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| After church on a beautiful November Sunday |
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| Our real Christmas tree |
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| Gabriel laying underneath one of our Christmas trees |
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| Chase posing by the gingerbread house he made with Grammie Pam Breeden |
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| Gabriel playing with toys |
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| Talk about a close-up! |
Holiday decorations have been on display for several weeks. Christmas shopping is done. Presents are wrapped. Wish lists have been told to Santa (well, at least by Chase; Gabe remains terrified of the man in the red suit). Cookie tins are filled with baked goodies. Rudolph, Elf, Christmas Vacation, the Grinch, etc. have been watched more than once. The Elf on the Shelf (Chase named him "Mack Paul Breeden") has made his rounds to many locations in the house keeping close eye on the boys. The drive down the VA Beach boardwalk was made to see the holiday lights at the beach. You get the picture...we're ready for Christmas! This has perhaps been the best build-up to Christmas I've ever experienced now that Chase is old enough to really understand Christmas traditions and Gabe is so vivacious.
All of the above things certainly add to the excitement of Christmas every year, but they come nowhere close to illuminating
the true reason for this season: JESUS! "She [Mary] will give birth to a Son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21) Although Tim, Chase, Gabriel, and I have had fun anticipating Christmas and doing all of the normal seasonal preparations over the past month, I don't ever want to lose sight that the whole reason for all of this hustle and bustle is to celebrate our Savior's birthday. I pray you and your families will keep Christ as the focal point of your Christmas this year and throughout the new year. As always, I appreciate all who follow along with this blog. It's hard to believe I've had this going for about six years! I plan to still keep it going in 2015 so please check in every couple of months or so for updates on our family and pictures of our growing boys.
Speaking of our growing boys, Chase concluded this year with a certificate for making the A-B Honor Roll and a perfect attendance award at school. We're so proud of him! All of the students at Faith Outreach Education Center put on an adorable Christmas presentation on the 18th and wrapped up the year with classroom parties on the 19th. Chase still enjoys playing his drums during his spare time at home; we hope to set up lessons for our little drummer boy in the new year with an older boy from his school who is willing to teach him. Aside from drumming, Chase likes to play with his LeapPad, play with friends, and ride his bike. He's asking Santa for a new, bigger bike for Christmas. He recently got to enjoy a sleepover with his cousins at Aunt Laurie's house. He continues to love being with family and we wouldn't trade his gentile, outgoing, loving spirit for anything!
On the other hand, Gabriel is the more rambunctious one of the two boys. His facial expressions are very animated and hilarious at times. He is speaking a few more words since my last posting. We're still a long way from fluent speech, but I rejoice in the small victories with him as I know he has a more stubborn personality than Chase did at this age. I had to break down and trim his hair in November because the cooler, drier air was relaxing his curls too much and making it look like he had a mullet. The latest development is him climbing out of his crib; truthfully, I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did in his crib because he's been capable of climbing out for a long time. He's been fighting us on bed time the past few nights and climbing out of the crib to wake me up in the mornings. Beforehand, he'd always wait for me to come and get him in the mornings. I guess our little guy is growing up and ready for a big boy bed. He has been testing the waters of independence ever since the day he was born. Although he wants to do big boy things, he still has his baby tendencies: sucking his thumb and snuggling with me on the couch when he's tired, wanting to be picked up and toted around (not an easy feat since he's getting heavy) and carrying around his little blankets. Aside from the many temper tantrums, I'm trying to soak up these cute, little baby moments because they'll be over in a blink of an eye.
I took off from work yesterday and today since Chase was already out of school for the year and I had plenty of vacation hours to spare. In addition to my days off this week, I have all of next week off assuming I don't get called into work to resolve any emergent issues. I'm thankful for the extra time off to spend with family over the holidays. The boys and I spent the past few days watching Christmas movies and baking goodies to hand out to our neighbors. I'm trying to teach the boys to care for others and to do nice things. Small gestures like handing out cookies to our neighbors can go a long way as we never know what they may be going through since we normally only see them in passing.
Another small gesture of kindness for us was going to visit Tim's grandparents in Scottsville for his grandmother's 80th birthday on December 5th. That was the first time his grandparents had seen Gabriel in person so we were long overdue for a visit. Fortunately, the boys did wonderfully with so much travel crammed into one day. So many of us take for granted our health, which often deteriorates as we age; it was a blessing to get to visit Tim's grandparents as they can no longer make long trips to see us.
Tim is still working today and tomorrow morning, but he'll get a mini-vacation from 1:00 tomorrow afternoon through Sunday. We plan to kick his time off from work by attending the Christmas Eve service at church tomorrow afternoon followed by horderves at my grandmother's house. We're hosting Christmas Day with my family at our house and spending the 26th with Tim's family. We have several days of Christmas celebrations that await us. Moreover, we're looking forward to another year of spiritual growing as a family. Each new year is full of opportunities to grow stronger in Christ regardless of our circumstances--so let's take on the new year challenge to make 2015 the best one yet by staying in tune to God! Shana Tova ("Happy New Year" in Hebrew)!
Another small gesture of kindness for us was going to visit Tim's grandparents in Scottsville for his grandmother's 80th birthday on December 5th. That was the first time his grandparents had seen Gabriel in person so we were long overdue for a visit. Fortunately, the boys did wonderfully with so much travel crammed into one day. So many of us take for granted our health, which often deteriorates as we age; it was a blessing to get to visit Tim's grandparents as they can no longer make long trips to see us.
Tim is still working today and tomorrow morning, but he'll get a mini-vacation from 1:00 tomorrow afternoon through Sunday. We plan to kick his time off from work by attending the Christmas Eve service at church tomorrow afternoon followed by horderves at my grandmother's house. We're hosting Christmas Day with my family at our house and spending the 26th with Tim's family. We have several days of Christmas celebrations that await us. Moreover, we're looking forward to another year of spiritual growing as a family. Each new year is full of opportunities to grow stronger in Christ regardless of our circumstances--so let's take on the new year challenge to make 2015 the best one yet by staying in tune to God! Shana Tova ("Happy New Year" in Hebrew)!
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