Have I mentioned lately how much these two slay me? So freaking precious.

I’d like to introduce you to someone. He is a very special addition to our family these days.

His name is Leonard.

You see, he’s a magic elf.

He has randomly visited our house over past few weeks, dropping off gifts and promises of what’s to come on Christmas morning.

While we’ve never seen him, as he prefers to visit during bedtime/naptime hours, we love him and speak of him fondly.

In fact, every time a certain man in a brown uniform comes to the door Bitzy asks if the boxes are from Leonard. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they are whisked away quickly to Gammy’s room (AKA: Santa’s workshop).

Talking about Leonard and Santa Claus is pure old fashion fun. Bitzy and Brother are still too young (in my humble opinion) for Elf on the Shelf, plus, I’m not so into the naughty/nice part of Santa. I prefer the anticipation of Christmas, the gifts, and the spirit of fun and giving. With all of our talk of Leonard and Santa we’ve been talking much more about how it’s Jesus’ birthday! We’re having Him a party full with balloons, a birthday cake and candles. We’re talking about how the wise men brought presents and that’s why we do too. I’m not sure how much they are actually soaking in, but seeing as how my Bitzy is such a little sponge these days, I’m hoping she’s getting it all.

Since our babies are so young we’re going to celebrate Christmas morning tomorrow, so tonight is our Christmas Eve. I have Jesus’ birthday cake baked, as well as cookies for Santa. We picked out a big round onion for Rudolph to eat too!  All the presents are wrapped and (I think) we’re ready!

So tonight when daddy gets home we’ll decorate the cake, cookies and party it up for baby Jesus. After it’s all done we’ll get cuddled, read the Christmas story of how Jesus was born in a manager and then read The Night Before Christmas.

While all of this has been a lot of work, I’m so overwhelmed and grateful for the opportunity to begin creating traditions and memories for our little family. In fact, today as I was mopping I thought, “We are creating memories for our children that they will always remember and cherish. We are the memory makers.” Tears stung my eyes at this opportunity and responsibility.

More than Leonard or parties or cookies, I want our babies to remember being loved and wanted and wrapped in our arms as we treasured the gift of the baby Jesus.

On this Christmas Eve Eve, may you snuggle close with you family and friends and soak it all up, every single bit of it. Because friends, this life, this beautiful, wonderful, mysterious, fun life is indeed a gift.

I love Christmas.

Like, a lot a lot.

Before I had babies, I really liked it. But, now? Oh, it’s just magical.

In the next few days, I’ll detail more about our Christmas adventures, including random visits from Leonard the Elf, our visit with Santa, and how we are trying to share the magic of Santa with the truth and beauty of Christ coming to Earth as a baby boy.

But for now, here is our Christmas house!!!! To say that I love it is an understatement.

I think it’s the twinkle lights…they get me every time.

Well, and this little reindeer. He’s a dreamboat.

Our Christmas dining room where we will host a family Christmas Eve breakfast.

“The Magic Stairs” as we call them these days.

Ah, the mantle. All my life I’ve dreamed of decorating a mantle for Christmas, and now I can. Have I mentioned how much I love our house, mantle and all? LOVE IT.

Tiny details like this throughout the house.

And our 9.5 foot tree…TA DA.

Bitzy and I sitting on the fireplace just snuggling. My babies are the best Christmas present ever.

And as Bitzy says about 100 times per days, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!” Ha!

As I sit at my Mama’s house examining the overflow of stockings on the fireplace and searching for a place to sit in the sea of my siblings, toys, my squealing baby girl, and friends, I am overwhelmed at the tangible blessings in front of my eyes.

Family.

Life.

Health.

Love.

But mostly I am thankful for a tiny baby King named Jesus.  The One who brings us all together in His name, the One who calls us to remember how He came from His heavenly throne in heaven to experience life just as we do.

He didn’t have to ya know? It wasn’t on His bucket list or anything. When you’re the Son of God, things like crazy adventures, road trips and long walks down the beach aren’t quite as magical when you experience them as a human rather than as Creator. It’s not like leaving a perfect paradise of heaven for a sinful and selfish earthly home would be pleasant.

But still, He came.

He came as a tiny baby in a manager to a mommy that wasn’t old enough to have a drivers license, much less be a mother.

There wasn’t a parade welcoming the King of the universe into the world.

No trumpets.

No carriages.

No flags.

Nope. None of that.

Just a teenager and her fiancee meeting their Creator wrapped in swaddling clothes.

I wonder if as Mary held her newborn son that she considered how His birth would be the timetable in which all of history is set? Or if she realized that although He came to earth in such humility that He would come back in such a glorious fashion that every single knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord?

Did she know that the tiny baby that was pressed against her chest would eventually be pierced for her own sins?

Did she know how her heart would break?

Could she imagine how much one person could bring such joy, but such heartache?

I hope not.

I hope that as Mary caressed the cheek of her son, that she memorized the lines on His face. That she ran her young finger up and down His tiny legs and arms and tickled His baby feet. That she rocked Him and whispered how much she loved Him.

That she breathed Him in and lived in that very moment. Not the past or the future, just the present.

So in honor of Mary and her sweet baby King Jesus, I will do the same.

I will not worry about yesterday or tomorrow, I will sit and look around at the faces of my family and breathe them in and memorize them. I will soak in the pleasure of my sweet baby girl’s Christmas joy that has absolutely nothing to do with presents or Santa. I will bask in the glow of Christmas lights that shine in my soul mates eyes, and then…

I will thank Jesus for coming. For His gift of love and the incomparable delight of being His daughter.

Have a Merry Christmas!

I have not forsaken you my dear readers. Promise.

I’ve got a healthy mix of exhaustion, writers block and being a busy bee.

I’ve got 11, yes 11, half written drafts sitting in my blog queue. So, you’ve got lots-o-fun coming your way.

But for now, I have a few tidbits for you…

Some of you will receive one of this priceless works of art in your mailbox!!! Yay!

Get ready for my sweethearts.

In other news, my Bitzy slept for an hour and forty-five minutes today in her crib for her first nap!!!! I couldn’t believe it!!! So, then during the time of her second nap she walked around, whined, played and hung over the side of the crib for a solid hour. It’s like her body doesn’t know how to deal with a really good nap. So after her skipping her second nap she’ll be ready for bed at 5:00pm. It should be interesting around here this afternoon trying to stretch it out to at least 6:00pm.

Also, in case you were wondering, all maternity clothes are terrible and it’s starting to make me really annoyed. Just because I’m preggers doesn’t mean that I’m blind! I can see the terrible clothes on the racks! So the other night I was having a melt down about ugly maternity clothes and Zach says, “You should be a clothes designer!  Maybe that’s your calling!” To this I had visions of being the next Calvin Kline and then I remembered that I can’t sew or draw, so I suppose being a designer is out of the question.

Also? If you’re obsessed with spinal cord injuries and pregnancy, search no further, there’s a show on TLC called “Paralyzed and Pregnant with Twins.” It’s a Christmas miracle.

And finally, if you’re wondering if it’s possible to eat an entire pan of Rice Krispy Treats in one sitting, let me clear it up for you, YES! It’s quite easy actually.

I am such a sucker for all of the online photo/cards/picture book websites…but my favorite? My most, most, most favorite is Shutterfly. Their stuff just seems like better quality to me, and for a penny pitcher like myself, getting quality items on the cheap is how I roll.

Recently I put together a “yearbook” of sorts for my Mother-in-law of my Bitzy.  Wanna see? Click here. I mean, I know I’m biased, but seriously? Could she be any cuter? I think not.

So, now that it’s December 1st, the question of Christmas cards is plaguing me. Should we? Shouldn’t we? Should we? Shouldn’t we? To the rescue is Shutterfly with tons of cute options that won’t break the already cracked bank this Christmas!

I’m really digging several designs, but forever and always I’m drawn to the 4×8 flat photo cards. Why? I dunno. It’s just my way. Simple and clean.

Here are my favs:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

Or, if I wanna get really crazy, maybe I’ll go with the 5×7 flat photo card!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

Shut the front door on the cuteness people. You can’t tell me that Bitzy’s beautiful eyes lighting up your mailbox wouldn’t send you straight to the world wide web to order some Christmas cards. I can see you running now.

That said, I’m going to order mine now. Way to go Shutterfly! Another home run.

And just in case, you need a picture of my sweetheart to live another minute, here she is with her two favorite cousins, McKinnon and Allie.

Love to all,

Like my little stories? I would really appreciate it if you’d vote for me here and here.

You can vote once per day.

My girl has always been a great traveler.

When she was only a few weeks old she would cry and wail until we went for a ride in the car.  One week we put nearly 300 miles on the car while driving around in the middle of the night.

Poor baby.

Sometimes she would fall asleep on our way to the car.  We’re not sure if it’s the car seat or the car that she loved so much, but after endless hours of her screaming, going for a ride at 4am sounded like a great idea.

Turns out that colic/reflux can be solved if you drive around 24 hours a day.

Too bad that you’re so exhausted that driving probably isn’t the safest idea.

Anyway, so now that she’s a bit bigger, she has decided that the car isn’t all that great.  So she whines and cries.  She has developed more range in her crying (I think we’ve got a singer).  Now rather than the all out screams, her cries can go one of two ways, deep and guttural or high pitched and piercing.

Sounds lovely right?

So, since she was born in late October, her colic really hit a high point around Christmas. I would walk the floor and sing.  I sang every song from Jesus Loves Me to Rocky Top to At Last.

I was a regular music box.

I would sing and she would cry.  Sometimes her cries sounds like singing (in a weird operatic way) and I would cry.

It was a great system.

Finally, on one particularly rough night, I sang Christmas carols.

Let me also note that while I have sung my entire life, I do not know all of the words to any song, especially tunes of the Christmas sort.

I mess up the words to literally every.single.song.

Including one particularly embarrassing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at a football game. It’s a terrible memory.

So when I sing to my girl, I just make ‘em up.  Obviously she couldn’t care less as she was screaming too loud to hear me anyhow.

So anyway, back to the story…so I as was butchering every Christmas carol known to man I begin singing, “Ho, Ho the mistletoe, hung where you can see, I don’t know the words, but please stop crying for me.”

And she did.

The child stopped crying.  She fell silent and looked at me, like, “Duh lady, I’ve been waiting to hear that song, now I can sleep.”

Really, my darling girl?  Ho, Ho the mistletoe does it for ya?

Whatever works.

My Christmas Miracle.

Since that day I have sung the that line over and over again approximately 5 trillion times.  Who needs Rock a Bye Baby?

After singing the song endlessly for a few weeks Zach finally put his foot down.  ”If you insist on singing the same line of that song over and over can you please learn the words?”

“No way! I’ll never remember them anyway.”

Then, he looked at me with his big blue piercing eyes and said, “I cannot handle you singing that song one more time without knowing the words.  My sanity rests in your hands.”

What could I do?  I said, “OK.”

Then we proceeded to singing the line of the song over and over again until I memorized it.

It was a Christmas miracle that I memorized the words to one line of one song.

Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Now, as I sing that line at least 10 times every day (and more if she’s particularly fussy), it makes me smile.  Of all the songs in all the world, that’s our song.

At least she didn’t pick “Let’s Talk About Sex Baby” or “Killing Me Softly.”

As far as I’m concerned the Mistletoe song is a victory and the fact that I am able to memorize one tiny line is a even a greater one.