Christmastime

I was thinking recently about Christmas trees, and how if we're going to go as far as to put a tree in our house as something that represents Christmas and decorate it (it's kind of strange when you really think about it), then why in the world would I put a fake tree in my house? I don't know. I might just be a real tree convert after this year. The tree we have is a very nice, hand-me-down artificial tree. We only use half of it or else it would be way too big for our liking. For those of you who know Micaiah you may get a kick out of this: Micaiah has really enjoyed seeing the Christmas trees in the stores lately. When I asked him if he would like to put a Christmas tree in our house, the first thing he said after "yes" was "pime (climb) up". After I shot that idea down, his next grand idea was to "knock over." He actually has been very gentle with it and enjoys it. However he is extremely concerned by the fact that he has a first Christmas ornament that still doesn't have his picture in it. I told him I would put one in it, and he will NOT let me forget as he reminds me multiple times a day. :)

You can tell the section Micaiah decorated.

I made an advent calendar this year to use with the boys. It is based largely off of Noel Piper's 'Noel Calendar' which is no longer available. We have the story of Jesus' birth that is divided up with a different part of the story added each day. It is read so that each day you start from the beginning again and then just add on the next part and put up the corresponding piece. At first, Micaiah didn't understand that we don't put it all up at once. So we had fun reading the story several times from start to finish in the beginning. :) Now each morning at breakfast he reminds us that we need to "read calendar," as he says. I love how the story is repeated and built upon each day because now after several days of repeating it, Micaiah is able to say some of it. His favorite part is where Luke 2 is quoted, and it starts "O Bethlehem..." he says "OOOOO Beh-hem". Just cute.