Well Done

Recently a young man, father and friend to many passed away after a valiant fight against colon cancer. I did not know him personally but have learned much from him. I learned of his blog(tarapchak@wordpress.com)thru another blogging friend and have followed ever since. He was laid to rest on Saturday and at his funeral several people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. How amazing, what a special gift he gave his family, to live a life that prompts others to accept Christ. It makes me think of Nichole Nordeman's song "Legacy" in which she sings about how will people remember you. What a legacy he has left for his children and I know that he is at peace now in the presence of our Lord. May his family and friends be blessed by having known him and may we all be inspired by the leagacy he has left.

Happy Birthday JESUS!!!

I love this song. Abby sang it last year for her Christmas Program and Will got to sing it this year. Will is the shepard, second from your right, next to the angel. Remember to pause the music on my playlist so you can hear it. Both times I got teary eyed, it is so touching to hear your little ones singing happy birthday to Jesus. I am so glad my kids know the true meaning of CHRISTmas. Last night Will told me we should make cookies for Santa in the shapes of Jesus, Mary and Joseph so Santa will know that we celebrate Jesus's birthday, how adorable. Wishing Jesus a very happy birthday and am so thankful he came to save us.

Smiling is my Favorite

Just finished watching Elf for about the third time this week. I love this movie!!! It is funny enough for the kids and I to watch together and is a movie I have yet to grow tired of. Truly one of Will Ferrell's more "tasteful" movies and I am looking forward to quoting this movie for the next week or so.

Hide and Seek Safari

My son got this toy as an early Christmas gift from my husband's aunt and uncle. It is an amazing toy. Hide and seek is fun but after the 10th time I grow a little tired of the game while my kids do not. In this game you hide the tiger, then with the wand you go around looking for the tiger and when you get close the wand lights up and starts beeping. It is like the hot/cold game. My kids played this forever when they first got it and they still enjoy it. Even better after I get them started they can continue to play on their own with out my help. I have heard you can even order extra wands so each child can have one. If you are still looking for a great Christmas gift I would highly recommend this for kids age 3 and up. I've seen it recently on amazon.com for under 25 dollars. Hope you all have great luck in the search for the perfect Christmas gift. Luckily if you know and love my Savior Jesus Christ you have already recieved it.

GOD Rocks!!!

I have posted before on how God has been faithful in answering many prayer requests that I or my kids have presented to him this year. This latest prayer request had an answer that left my church homegroup stunned and in further awe of our great creator. A lovely woman in my small group had told us several weeks ago that her neice's son who is 14 attempted to commit suicide. He was devasted that his girlfriend told him that she no longer loved him and thought that death would be easier than overcoming that rejection. He was in full arrest for over 20 minutes, able to be revived but with a poor prognosis, he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life.
After a few weeks of little progress the boy's father said he heard from God that he would heal his son and he would be healthy again. Our friend struggled with how to take this information, does she believe as well that it will happen or does she try to soften the blow of disappointment and tell him that it might not be in God's plan to heal him. So we prayed that night that our friend might hear from God herself his plan for this boy so she might know the best way to support the father. About a 1/2 hour after our home group ended we got an email from our friend stating that someone had emailed the family who was in a coma for 2 years and had come out of it and is now in full recovery, this gave us HOPE. Then three days letter we got the email that the young boy was now out of the coma and starting to respond to sound, light etc. He is now making small progress with tiny hand movements but how amazing is our God. I pray for this young man's physical and emotional healing as well as that of his family.
How easy it is for us to hear a story about someone's "hearing from God" and think, did they really hear from God, or are they just clinging to hope that God is saying what they really want to hear. I learned a valuable lesson through all this, don't let my doubt at times stiffle the faith of someone else. God allows us to doubt but he wants us to first take it to him in prayer. I am so grateful that our homegroup took the time to pray that night for God's clear response in this matter, that he answered so quickly and so powerfully. May God be given all the glory and praise.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them" Matthew 18:20

"Dear Friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and recieve from him any thing we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him" 1 John 3:21-22

MEET BUDDY!!!!!

With much thanks to Angie over at audreycaroline.blogspot.com we have a new Christmas tradition at our house. This is a scout elf that arrived with the book "The elf on the shelf". Every day Buddy watches the kids to see if they have good or bad behavior and then at night he returns to the North pole to report to Santa. Then he comes back each morning but in a different place then he was the night before. So each morning the kids get super excited to see where Buddy is next and I get to use a little creativity to find a new exciting spot. Then Christmas eve Buddy returns home to the North pole until the next year. It has been fun to have a tradition that just our little family can do. Mike and I have some great traditions passed down to us from our families but it is nice to think that maybe our kids will pass this tradition down to our grandkids.

I know alot of people have varying opinions on celebrating Santa during the Christmas season. We first and foremost have taught our children the true meaning and reason behind Christmas and will always continue to do so. Yet while they are little we find it not a problem to teach that we give and recieve gifts at this time in celebration of Christ's birth and this includes Santa. Both Mike and I grew up this way in strong Christian families and I am glad that we both had similar backgrounds. May everyone enjoy the birth of Jesus Christ this Christmas as well as any treasured family traditions you may have.