I love this time each year. It's especially fun now that we have two babies! Elliana is very into all the pretty lights and singing Christmas decorations. When she sees a manger scene she says, "esus!" It's too cute. I aim to teach her at a very early age what Christmas is truly about. I want her to know first and foremost that it's about Jesus and his birth and there would be no Christmas without the gift of Jesus. Sure I want her to enjoy the Santa thrill (until some jerk kid at school ruins it for her when she starts school ;) ) and presents are always nice too, but I want her and Kade to both know why Christmas is Christmas. Kade of course doesn't know that anything special is happening this month, but Elliana is fun to watch already. I can not wait until Christmas morning to see her reaction to her new things, and just to see her in all the family traditions and the excitment that goes with it.
Speaking of traditions I want to carry on a tradition from when I was growing up. Our family used to always gather around in the living room the night before Christmas and read the Christmas story from the Bible by candle light. Seems like a different kid read it each year. It was really neat to take a few minutes each year and hear, once again, the wonderful story of Jesus's birth. I hope Elliana and Kade will one day look forward to it as much as I did. I'm thinking about maybe baking a birthday cake for Jesus with the kids too. Maybe we could do that instead of making cookies for Santa. I think it would be another way to ensure that they remember the true meaning of Christmas ( and we can always tell them Santa can have a bite of the cake instead of cookies, haha). I also think doing a family trip to Rock City or Ruby Falls each December would be a fun tradition. We are actually going to Rock City tomorrow and I think Elliana will love it. I didn't realize that Ruby Falls had a Christmas thing as well until I saw a billboard the other day. Anyhow, maybe we'll switch out from year to year and do both.
In other news, Kade is trying to recover from a virus. I took him to the doctor yesterday because he just hadn't been himself since Monday. He was a lot more fussy than normal and had a low grade temp. too. I was afraid he might have an ear infection, but his ears were clear. They did bloodwork to make sure nothing major was up, but that came back normal and they said it was likely just a virus making him feel yucky. Bless his heart. I hate to see either of my babies sick, but it's especially pitiful when they are so young. He does seem to be on the mend today though, so that's great.
Elliana is amazing me with her learning here lately. It seems like she picks up so many new things everyday! She's saying all kinds of words now and even saying short sentences such as, "mere" for come here and "there it is!". :) It's amazing how she'll watch someone do something just once and then she copies them perfectly. She has her 18 month check up on the 27th and that's when we are going to start good old potty training! Oh boy oh boy, I can't wait. ;) I hope she does well with that and learns quickly. It was be WONDERFUL to have her out of diapers. Two in diapers is no fun at all.
Bryson has been getting to work more and more 4/10's here lately and I love it. Today is his Friday and we'll get him for a 3 day weekend this week, yea! He has a really good boss with this job. She is really down to earth and understands that family comes before work and doesn't give Bryson any grief about needing time off here and there for family things. I'm very thankful for that. Some people are just way too into work and put it before anything else. Coming from a family where my dad had to work 16 hour sifts and travel out of town often, I know just how important it is to put family first. My dad had 7 kids to support and working over time was pretty much mandatory for him. It just sucked not having him there often. He really missed a lot while we were growing up.
Well I have a little girl who is past due for a nap and it's really showing at the moment. I better get her to bed pronto!
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