hello, december...

It is hard to believe that it is December 1st.  In some ways the retail marketers pushing black Friday and cyber Monday make it seem later in the month than just the first.  I was talking to a friend today and we both feel a little rushed and a little behind regarding Christmas.  Which is totally crazy because it is only December 1st.  On the other hand, in some ways I want to shout 'WAIT!  How can it be December 1st already.'   That means almost a whole year has gone by.  I'm searching my heart and my to do lists to see - did I get 'enough done' this year?  Did I intentionally use 2011 as much as I wanted to?  Those are thoughts and musings for another post...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in West Virginia.  The kids all had a blast with their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  It was so much fun to have everyone together again.  Here is our annual cousins picture.  I think it turned out pretty good this year.  It's not easy getting all 13 kids together at the same time, let alone getting them all to look and smile at the camera.

We came home to some really nice weather on Saturday.  So Mark decided to put up the outside Christmas lights on Sunday and Monday.  The boys wanted to help.  Which means, they played outside while Mark worked.

 

 

Luke decided that just sitting on the ladder wasn't enough fun.  So he began jumping off.  Since I had my camera out anyway, I took some pictures of him jumping.

He really got some air on some of these jumps.  He was also webbing as he flew through the air.  He is always thinking like spiderman...

Notice, how you can see Mark working in the background of this picture hanging the lights on our pear tree.  John thought it looked like a fun idea.  So he too, got into the action and jumped off the ladder.

John focused on creativity.  And actually planned what he was going to do in mid-air. 

Eventually, dad realized he was the only one not having any fun.  So Mark took a turn jumping off the ladder too.

Thankfully, all our outside lights are now up and they look really good.  Additionally, no one was hurt by jumping off the ladder.  As I was posting this I realized that this may not look like the safest activity for kids to do, let alone be encouraged by their parent to do.  But the ladder was on super level ground and our boys jump off everything.

I just love this time of year when everything sparkles with lights.  The kids are full of anticipation of Christmas.  I am trying to slow our family down and do some intentional study of this advent season.  I've found a few on line resources that I'm going to explore more and then post here.  I really want to make sure our family celebrates Jesus as the center of our Christmas and the presents second.  Which is particularly hard in our society but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Happy December to you!