Noah "What gifts did the Wise Men bring?", he will tell you "gold, Frankenstein and mare."

 

Another one of Noah's Advent activities was to decorate candy Christmas trees.  This was SO much better than making a Gingerbread house!  Easier and more fun!  Cody and I competed.  Mine is the winner, winner, chicken dinner.  Not telling which one it is...

Noah and I spent one of my Fridays off making Christmas ornaments and gifts.  Aren't the coffee mugs super cute?  Those are rocket ships drawn on with a moon and a few stars...

 



 

Noah was my little elf helper the day I sat down to wrap gifts.  I was in the back bedroom wrapping each gift into boxes.  When I finished one, I would hand it to Noah to go put under the tree.  After we finished, I came out to the living room to find a beautifully, organized display of gifts!!  (He got that from me.)

 

Pastor Clark and Robin blessed the Journey staff with a holiday outing to the Bricktown Ballpark where we went snow tubing instead of working!  It was SO much fun!  Definitely wouldn't have gotten to do that in the classroom...

 

Noah had a good time at the Journey Staff Kids' Christmas Party.  Look at those red little cheeks from jumping in the moon bounce!

 

My friend, Tina, put together a paint night out at her family's restaurant.  It was such great girl time!  I have to say the leopard print was so hard to do!  I couldn't get it right.  NONE of ours looks like the original.  We all made up our one because the original was too hard!

 

 

For the past few years, Journey Church has put on a Christmas Spectacular and let me say, it lives up to its name!  It is a show and worship experience that brings glory and honor to Christ's birth, the reason for the season.  Leading up to the actual production, the Lord gave me a word from Luke 1, verses 78-79.  The Lord told me His heavenly light was going to break upon our house to give light to those who sit in darkness.  People who were unchurched were going to come into our doors and because of how we honored and glorified Jesus, His Spirit would be able to move and change people's lives.  I am so, so honored to be a part of that.  It still baffles me why God chose me!

 

 

Lots of planning and hours of hard work goes into this Spectacular and not just on the production end, but out in the lobby with food and entertainment.  There were sleigh rides, photo booths, cookies, loads of sweets, a fire pit for smores, activities for the kids, live music and lots of holiday cheer to go around.  If you missed it this year, make Christmas Spectacular 2013 a must-see!

 

My friend, Randa, and I spent a few spare minutes in the photo booth.  Too fun.

 

 

 

And to wrap up all the holiday excitement, we took Noah snow tubing.  He LOVED it!  He's still too short for the big slide, but loved every second he was on the kiddie slide.

 

We hope you had a great time celebrating Christ's birth and all that this season brings.

 

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift."

~2 Corinthians 9:15