Snowflakes

Last night was the first Christmas party of the season at church.  Our Adult One Sunday School classes and children had their class party together.  Actually some of the youth worked with the children.  They had pizza and did Christmas crafts.  One of our sweet youth girls (they are all sweet by the way) kept JennaBeth for me and fed her supper and took really good care of her.  Thank you Grace!

The adults met together in the fellowship hall and enjoyed a nice meal together.  Each year these classes do an ornament exchange that is really fun.  You bring and ornament wrapped.  Each person or couple who brought an ornament picks a number and that determines the order you pick from the wrapped gifts on the table.  

Here is the fun part:  After the first three people have unwrapped ornaments, the rest get to unwrap an ornament going in order of the drawn numbers, but get to decide if they want to keep or steal...exchange...their ornament with someone else!  After a particular ornament has been stolen...exchanged...three times it is considered "dead" and can't be exchanged again.

There were so many pretty ornaments!  One of the first to be opened was this pair of silver jingle bell snowflakes.  I wanted them immediately!  So in the spirit of the game I set out to obtain those snowflakes, patiently waiting to be the third person to take them so I would be able to keep them.  

Yeah...I coveted big time!!

Well, these snowflakes were pretty popular and were exchanged right away!  Before I could get my hands on them they were "dead".

Now I have to digress for a minute and let you know that I had not had a very good day!  As my sinful heart does more times than I care to confess, it had wandered away from trusting in God and had resorted to worry and anxiety.  All after my great big ole commitment to "do less and enjoy more" (see yesterday's post).

I failed the test big time!!

Now back to the snowflake ornaments.  After all was said and done I ended up with the ornament I had bought to the party, which I was totally okay with.  It was a cute nine piece nativity set that I had gotten at Target.  I planned to take it home and hang this cute little set on Bentley's little tree in his room.

As we were beginning to clean up and get ready to go home, the young man who had ended up with the silver snowflake ornaments came up to me and asked me, "Do you want these? I told Aunt Mamie that I was going to give these to you, because I saw that you really liked them."  It was all I could do to keep from crying (like I am now typing this!)!!!

Crying not over some material thing like a Christmas ornament, but crying over how God chose to remind me of His love for me and His grace that covers me through the sweet kindness of one young man with the gift of two snowflake ornaments!

THANK YOU MATT !!!

Doing less and enjoying more,
Jennifer

Doing Less and Enjoying More

That's my theme for this Christmas season and maybe even for the new year of 2010.

Do Less and Enjoy More...

What would that mean for you?

My heart was already being lead in this direction by the Lord, but I didn't have a succinct way of saying it until I came across the challenge over at The Nester I've also never focused on Advent readings, but I am going to this year.  Our family usually has an Advent wreath, but I've never had daily Advent readings from scripture that I followed in my personal quiet time.  

If you are wondering about Advent, Noel Piper (wife of Pastor John Piper) has a really good explanation of the Advent season over at the Desiring God Blog. 
Here is the last few lines of her post:
"We Christians on this side of Jesus' birth are a God-blessed, happy people because we know God's plan. The ancient waiting is over. We have the greatest reason to celebrate."

So, along with The Nester, I dare you to do less and enjoy more this Christmas season!

Doing less and enjoying more,
Jennifer 

Gettin to Know You: Christmas Version

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both.  I wrap all the kid's gifts because it is more fun watching them unwrap.  Gifts for anybody else are usually in a gift bag.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial.  I would rather have a real tree, but they are so hard to keep from drying out so quickly.  Also, my husband's allergies would go hay wire with a real tree in the house.  I have a Harvest Spice Airwick air freshner plugged in the room where the tree is to give the "smell" of a real tree.

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.  I love Christmas decorations and like to enjoy them for as long as possible.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually everything is packed up and put away a few days after New Year's day except for the year it was the last weekend in January!

5. Do you like eggnog?  No!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Fashion Plate set:  The one where you switch out the plates and trace over them with colored pencils to make outfits.


7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. The first church Mike served in when we were first married, there was a couple there that gave us our nativity set for Christmas that year.  That was seventeen years ago!  It has survived 5 moves!


8. Hardest person to buy for?  My husband.


9. Easiest person to buy for? This year it would be our 4 year old.  Anything to do with cars, trucks and crashing the two makes him so happy!


10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Things for the house!


.11. Mail or email Christmas cards? I am so bad with the Christmas card thing.  I actually haven't done Christmas cards in years.  We will have a photo one this year!


12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love watching the old Rudolph and Frosty movies.  I also love watching ABC Family's 25 days of Christmas with the kids.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?  Usually after Thanksgiving.


14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.


15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pretzels dipped in the white almond bark candy and pecan pie.


16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Lots and lots of white lights!  Reminds me of snow!  When Bentley was two he called Christmas tree lights "moonlight"!

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night and Mary Did You Know?

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? In years past we have traveled.  This will be the first year we will be staying in Florida for Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Afraid I can not! 


20. Angel on the tree top or a star?  We have had an angel in the past, but now we don't have room on top of our seven foot tree.  This year we have a large star ornament with a nativity in the center of it.


21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning.


22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? It is really sad to see people put so much effort and energy into gifts and shopping and not as much into Christmas being Immanuel, God with Us!


23. What I most love about Christmas.  The lights and the music!  I enjoy the Christmas parties and having Cecily home from school for two weeks.  Also I enjoy having my kids coming into our bedroom on Christmas morning ready to open presents and watching the delight on their faces as they open their things.  This year the thing that has thrilled my heart is that Bentley remembers his Bible verse he learned last year:  "Every good and perfect gift comes from above."

Okay, let me know if you decide to do this so I can visit your blogs and read your answers.

If you don't have a blog, click on "comments" at the end of this post and leave me your answers there!


Doing less and enjoying more,
Jennifer

Thanksgiving Recap and Rant

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Our family helped serve Thanksgiving meals to a few families who came to our church on Thursday for lunch.  We didn't have the crowd we expected or planned for, but we are praying that the ones we did have a chance to interact with were blessed with not only a meal, but also with the love of some folks who love the Lord!  Thank you Sean and Leslie for having the vision for this kinds of outreach and for getting others motivated to help.  I was so proud of how our family at Northside were willing to serve!

That evening we were invited to spend some time with a family in our church.  We are blessed with folks who love on us during the holiday season when we are away from our own families!  The kids played Apples to Apples and had a great time!

On Friday, Mike and I left the house about 8:30 a.m. and did a little Christmas shopping for the kids.  Cecily did an awesome job of watching the little peeps for us while we were gone.  We are really proud of her and appreciate how she helps out with her little brother and sister!

Now for the rant...
As Mike and I were out on Friday we were amazed at the crowds!!  As I said we didn't leave the house until about 9 o'clock and every store we went in was so crowded, I mean with masses of people.  We were in Toys R Us at about 10:30 and the checkout line was backed all the way from the registers to the very back of the store!

As I was looking at something for JennaBeth, a lady asked me to help her look for something on a higher shelf.  She was a grandmother out shopping for her grandkids.  I asked her what time she got started shopping and she answered, "I've been hard at it since midnight."  Now, this conversation was taking place at 10:30 a.m., which meant this dear lady had been shopping for 10 1/2 hours!  As Mike and I went from place to place and I observed the crowds of people with buggy loads and notebooks with the day's plans in hand, something occurred to me...

How many of these people know Jesus?

And of those who do, do they put this much effort into living for Jesus?

How many, including myself, would be as diligent with their prayer lives to get up at 4:00 a.m. to pray and read God's word and to plan our day according to what the Lord revealed to us? 

Are we as serious and diligent about chasing after Jesus as we are about chasing after the items on our shopping lists?

Do we put as much effort into teaching our children about Jesus as we are about making sure everything we want to get them for Christmas has been gotten?

More stuff...

The rant is over now, but those are just some things that came to my mind.

On Saturday I asked Mike to get all the Christmas things down from the attic and he sweetly obliged!  The kids were ready to put up the tree.  We had so much fun decorating!  I'm not finished yet, but plan to finish up on Monday.

While we were decorating we listened to the Oak Ridge Boys Christmas cd we own.  This has become somewhat of a tradition.  Plus, there is something to be said about decorating your tree while listening to the Oaks singing the Hallelujah Chorus!

We stayed in our pj's and wore silly hats and had the best time!

I can't wait to see how long out seven foot tree survives with a 9 month old speed crawler in the house!

Yep, this should be an interesting Christmas ;)!!!!!

Counting it all Joy,

Jennifer

Give Thanks

Praying all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day with family and friends,
Jennifer

Nine Months

Warning:  The following post has a ridiculous amount of pictures and may cause the eyes to cross!  So, if you don't like pictures of babies and kids, you may want to go on to the next blog on your reading list!!


Surely that's a typo!  JennaBeth is nine months old already?  Where in the world have I been?  We've had several "firsts" with this sweet girl this weekend.  Top of the list is her first haircut!

When JennaBeth was born, one of the first things I noticed right after her delivery was the long hair down the back of her neck.  It was the sweetest thing!  Over the past nine months that long piece of hair has gotten thinner and thinner.  I really didn't want to cut her hair this early, but I knew I wanted a little of that long piece to keep, so we went ahead and let Ms Jessi give her her first haircut this past Saturday.

I don't think Mike really wanted it cut, but I was able to convince him about me wanting to keep it!  I don't know what it is about men and long hair!

We also got the long stringy bangs trimmed while we were there.

I'm not sure why this picture with Ms Jessi turned out so blurry.  I tried to fix it in Picnik, but there was only so much I could do to sharpen it.

Here are some pictures before the haircut:

Isn't that the cutest little sheriff you have ever seen?  And the sheriff is certainly in town!  JennaBeth has developed a little personality the past few weeks with her new found crawling independence!  She is so fast now.  The big question you will hear the most in our home now is this:  "WHERE IS JENNABETH!?!?!?!?!?!?"

She has also gotten really good at sitting up on her own!

JennaBeth has 5 teeth now, with a sixth one on the way...

Another thing that had to happen this weekend was the great crib let down;however, as you will see in this next picture, I'm afraid daddy is gonna have to take it a little lower, because now someone stands up in her crib on her knees!

JennaBeth loves her big brother and he loves her.  Bentley calls her "cutie Beth" and "Jenny".  If you have ever seen the movie Forrest Gump and remember how Forrest said "Jenny", that's how Bentley says it.

Baby girl has long since out grown the bouncy seat, but I can't bring myself to part with it!  I really guess it is time to though!

JennaBeth, Bentley, and I went "window shopping" at Target yesterday.  Bentley is working on his Christmas wish list, which grows longer and longer by the second.  He loves going to the "big red ball store".

I think Bentley and JennaBeth (I know I am) will be glad to have big sister Cecily home with them the rest of this week!  She has Wednesday thru Friday off for Thanksgiving.

The McIlwains pray you all have a blessed Thanksgiving this year!

Counting it all Joy,

Jennifer

The Blind Side

I can not wait to go see "The Blind Side"!  I have heard so many good things about it.  My husband and I had a date night several weeks ago and saw the trailer to this movie and I knew then I wanted to see it!

Mike gets "World" magazine and Michael Oher is on the cover of the November 21st issue.  In the article is this quote from Sandra Bullock (she plays Oher's adoptive mother, Leigh Anne):

"One of my biggest issues has always been people who use their faith and their religion as a banner but don't do the right things, yet still go, 'I'm a good Christian and I go to church and this is the way you should live your life.'  And I'm like, you know, do not give me a lexture about how to live my life when you go to church every week but I know you are still sneaking around on your wife.  And I told Leigh Anne in a live interview, one of my largest concerns getting involved with this project was that whole banner-waving thing because it scares me, and I've had experiences that haven't been great with people like that.  I don't buy a lot of people who use that banner as their shield.  But she was so open and honest and forthright with me I thought, wow, I've finally met someone who practices but doesn't preach.  I finally met people who walk the walk."

Very good food for thought!

What do you think about what Ms Bullock said?

Counting it all Joy,

Jennifer