Christmas

Avi Joy and Nehemiah recently started wearing each other clothes for dress up time. I never expected to see them come downstairs one morning both dressed in Avi Joy's princess panties. I laughed so hard it started the ball rolling. They went to Nehemiah's room to get his undies. What is funny to me here, well besides the obvious, is that N's are on backwards. (Oh and I love that they are holding hands- night and day different in temperament, but still like twins.)
Here is more dress-up. Seriously, this needs to be THE ONLY TIME he dresses like a girl, because he looks exactly like one. His sisters named him Hattie, geez!
We kicked off our December by doing our Advent Box. Here is our 25 day count down from this year. I tried to change it up a bit since last year. It is our most precious family tradition.
(The first word is what was inside the box, it was their clue for that night.)

December 1st. Tree: We got out the tree and decorated it.
2. Heart: Played hide and seek with cut out hearts, talked about Psalm 119, "I have hidden Your Word in my heart, so that I will not sin against you."
3. Band-aid: Read the story of the 10 lepers in Luke 17. We wrote with marker on our band-aids, "Jesus is my healer." And then wore them to bed.
4. Q-Tip: Read the story of Mary and Martha listening to Jesus and which was better. Then we cleaned out our ears so that we could listen to Him.
5. Popcorn kernel: Family movie night. We watched Elf and had popcorn. The movie was too adult. Although it is hilarious, we will not watch it again as a family.
6. Mend: I cut the letters m, e, n and d out of fabric. We read through Ecc 3 that there is a time for everything. A time to tear and a time to mend. We got out fabric and needles and sewed.
7. Prayer bracelets: Our church was doing Toys For Tots that week and each person in the church got a bracelet with a child's name. We put on the bracelets and prayed for each child.
8. Music note: We listed to Christmas music while we cleaned house.
9. Gingerbread house picture: We used candy to decorate a gingerbread house.
10. Jesus: We made birth announcements about Jesus' birth. I taught them out to make little feet using their hands and fingertips.
11. Snowflake: We traced circles, folded and made snowflakes. Then we hung them on the tree.
12. Empty: I said it was stolen by the Grinch. Then we watched the old Grinch who stole Christmas movie.
13. Gift tags: They made homemade gift tags with paper and glitter.
14. Little book: We made our own little books, about 5 pages in each book. They are about 3 inches by 4 inches or so. We decorated the front then wrote all the things we were thankful for from 2010. We then punched a hole and hung them on the tree.
15. Three: We pulled out the tree pictures of the children we support. One lives in Vietnam, one in Kenya and one in India. We talked about their Christmas and prayed for them to have forever families.
16. Lightbulb: We hopped in the car and went around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.
17. Net: I took an apple net/bag and we Read Luke 5 about becoming fishers of men.
18. Star: We got out the paints and black paper and painted our own nativity scenes.
19. Red nose: (It was a human nose in drawn in red marker, so they had to figure it out.) Then we watched the old Rudolph movie.
20. Sheep: Made from the end of a Q-Tip. We talked about we are the sheep and God is our shepherd. We then took a straw and blew the "sheep" into their pen.
21. World: Talked about being the light of the world. We turned off all the lights and had one small flashlight. We each took turns playing with it in the dark and that we are the light in the darkness.
22. Soap: We talked about having clean hands and a clean heart and what they meant to us. We then washed our hands with the soap.
23. Sugar Packet: Baked a birthday cake for Jesus
24. Present: Talked about the wise men and that they gave Jesus 3 gifts. Said they would be getting three gifts each from us tomorrow.
25. Cross: Read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Here is the top of our gingerbread house.
The Birth announcements. They were so cute.
The sheep into the brown paper bag "pen" was a total hit. My favorite from this year was the thankful books/ornaments. They were so personal and will be done each year. Miss Beautiful's was just precious. It said things like, "So thankful to be in a family" and "Thankful for a mom who treats me like a daughter and not a DHS kid".
We had the Torres family over for a tea party. I just love those two peanuts and really enjoy being with their mama. Love that we have the same parenting style, both were teachers and now stay at home. She is very creative too, her Wisp Clips business is booming!
The week before Christmas we headed to the Homan's house for our annual p.j. party. The kids made a cute snowman treat out of marshmallows and we made salt dough ornaments. They were so fun and EASY!
4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups water. Kneed dough. Roll out. Cut with cookie cutters. Poke a hole. Microwave for four minutes. Cool. Paint. Hang on tree!
We ended up using 30 of them as tags for our Christmas gifts. We loved giving them away as part of the present. (Big hit with the grandparents you know.)
On Christmas Eve Eve we were able to have some old friends over for breakfast. The Woods family moved to TX last year and we were able to catch up. Their 2 kiddos are the same ages as our younger two and they are also waiting for a referral any moment from Thailand. They have a heart for the country as they lived in Thailand for a couple years. It has been my honor to walk with them through this adoption journey. I just love this picture of her, so joyous and filled with love. We were pretending to be in Vietnam. She is also one creative woman! Her handcrafted jewelry, J Woods Jewelry, is incredible.
Then we had our favorite and loudest family over to spend the night! Whoo hoo for family sleep-overs! All the kids get to play till they drop and then the adults get to stay up late and talk! The Pierce family will be leaving soon to live in India for four years doing college ministry with Student Mobilization. I am so privileged to be friends with those with a heart for God's people overseas.
Now on to some of our favorite gifts. Adam got a set of pots and pans. I had forgotten he asked for this for Christmas from his parents. I think my look of shock and happiness is hysterical. "They are pots, Natasha." "Yes and I am reallly excited!" My favorite gifts were the earrings that Shannon got for me in India and the necklace Vanessa sent from Kenya. I can't help it- I like culture.
Avi Joy and her cousin Annabelle both got princess dresses and glitter shoes.
Several years ago, I was at my friend Dana's house and saw a cross on her daughters wall. It was hanging in the middle of the wall and had her daughter's name and a date on it. I asked what it was and she told me that was the day her daughter accepted Christ. I literally burst into tears and put that away in my mom file. This year I painted one for Miss Beautiful. If you look closely, you might be able to see her new name along with the special dates. hehe.
Nehemiah got a lion from our friends who live in Kenya. They sent us jewelry, headbands, a nativity scene and a lion for Christmas. Nehemiah quickly stuffed his into his dinosaur's mouth.
Avi Joy has been super into flamingo's lately. I ran across this one, but it needed a little sparkle. So I hot-glued silver and pink jewels to miss flamingo and now she sits beautifully in her room.
Nehemiah's gifts: Dinosaur, Car set and a baseball glove.
Avi Joy's gifts: Flamingo, princess dresses and a mini haircut chair w/ hairdresser stuff.
Beautiful: Cross, purse and an apron.
They also all got filled stockings (They liked the new band-aids and pez candy the best), Christmas Eve p.j.'s and were blessed with lots of gifts from family and friends!
I think the apron was my favorite gift to give this Christmas. I am just so in love with this apron. And she looks like a dollbaby cookin in the kitchen wearing it.
Onto Deep Thoughts by Jill Handy: Each time it says the word "faith" in the Amplified version of the bible, it follows by explaining it in the Hebrew and Greek. I have come to LOVE the expanded definition of faith: "The leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness." Amen.
The Perryman Family