Come Lord Jesus

I know my antiphon doesn't exactly match up with the liturgical season.  Here we are smack dab in the middle of Lent and I'm just now posting about Christmas.

I blame it on my husband.

Truth be told I actually received one of my Christmas gifts today.  I'll give him a little more credit though since he actually tried to surprise me with it last night but his plan didn't quite work.

As you know from a previous post, I made him two t-shirt quilts and pillow shams to fit the bill of our gold, frankincense and myrrh framework.

My gold gift was a mini greenhouse which we planted seeds in last weekend and already have some healthy young sprouts of broccoli and cabbage, a single sprout in each of the pea, parsley, and tomato rows, and a "no-show" as of yet from the peppers and the lavender.  In addition to that, I received the game DABBLE which as you might guess is a cousin to Scrabble.  Pete and I have played a couple of rounds and I totally whipped his batooski. ;-)

For my myrrh/homemade gift Pete composed another verse to add to the song he wrote that we danced to on our wedding day. Forever Starts Today is the title of the song, or at least the one I'll use for now since the alternate title includes the forbidden "A" word at this time of year.  He also wrote a fun pictogram story in the style of I Can't Said the Ant one of his favorite childhood reads.

The daunting task of the first diaper change of the day this morning was interrupted by the curious envelope with my name on it tucked underneath a frame above the changing table.  Nevermind that there was never a frame above the changing table before but what can I say, I'm not exactly the most observant in the a.m.  Utilizing one of his strong points yet again Pete wrote a lovely letter which directed my attention to my frankincense/spiritual gift:  A framed print of the Madonna of the Streets.  It's amazing how God works...I'm pretty sure my grandmother had the same picture hanging in her living room in Rootstown and probably at the other homes thereafter but I remember it there the most.

All in all we had a Gloria in Excelsius Deo holy-day season celebrating with family and friends and thanking God for the many blessings of 2012.

The Reason for the Season

Luke and Augustine in the tent from Aunt Katie and Uncle Andrew.  Luke LOVES his tent.  In fact, he enjoys loading it up with this, that, and the other thing and of course invites any visitors we may have to check it out too.  We use this to our advantage and threaten to dismantle it when he is misbehaving in which case he straightens up rather quickly.

Indoor basketball hoop from the Snyders that helps Luke get his extra jumps out.  He certainly has a lot of extra jumps!

Augustine with his tag blanket from Aunt Debbie, Uncle Matt, Jacob, Nick and Nate.

Ocean play station from Grandma Francis

Luke's Gold Gift

Stockings by the fireplace

Our very first Christmas tree.  I got the stockings ready but overall Pete handled most of the Christmas decorations.  I insist on having a "real" tree.  Although, after contemplating it a bit I struck a moral dilemma realizing that the tree was cut down and then disposed of...I'm not sure I can jive with the idea of chopping down trees but we don't exactly have the space to get a balled tree we can plant after the festivities...thoughts anyone?