Family Christmas

For the first time ever, we did Christmas with both of our families before Christmas Day.  It seemed so much easier and laid back.  Maybe that was just because we have been sick the last two years and thankfully we were well this year!  

The weekend before we spent it with the Hensons.

We spent the evening of the 23rd and the morning of the 24th with the McDaniels.  However, we did manage a trip to Bass Pro on the 22nd!

My parents rented a 15 passenger van on the 23rd and we drove around looking at lights and singing carols.  It was so much fun even if a lot of the lights were off because of the storm!! I definitely hope we do this again!  Maybe next year it will even be cool enough for hot chocolate!  I'm not kidding when I say stopping for ice cream was brought up several times!

My dad reading a Christmas poem written by his grandfather.

Next year there will be another McDaniel grandkid!!

 Sam couldn't get over the fact that Uncle Brad can't click his tongue! Sam tried to help him figure it out!

Next year, I will bring my good camera and maybe I will even be in a picture or two!

The Cross is the Reason for the Cradle

Tonight, I heard one of those sermons that just kind of "hit ya".  Even though I have never summarized a sermon here, I am going to.  I want to always be able to find it.  David Strain was preaching from Isaiah 53:10-12.   He opened with "the cross is the reason for the cradle".  Jesus was born to die for sinners.  Period.  Verse 10 talks about how God's plan was satisfied.  He sent his Son--It was the Father's love that sent him.  Jesus accepts His plan.  (John 6:37; 17:12; 10:17)  In verse 11 the Servant is satisfied.  Jesus accomplished our justification and found it worth it.  He sees God counting us righteous---and He is satisfied.  Christian, He bought and paid for us and delights in us.  We are His beloved.  Verse 12 shows that we are satisfied.  He died that we might live and even now He is at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us.  He pleads our name before the Father's throne.  We are Christ's reward--His crown and glory.  We get to participate in His victory, His enthronement.  The glory that belongs to Him enfolds us to.  Because of the cross, we have new life.  We have a new status--one that is justified, our guilt is gone.  And we have a new destiny. One of security and rest.  Every need of the human heart is satisfied in Jesus.  Every. Single. Need.  David challenged us by asking:  Are we prepared to look to Jesus for the satisfaction our heart craves?  He is our all in all.

I knew everything David said tonight.  It was just that tonight I needed to hear it.  One of the many, many, many reasons I love church.  Tomorrow a dear friend and mentor buries her husband, and a friend her dad.  We have three sweet friends whose tiny ones are battling for their lives with cancer.  But we have Hope.  Because of Baby Jesus our destiny is secured.  I love the verse in "In Christ Alone":  From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.  In Christ alone our hope is found!  

This morning the children in our church got a very special treat.  They were able to watch a drama of the Christmas story.  What a great visual reminder of the love of our Father.  He came in a manger, to die for us.nal breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.

All things Christmassy

How come almost every Christmas tradition we have happened to fall on the same weekend?  That's how this past weekend was--super busy and super fun, but super tiring!  

We started off with dinner with friends and the Singing Christmas Tree.  It's the first year I can remember that Zeb wore short sleeves!  It was such a strange feeling for it to be so warm.  

I had my big camera with me, but the flash wasn't working.  This was the best iphone picture we could get.

The next morning we woke up for the Madison Christmas Parade.  These boys were too cute!

(Sara Beth was at a birthday party...that's why she isn't in pictures!)

Forget Santa being the highlight, it was the ninja turtle!

Funny how we ended up right next to Uncle Brad's sister!

Later that afternoon, we went to the Nutcracker!  The girls went on field trips to see the shortened version when they were 4, but I had never taken them to see the whole thing!  I forgot how good the 2nd half is!

We ended Saturday with the UMC Pediatric Christmas party.  It's fun to get up every now and then!

There was also a lot of leaf raking--and pile jumping!

Monday evening, FPC had the Getty's come and do a concert.  The 3rd-5th grade choirs got to sing a couple of songs with them.  Sara Beth is in the middle in chevron.

Zeb has a group of 1st year medical students that he is mentoring this year.  We have both had a lot of fun getting to know them. All the m1s are divided into color groups--so the red and green groups had a Christmas party last night at Iron Horse.  Obviously, it was a tacky sweater.  They played a Christmas movie game and got prizes for dressing up!

Plus, we got a tour of the unopened BB King museum that is in Iron Horse.

It's a big deal to get both of us in "costume", so I have to have it recorded!

Thanksgiving at the Beach

We did something different this year and spent Thanksgiving at Rosemary Beach with the Hensons!  Thanks Honey and G for a fantastic place and maybe even more important, the heated pool!  They paid extra for that and it was definitely worth it!  It rained for the first 3 days we were there, but that didn't stop the kids from swimming.  There was no thunder, so they swam in the cold rain and didn't care at all!

The girls getting in some girl time before the 3 boys came! 

While Zeb was throwing the kids in the pool, I was flipping through a magazine on the balcony!

This happened several mornings...

We should have counted the hours they swam.  I think they all had been missing the pool.

I had to put this picture on here because I can't believe Sam let anyone hold him like this.  Even though William and Sara Beth are the same age, he won't let her.  And it hurts her feelings so much!!

Lots of playing in the sand time too!  

The waves were HUGE at the beginning of the week and it was almost still at the end of the week.

G and Zeb decided to both buy doughnuts one day.  After everyone ate their fill, there was 40 left over!

There was some story telling going on here!

Krazy Kolor ice cream

studying transformers

This guy has the best laugh...

And then we came home to reality...
surprise...a giant 9 x 6 mirror was on the floor in thousands of pieces.  I was SO UPSET to see more wallpaper!  For those who remember, there was ugly wallpaper all over this house and it took professional guys weeks to get down!  ERRR    

And a hole in my living room... the leak was fixed before we left, but the guy never came that was going to patch it.