{ How Great is Our God }

My Christmas gift to you, dear one.

I promise your mind will be blown and your heart almost burst, in complete awe and worship of our amazing God as you listen to this message. Don't be surprised if you find the tears from falling from your eyes and your heart transformed by this incredible message of pure, overwhelming, unfathomable Love.

I wish I could give you each hugs for Christmas and show up on your doorstep with a smile and a basketful of goodies but instead I am going to pass along a gift that my Dad blessed us with this morning, one that has left me deeply touched...we'll call it a gift of encouragement.

{ Part 1 }


{ Part 2 }


{ Part 3 }


{ Part 4 }

To you and yours, with all my heart and love, merry, merry Christmas!

{ Highlights: of the Merry Sort }

{ Can I just say that watching the two of them, as David pulls Annabelle around town on our old radio flyer runner sled, out in the snow together has seriously got to be one of if not the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. }

{ showing off her oh so cute mouse cookie, at the Nutcracker }

{ pointing out the ornament Daddy bought for her last Christmas }



{ here is the view from our couch

in the evening glow of our Christmas tree,

where we've been known to sneak in a snuggle or two }

{ No Sew Wool Felt Mittens }

To make these felt mitten ornaments you will need:

- Scissors

- Hole punch

- Fade Away or Dissapearing Fabric Pen ( I just used a regular ink pen)

- Small piece of wool felt in color of choice

- Embelishments of choice

- Ribbon/embroidery floss/bakers twine, etc to string them with



Instructions:

(1.Trace your template onto a piece of cardboard.

(2. With your cardboard template trace out your wool mitten.

(3. Cut out mitten.

(4. Embellish with: Felt Stickers ( I found these Martha Stewart felt stickers at Walmart ) or rick rack hot glued or sewn along the wrist, or felt words from Creative Cafe centered and either hot-glued or sewn onto the mitten, buttons, etc.

(5. Punch hole on either the top or bottom of the mitten, which ever you prefer.

(6. String with ribbon, embroidery floss, bakers twine, etc.

Wha-la! Promise this is worlds fastest and easiest little ornament/something cute to tie on top of a present. Ever.

{ Sugar-Plum-Fairy-Delight }

nnabelle and I are giddy with anticipation of our festive outing tonight. Or splurge, as I have been known to call it. After hearing about it for weeks from me, David very generously ( and might I add sacrificially as this is about as far from his cup of tea, as it gets ) said to me, " let's do it" and then of course I squealed and hugged him and said " really ?" and then happily ran to book tickets to see The Nutcracker .
And they aren't even the cheap seats. It's our last big downtown Seattle hurrah, now that our house is for sale and we are hoping to soon be moving closer to our family and away from this area.
We girls are gladly making the most of our last Christmas to be in the majority in this family, with our sugar-plum fairy notions and love of twirling! It's one of those girlhood dreams of mine, to watch The Nutcracker, live and in person! And since acquiring a little girl all my own, the wish has only grown stronger. And to hear her talk about it with such excitment, just makes my heart swell with happiness. Cutely enough, she usually calls it " The Firecracker."
So we are dressing up and going out to enjoy an magical, cultured evening downtown, together...

Expecting enchantment.

{ beaming }

And that is an understatement.

Take a look at this:

And if you pay particular attention to the picture in the middle ( taken from the bottom up ;) and you'll see as our midwife told us with a little chuckle..." ...girls don't have these parts. "

And wow, is he ever cute?

I am seriously cuckoo-brained over you little boy of mine. More than I can say. Thrilled to know it is you, our very own longed for, dreamed of Jack Dawson. Tonight as I tucked your big sister into bed we sang a song to you...it goes like this:

Little boy, little boy, God made you so beautiful,
Little boy, little boy, we just wanted you to know....

Little Jack, little Jack, God made you so wonderful
Little Jack, little Jack, we just thought that you should know.

Today is...

Find-out-if-this-baby-is-Jack-or-not-Day!

• Counting down the hours till 6 o'clock.

• As David says, the outcome doesn't actually matter because either way we are already so very much in love with exactly and whoever this tiny one of ours is.

• It's more a matter of satisfying my wild curiosity
• And seeing whether not David's hunch and ( along with some of the rest of you ) or Annabelle's hunch is more than a hunch.

But for little just a little while longer we'll savor the not knowing...

{ Apology }

Dear Little Blog,
I do apologize for how badly I have neglected you. All is well in our little corner of the world, I just can't seem to find the time to sit down and confide all the sweet little goings on in our life that I would like to and that does make me a little bit sad. And I was on such a roll last December. I promise to try and do a little better. Hopefully.
Yours Truly,
A Most Apologetic Blog Owner