25 Days of Christmas

It's been a while since you've heard from us.  We know you're all waiting with baited breath for a new post from Grab Your Greens!  {wink}  We'll be straight with you - it's just not a priority right now.  And that's okay!  We are busy enjoying our beautiful children.  Our oldest kids are in school, and that keeps us super busy, as ironic as that may seem to those of you without school age children.  And our littlest ones are still at home with us, but will all be starting Kindergarten August 2013.  As in, 8 months from now.  Let's not even get started on how weird that is!  (I'm thinking it will be a sob fest for me!)  They're still our "babies".  They seem so little.  I think we've lost perspective having a big kid, how tiny Kindergarteners are.  The clock is ticking and we're busy treasuring having our babies home with us. 

So, in the Spirit of Christmas, here's a little fun for today, inspired by a 25 Days of Blogging Challenge...

1.  Favorite Holiday Scent-  Definitely the smell of a real Christmas tree, although we do not have a real tree!  My favorite candle to burn at Christmas is my Fresh Balsam from Bath & Body Works.  Second favorite smell...cinnamon.

2.  Favorite Christmas Book-  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  For sure!  I have such special memories of reading this book as a child.  Borrow it from the library and read it to your kids!  My favorite Christmas book for kids is Mortimer's Christmas Manger!

3.  Favorite Christmas Movie-  It isn't Christmas if I don't watch Home Alone!  The original, not the 2nd or 3rd ones.  My other very, very close favorite is Miracle on 34th Street, the black & white version.  Elf and Charlie Brown Christmas are close runner-ups.  For the kids, my favorite is The Very First Noel.  It tells the story of Jesus' birth so simply and sweetly, with a few laughs, too.  The kids would say their favorite Christmas movie is Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas!  It started when our big girl was just 3 and she fell in love with it.  Now our two 4 year olds love it, too.  We own the DVD and it gets watched all.the.time.

4.  Favorite Christmas song-  Definitely Joy To The World!  Although I love, love Christmas music and it is playing all the time in our house and the car, starting the day after Thanksgiving!  My favorite contemporary version of Joy To The World,  is Chris Tomlin's Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy).  LOVE LOVE LOVE! 

Chris Tomlin singing with Watoto Children's Choir!  I have seen the Watoto Children's Choir perform at our church, and what beautiful children with sweet, sweet voices!  Our church partners with Watoto in Uganda and we recently filled and shipped over 3,000 Christmas Shoeboxes to Watoto, so every mother and child will have a Christmas box, with love from Hope!  CLICK HERE to view a little video of the fun we had as a church!

5.  Most Memorable Christmas-  It was Christmas 1996.  Hubs had just graduated from college at the U.S. Naval Academy in May and was at Nuclear Power School in Charleston SC in preparation for serving as a submarine officer.  I was a college senior in Virginia and we'd been dating long distance for over a year.  He invited me to his home for Christmas.  It obviously was serious.  His parents knew it was serious when they met me at his college graduation, because he'd never brought a girl around.  My parents about flipped a brick when I declared I'd be spending my first Christmas away from home, and would be gone for TWO whole weeks, in sunny Miami Florida nonetheless!  But, eventually they got over it, and it was such a fun Christmas!  He flew me down to Charleston, where we hopped in his beloved Corvette, and drove with the top off down to Miami.  Talk about fun times!  It was my first real taste of the Cuban culture and I fell in love!  I immediately felt like part of the family.  We drank mojitos, sangria, feasted Cuban style, and spent Christmas afternoon on the beach!  When our time in Miami was done, we headed west to the Gulf Coast side of Florida, and spent a few days on Sanibel Island.  We finished our detour in Orlando and spent New Year's Eve at the Magic Kingdom!  There is nothing quite like ringing in the new year at Disney World!!  I don't think he's been able to top that in the 17 years we've been together {smile}!

That's all I've got for today.  Enjoy your precious families and children.  Love and hug them.  A lot.  Eat good food.  Enjoy a sweet Christmas treat or two.  Move your body.  A lot.  And most of all, spend time in the stillness with your Creator, who offered us the greatest redemption plan ever, through His Son, our greatest Christmas gift.

Blessings for a sweet, restful Christmas-
Dawn