Merry Christmas!

Well, today was the most perfect Christmas I can remember ever having! In fact, this whole Christmas Season has been truly blessed. Life in general at the Z Treehouse is simply sublime right now. The kids are at a delightful age, and there's just plenty to smile about! As I said in our Christmas card, "We're in the midst of one of the sweetest seasons of life, and we full well know it." I've got lots of pics to share, as usual, and some ramblings to boot...

Corey had a very energetic and devoted, if not particularly helpful, helper to heft the tree home this year:

Little brother, meanwhile, just kept running through the trees and inspecting them long after ours had been chosen and carried away:

Thanks to our generous friends and family, and an extra boost of creativity, our home is filled with more than usual in the trimmings department:

We made Gingerbread houses for our home school get-together this month. I kept thinking, "I'm so glad we're at Charity's house this month... What a mess!" Yes, I confess, I'm one of those Moms who has a hard time letting go when it comes to messes. I'm a work in progress, okay? I think I'm improving, or at least I plan to force myself to... I got the kids some fingerpaints for Christmas! ;0)

One of our thumbprint/indent ornaments-- I love these ornaments! They totally remind me of my childhood. ;0)

One of the women I look to for fashion sense, and all things classy, gave Kendra and me this tea set for two. (This special lady, from our church, took me out for my first "tea" a few years ago, at this great vintage/antiques shop. It's a very fun memory for me, so it's extra special to have received this tea set from her!) For our lunchtime tea today, Kendra and I had bell-shaped sandwiches, butterfly-shaped cheese (I didn't have any Christmas cookie cutters small enough for Christmas-y cheese cut-outs; give me a break!), and Yorkshire Tea. (Well, I had tea, anyway; Kendra had sugar--about FIVE lumps--with a few drops of tea...)

The kids love night-lights, and another couple from our church got some Christmas ones for them. I'm afraid they're not sleeping, though, because they're so enthralled with these. Kendra even requested that hers be on so she could gaze at it during nap time today...

One of my favorite sights around the house right now is this little angel with her broken wing. A friend got Kendra her own little nativity set the year she was born, and you can't imagine the miles these figurines have seen!! They've suffered all manner of broken wings, legs, ears--you name it. And it just makes me smile, because it's a reminder of how many times Kendra has played out the nativity story with them.

I've been looking for a nativity set for Micah, but I wasn't too excited about the few I saw. I usually love Target's things, and went there first, but I didn't see any nativities there!? It really made me feel sick. Santas and snowmen galore. Even reindeers and penguins seem to be rising in popularity! But not a single baby Jesus did I see. Yech! ...but that's all I'll moan about for now, because I mean this to be a positive post! ;0)

It has been fun seeing some of the kids' personality traits highlighted during this Christmas Season. Remember Kendra's infamous body butter present-opening video? Well, I'd post one of Micah, but our camcorder tape isn't that long! He is a sloooow gift opener. Very slow, cautious, and curious. The total opposite of his big sis! ;0) Kendra received her first board game, Candy Land, from Grandma Pam. The whole concept of winning is somewhat lost on her. We played several rounds of Candy Land today, and she would exult, "Look, Mommy! Look, Daddy! The game pieces are right next to each other! They can talk to each other now!!!" Corey and I were laughing pretty hard, and he said to me, "It's all about relationship with her." So true. She was way more excited about the pieces getting close to each other than she was about winning. Sooo sweet, that little heart of hers! (Side note: Sometimes it's worth it to buy new! I'm usually a big-time fan of using anything and everything old, and not spending money on new stuff, but my Mother-in-Law sent me money and made me promise I'd purchase and wrap something new on her behalf, to have under the tree for the kids. I'm glad she did! Something I hadn't thought about is that the newer versions of most games and toys have been updated to feature a variety of skin colors. Yay!)

Two more Christmas-y thoughts before I sign off...

1) If you haven't heard them, I highly recommend listening on-line to Corey's 4 part series on Ruth, and how that book parallels and foreshadows the redemption story of Jesus Christ. I think it's my favorite series I've ever heard him do, with the possible exception of the series he did on Judges during the summer. (Yes, even though he worked in jokes about women talking in bathrooms, I still recommend this Ruth series...)

2) I've been reading a book titled Treasuring God in Our Traditions, by Noel Piper. So far, I love it! I didn't get to the Christmas Chapter until last night, so I'm feeling a bit of, "Oh, man! I wish I would have read this before this Christmas season!" but hey, I'll be ahead of the game for next year, right? And really, I'm enjoying reflecting on, and re-evaluating, the Z Family traditions in general as we head into a new year. The author talks about different kinds of traditions: the everyday kind (which we tend to think of as habits) and the less frequent kind (like those surrounding Christmas). One of my favorite thoughts so far is this one: "We don't forget to eat, and we feel icky if we don't remember to brush our teeth. How wonderful it is when family worship is just as normal a part of the day--so that the day is uncomfortable and off-kilter without it." Despite the pang of guilt and shame, I love it when Micah brings my Bible to me saying, "Bible! Momma, Bible!" when I'm still puttering in the kitchen long after our appointed after-breakfast devotion time, or Kendra exclaims, "Mom! We forgot to do our devotion!!!" But they don't always point it out to me, because I haven't made it consistent enough for them to reliably feel off-kilter without it. So this book has inspired me to improve upon the traditions we do have, and is giving me all kinds of fun ideas for establishing new ones! The main thrust of the book is the reminder that everything we do says something... something about what our priorities are... Who our priority is! I'm finding it an excellent help in analyzing my traditions, whether I have acknowledged them as such or not. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for some guidance in evaluating their goals, especially as parents, for the new year!! (And, as always, there's no book I recommend more strongly in the parenting department than Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. If you haven't read it, let me send you in search of that one first! And do the accompanying workbook!!!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!!!