The comment that made my Christmas complete

There are times where I question whether we are doing an adequate job of living and teaching Christianity to our sweet boys. Today I discovered that they really are learning about God and His plan.

#1 likes to rake my comb through the carpet in our bathroom and draw various letters and shapes. Today he took the comb and drew a cross, then said, "Look Mommy. I drew the cross where Jesus died."

That comment alone made my Christmas complete. My cup runneth over.

OK, who got into the pie I made for Christmas? Hmmmm???

A certain boy was standing there with chocolate all over his mouth and hands and solemnly said, "Daddy did."

I washed his face and hands before I thought to take a picture.

Christmas Traditions

This Christmas season I have purposely attempted to establish some holiday traditions. One of these traditions has been making a gingerbread house (using the pre-made mini-gingerbread village kit of course). The boys enjoyed decorating but only about half of the gumdrops and candy actually made it onto the gingerbread houses.


I have also experimented more and more with breakfast. If I can manage to make a smiley face out of whatever food I have on hand, they squeal with delight. This morning, they each cracked an egg and helped mix together the milk, eggs, cinnamon, and sugar to make french toast. I put whipped cream and blueberries to make a smiley face. Yum!

What Christmas traditions do you have with your family?

Breakfast with Santa

We went to Breakfast with Santa at school last Saturday. They had a Candyland theme set up with colored squares taped to the floor and giant 'dice' that the kids rolled to get advance along the path. As they went along the path, there were several stations where the kids could make crafts. First they decorated a bag with stickers. Then they took their picture with Santa, decorated a cupcake, made a reindeer with their shoeprint and handprints, decorated an ornament, and made a photo frame. Then we went to eat breakfast and watch a nativity play.

We had a ball!

By the way, I cut my hair in a modern sort of bob. Too short I think, but there's nothing I can do about it now but grow it out! :)

Family time

During football season, Matt is gone so much that I go into survival mode of sorts just trying to get everything taken care of that must be done. Where is that library book that is due today, what am I going to cook for dinner, how can this family generate SOOO much laundry, are we out of milk again, and where is that soccer cleat we need for practice after school are questions I ask myself almost every day. I felt almost like I was working a full time job and then came home to another full time job.

I was around my kids during that time, but was so busy taking care of life that I was not really 'there' all the time. Now that football season is over and Matt is home more, it is so nice to have him there. We watch movies together after the kids go to bed, talk about the future, and rediscover each other again. When he is there and helps do chores such as helping to fold laundry, or loads the dishwasher, it makes me so happy because it is one LESS chore that I have to do. It frees up my time so that I can spend a few extra minutes reading books to them at bed time, can tackle extra projects I have been meaning to do (such as cleaning out closets and drawers, etc.), or even relax a bit.

This weekend it was cold, and even snowed a tiny bit. We spent the entire weekend together as a family and just had fun sitting around the table laughing, being silly, playing the Wii, and decorating Christmas shaped cookies. I did the usual laundry, cooking doing dishes, etc., but did absolutely NO work on my computer.

It was nice! I enjoy these kind of holidays, not the stress-filled, activity-filled, running-from-place-to-place exhaustion.

Never a dull moment

Today I have to chalk up to "just one of those days." I have been working late every day and the house has gotten to be a mess, especially with a pileup of laundry and Christmas ornament boxes waiting to be unpacked. I got up early this morning to clean the downstairs while everyone was still sleeping, made some french toast, then went upstairs to get dressed.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, #3 went downstairs, got the Gingerbread House kit I had put on TOP of the fridge (so we could make together this weekend as a special treat), and distributed the ENTIRE contents all over the kitchen floor.

I was almost ready and had just enough time to get them dressed and out the door before we were going to be late when I discovered the mess. Ugh!

God and Santa

I think #1 has misunderstood the whole God vs. Santa thing. Since we talk about God being all around, knowing when we are obeying or not, and how He gives us all of our blessings, I can see how it may easily be confused with Santa when we sing songs such as "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!"

The other night at bed time, #1 started to pray, "Dear God, Thank you for this day. For Christmas, I choose race cars. Amen."

Note from #1's teacher

#1's teacher sent me an email the other day that warmed my heart. It gives me hope that he won't be a loner that is picked on by other kids in junior high because of his autism. I was especially pleased to receive this email the day after coming back from Thanksgiving holidays. I was afraid the change in schedule might have thrown him off track and caused him to have a hard time getting back into the routine. Go #1! I am proud of you baby!

Here is the email from his teacher:

I don't know how often you get to see Cade in an environment with friends, but I am just so pleased and surprised at how well he gets along friends. I know many Asperger kids have trouble making eye contact etc.. and I know he's on the mild spectrum. But I just love to see how he relates to his classmates on the playground. They are so excited to see him and he goes up and hugs them and will ask them if they want to play. I just wanted to let you know about that.
He's been doing so much better in line the yesterday and all last week. Before nap time, he knows that he has to walk in line and not hold my hand because its someone else's turn to be lineleader. But then after nap, it is his turn to be lineleader and hold my hand. It seemed like a good compromise and he seems to be okay with it.