December 2016--week 2

'Tis the season!  And that means church Christmas parties.  Kaitlyn and I were at choir rehearsal, but the rest of the gang went and a couple even had their photo taken with Santa! Sam was not interested in a photo....

I was excited to go with Lindsey and her classmates to the Dallas Museum of Art.  It was a fun day.  I am so glad I went.  At the last minute a bunch of chaperones and her teacher were unable to make it and they re-did all the groups which resulted in Lindsey not being with any of her friends.  She got off the bus to meet me at the museum and burst into tears.  We made the day fun anyway but I am so glad I was the chaperone to try and smooth that over.

But she was THRILLED to see this fun chair made of stuffed pandas at the museum, she's got a thing for Pandas.

So proud of my 4 children who participated in their Christmas Piano recital.  Cera Keeler is their teacher and she's been very good for them.  This was Matthew's first recital.  It's a lot of work to get 4 children to practice like they should but when they do, they progress so nicely.  

 Grandpa Lewis came to attend the piano recital.  While here he took some time to read a story to my children that he always enjoyed when he was their age.

 Something fun we've been participating in is our church's Christmas social media campaign "Light the World".  There are different things we can do each day.  It's really helped me with my desire and tradition of doing an advent calendar.  This year, each day we're invited to do something that turns us to Christ.

One day the invitation was to share stories of Christ,  So for Family Night we invited each of our children to share their favorite story about Christ from the scriptures.  We learned about Christ calming the seas, healing the 10 lepers, and walking on water.  But when it became sweet Matthew's turn he used this nativity scene and told us his favorite story was when Jesus was born.  When I asked him why it was his favorite, he responded, "Because that was the beginning of all the miracles."  The spirit filled the room and I was so touched

On another night we were invited to show compassion.  Sweet Sister Irene Brown passed away a few weeks ago and so we went and heart attacked Brother Jim Brown.