Decorating and Third Advent

We spent a lot of time last week decorating our house for the Christmas holiday. Patrick always enjoys putting out the nativity set and he was able to do it this year with his little "Mallor". Mallory also put up the first ornament this year, which was her "Baby's first Christmas" ornament. Patrick and I enjoy going through our ornaments and reminiscing about the significance of them, like where and when we got them or who gave them to us. We have ornaments from Patrick's childhood, my childhood, our lives together, and now with Mallory. I guess you would describe our tree as an heirloom tree. We don't focus on a particular color or theme.

This is the first year that we've hung stockings. Mallory received a beautiful stocking from her Great Aunt Dee, who crossstitched one for her in honor of her birth. I looked around in various stores for stockings that compliment hers, but I was very disappointed in the selection. I kept comparing all the stockings to the ones that my mom had made for us as kids and they didn't even come close. So, I had the bright idea to call my mom and ask if she would be willing to make Patrick and me a stocking. She was happy to this for us! Last Tuesday, I received a package from her with our stockings in it. They were so beautiful! I was so excited to hang them up!!!! I think the stockings from mom and Dee just make the whole house look Christmas-y! Again, I love items that I can consider heirlooms. As the Christmas holidays come and go, I will always be able to share with Mallory that our dear family took time out of their busy lives to make us something so special.

(Notice White Christmas in the background of this picture?)

We took Mallory Christmas shopping this past Saturday. We had so much fun picking out some toys for her and enjoying her company in the mall. We always get compliments from strangers at what a beautiful little girl we have. We are definitely pround parents! I've done a lot of shopping online, though I try to make a lot of gifts, too. I'm excited about our purchases and am looking forward to gifting our friends and family.

Other things we've done this week include writing the Christmas letter, stuffing envelopes, developing pictures, wrapping gifts, shopping, and I can honestly say that the list goes on! On Sunday, we visited a church we both thoroughly enjoyed and are anticipating another visit next week. We've been so busy over this past week, but we stopped on Sunday night and as a family, opened the big black Bible and read more passages to prepare our hearts Christmas. This week, we read about the purpose of our promised Savior. We read the passage from Luke about Mary visiting Elizabeth and her song. We read about John the baptist and how he will prepare the way for the coming Messiah. We read Zechariah's prophecy that is rich with ways our Lord will redeem his people. We read that our Savior will be Immanuel, God with us. Oh, what a joy it must have been to see the fullfillment of the prophecy "and the virgin will bear a son and he shall be called Immanuel, which means God with us". We sang "What Child is This?", "I Heard the Bells...", and "It came upon a Midnight Clear".

"My soul maginfies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior!"