Christmas hymns

I just love the Christmas hymns that we sing in church during the Christmas season!  We sang some yesterday at church, and we'll be singing them every Sunday through Christmas.  There have not been too many other Christmas songs written since the hymns that truly reflect the real meaning of this season of  Christ's birth.  The writers of the days of old had such passion and conviction to share the message of Christ and the cross to the whole world.  And you can hear it in the lyrics they wrote, and the wonderful music that accompanies it.  In my opinion, there are just not many "new" songs out there that even come close to those wonderful hymns of Christmas.  Here is a neat site where you can find the song sheet and lyrics to all the Christmas hymns.  I hope you enjoy them this Christmas season as much as I do!  Time to turn on some Christmas music here in the house!

http://christmassongbook.net/

Vintage Fisher Price farm set

This is the exact same farm set that I had when I was little.  My mom found it and bought it for Ronnie for Christmas.  And he loves to play with it!  I think I am enjoying playing with it just as much as he is!  Some of the vintage toys are just better than the new ones.  They don't make them as "realistic" looking as they used to.

Ronnie has something to say...

This is what Papa and Nana saw when they arrived yesterday.  (read Ronnie's shirt)

Having nice neighbors is a blessing!

Even though Ron and I are not big fans of living in a subdivision, I do have to admit that it has been an absolute blessing to have some really nice neighbors! In my 17 months as a stay-at-home mom, I have had to call on my neighbors several times. My neighbor Rachel is a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. She lives just two houses down. My neighbor Casey is a nurse who works part time and has a little guy Blaise who is the same age as Ronnie. She lives behind us and over one house. Both of these ladies have been a godsend to me when I have needed something. And today was one of those days.

Ronnie had a 3 hour nap today, so by the time he woke up, there wasn't enough time for me to run to the store to get some salsa and sour cream for our fajitas I was fixing for dinner. I sent a text message to Casey to see if she had some at home. She replied back that she was at Walmart and she could pick some up for me. What perfect timing!!!!! When she got here to drop off the salsa and sour cream, I told her I would write her a check, but she didn't want me to pay her for it. What a sweetheart! I plan to return the favor someday, even though she did not want me to pay her. Thank the Lord for friendly neighbors who go out of their way to help! I hope they see me as that kind of neighbor to them, I always want to be able to help someone when they need it.

How to truly celebrate Christmas

A day of organizing and simplifying

Wow!!  This is the end result of our hard work today.  My neighbor Rachel came over and helped me get the attic in order.  I posted a photo of it a couple months ago on this blog (sorry, I don't know how to put a link to it here, I am not very sophisticated about all the blogging tricks!)  If you scroll down to my blog archive, and click on September, you will find the post there.  And you will see the huge improvement!  (I don't have the "before" photo on this computer)  All I can say is it is such a breath of fresh air to know that my attic looks so much better now!  I can rest easier knowing that I don't have a huge mess up there that you can barely walk through.

A bunch of stuff was thrown out in the trash, and a bunch of stuff is going to Goodwill.  And almost everything else has a "home" in the attic where I can find it very easy.  I have a few things to organize yet, but that is a cake walk compared to all we did today.  A HUGE thank you to Rachel for your help today, I honestly could not have done it without you!!  I appreciate it more than you know!

Boys in the hood!

Or, I should say, boys with hoods on!  SO cute!