DPP // Day 20

{i got spirit}

played in the staff vs student bball game today

DPP // Day 18 and 19

{the end : read}

A little Jan Brett (Scandanavian artwork that will make you want to jump into the beautiful winter scenes) read by the eldest before bed.

{the end : eat}

lettuce wraps at the end of a long day. party for 80, done. 2 days until the break!

DPP // Day 16 & 17

{mama's turn}

cookies and goodies coming out of my ears...

{package arrival}

my sister sent "hot chocolate and s'mores night in a box"!

DPP // Day 12-15 Ah!!

The past couple days my evening time to update the blog has been waylaid by VPN issues. 

And I won't say I didn't forget to take a picture one day.

Day 12

{my brood}

outtakes from my photo session with the kids. This one had a few issues but I do love the faces.

{pistachio prep}

much much chopping and baking going on for an 80+ guest party next week

{nativity}

watching my baby snatch at this scene all day long, and thinking about how God humbled himself to become like this little child, so that we could be with him someday in all his glory. 

The tragedies I read about online, the children murdered in Connecticut, and the children terrorized by a knife attack in China, are echoes in a way of the senseless tragedy many centuries ago that also lay a dark, evil cloud over the birth of the Savior- the slaughter of the babies in Bethlehem. 

...Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.

We weep and refuse to be comforted.

It is only the LORD who can and will turn our mourning into joy.

We wait for Him.

DPP // Day 10... and 11

{a dozen here and a dozen there}

{evening}

{juzi season is here!}

{menu planning}

DPP // Day 9

{shmoggy shmoochin}

{made me laugh}

*took some pictures in the park today for a Christmas card that will hopefully, just maybe, get in the mail this year.

DPP // Day 8

{wrapped in light}

*When you are a kid and you are a kid who goes to church, you hear the Christmas story A LOT. Inevitably, you hear how most good Jews knew there was a Messiah coming and knew a lot of the prophecies concerning him. But then the virgin conceived, and a baby was born in a cow stall, and he grew up in Nazareth, and was the son of a carpenter. This threw everyone off. Way off. 

I have heard about how it was all so "unexpected" and not how anyone had envisioned it, and it caused a lot of people to doubt, or at least struggle to believe that this was the plan and this was the man.

This year, it has occurred to me that I woud probably be lined up with those doubters. So I am all the more intrigued and impressed by Mary's response, by Joseph's bravery, by Simeon's faith, by Anna's endurance, and all the little players throughout the whole of the story who looked at a crazy situation and didn't turn away but believed.