Happy New Year

2011 may still be a few weeks away, but the new year has already begun. I'm only a little over a week late as we are now in the second week of Advent–the first season in the church calendar year.

With Eli being older this year and definitely into the stories of Christmas, we have decided that he is ready to start the preparation for the coming of Christ this Christmas...not just the coming of Santa. (Don't get me wrong, we are still making Christmas lists, ho-ho-ho-ing, and talking about being naughty and nice. A fave song this season has already become, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.) Hopefully we have started some new Advent traditions in our home this year that we can continue to years to come.

I managed to get my act together and get candles for our Advent wreath this year. Each night, with dinner, we light the candles and pray together about Jesus' coming.

Eli made an Advent chain that is hanging in his room that he is using to countdown to Christmas morning. He knows his colors of Advent very well now thanks to making the chain.

We are also doing a Jesse Tree without the tree or the ornaments. I know, I know....how can you have a tree without a tree? But we try to get into scripture each night before we sit down for dinner. Eli listens (asks about 437 questions) and colors while we read a Bible story about one of the ancestors of Jesus. He is very into it.

A friend shared a list of great books for Advent, and I went onto the library's handy dandy website and reserved the ones I could. Makes for an easy outing...swing into the parking lot, run in and grab the reserved books. Ta-da! Quality books without the hassle or searching the shelves or being bummed that they are at another library branch. Gotta love it. We have made our way through a few, and I hope to post about our faves another time this month.

Aaaand....We finally got our decorations out this weekend. I have been feeling a bit "Scrooge-like" this year. Not feeling the whole secular Christmas thing. Blame it on better things to think about (Did you know we had a baby last month??), too many other things to do and not a lot of time to do them (Did you know we had a baby last month?), not enough sleep (Did you know we had a baby last month?), or feeling too blessed to need or want any presents (Did you know we had a baby last month?). I'm also admitting to feeling a little Baby Blues and a bit down this month. When you are on the verge of tears it is hard to feel merry and bright. I am hoping that focusing on the birth of Jesus at our house instead of getting all uppity about Santa will help me remember why we celebrate and will help me want to celebrate.

Note the clumping or ornaments at the base of the tree as that is how far Eli could reach, and, yes, I did redistribute them after he went to bed.

Decorating with an almost 4 year old is fun, but challenging. He sees the ornaments as toys more than ever before. Feeling like a broken record telling him not to play with the ornaments and they've only been up for a couple of days! Aye-yi-yi! Patience, Mama!!!

Saturday night we ventured downtown for the Festival of Lights parade. Made me feel like a big, happy family. Lots of warm fuzzies. The parade was not impressive to us grown-ups, but Eli loved it.

Jude slept through every last bit of it. Sirens, bands, and all. Crazy kid, but a very content little kid. Love him!

In other fun and exciting news, Jude is nearing 4 weeks old and growing like a weed. Already up 2 pounds from birth (I'm estimating...) I tell him to "Stop it!" everyday. No more getting big. I just love the little-ness. They grow up too fast. Eli looks gi-normous next to Jude....and to think it wasn't that long ago that he was this tiny. I guess I'll just have to keep kissing all of Jude's itty bitty parts while I still can.

Still in "newborn land" filled with lots of nursing, cuddling, holding, rocking, sleeping, burping, spitting, changing, and so on and so forth. The big events for Jude this week are that his umbilical stump finally fell off (yay for belly buttons!! and again, like his big bro's, it is half innie and half outie....so far....), and he is beginning to smile. Still haven't captured a good sample of that elusive grin on camera just yet. They are still a bit sporadic, but intentional and super sweet just the same.

Happy Advent to you all! Hope you are finding time to celebrate Advent in your home this week. It is a joyful time of preparing our hearts for such a beautiful gift, our Savior.
_