You Are a Living House

Our friend, Kari, presented the most fabulous FHE tonight!

First, she shared a quote by C.S. Lewis and we discussed it. It went as follows:

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 174; book 4, chapter 9, paragraph 10]

Pretty awesome, huh? Following the discussion, to keep with the theme and the Christmas season, we had fun building gingerbread houses. It was great and we all enjoyed eating as we built.Kenzie and Sophie were proud of their creations.Keri built a castle complete with tower and drawbridge...But the castle could not take the blows of the neighboring kingdom and suffered extensive damage.Carter industriously built a white trash house...Complete with car on blocks sitting in the front yard.Neal added a forest view to his gingerbread house and attempted to strengthen the integrity of his structure by filling it with candy...but it failed to work.Kari's self-proclaimed punctilious nature certainly shown through...and took first place. It was the only house to hold it's form until she stepped outside to go to her car. :-( Oh well! We all had a great time and enjoyed the message and excellent sugar rush. Thanks Kari!

Warm Day

It was 70 degrees today and wonderful! So we played outside in the leave pile. Pure joy. Tonight will be 31 degrees!

Christmas Photo Shoot

This weekend we attended a Christmas breakfast at church. Food was good and the entertainment was good to questionable. We got to chat with a lot of friends and meet some new ones so it was a great way to spend Saturday morning. And besides, we got to hear our friend, Jamie, play her harp and it was lovely.

Sunday afternoon and evening we tried to get some pictures of the kids in Christmas attire. It is so hard to get a good picture with a energetic, stubborn two-year-old and a teething, overtired infant but we did the best we could given the circumstances.We also finished delivering our home baked goods to those we visit and home teach. The word is out that Neal makes a mean snickerdoodle and Keri makes a wonderfully delicate lemon poppy seed shortbread. Love that butter!In other news, I found Sophie in her room like this. She gets tucked in at nap time but frequently has a hard time staying there. It is not unusual to see things in this sort of sorry state when sleep finally takes over. Notice it is the dead of winter but she has managed to get one sandal on? And yes, it's on the wrong foot.

The Anderson's Annual Ornament Exchange

Each Christmas Keri really looks forward to this laid back and fun evening with the ladies. This year we were able to open the package and see the ornament as we picked them and there was a lot more "stealing" during the game. Keri was happy to have stolen a silver snowflake ornament with red and clear beads and still be able to keep it in the end.

The night was even more wonderful because Carly shared her peanut butter fudge and Kari shared her chocolate covered peanut butter balls. Yum!

Holiday Cheer

Christmas Elf Sugar Plum Fairy

Loving

Baking

Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him

On Saturday we attended The Christmas Nativity Exhibit hosted by our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is an annual event. It takes one week to set up and starts with just tables and tablecloths. Then members of 7 congregations donate hundreds of personal nativity sets, Christmas decorations, and time and transform the church gym into something beautiful and awe inspiring.

Musical numbers are played throughout the 2 day exhibit by individuals, churches, and other groups throughout our community. Keri assisted the Primary children (ages 3-11) in providing their musical numbers which included The Shepherd's Carol, Christmas Bells, and Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus. The last of which refers to the prophesy of the ancient American prophet, Samuel, regarding the coming of Christ (Heleman 13: 2-4, 14: 2-4, 3 Nephi 1:9-15) as revealed in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

There is no admission fee to the exhibit and it is a special setting to feel the Spirit. The Christmas Nativity Exhibit is a lovely way to begin the month and stay focused on what is important: the gift of our Heavenly Father of His Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ's gift of His atoning sacrifice.

It was fun to point out Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus, not to mention a few camels, to Sophie. We've been trying to teach her about Christ's birth and it seem to hit her when we said that Christmas was about Jesus being born and that we celebrate his birthday on Christmas. The key word there was "birthday" and it must have conjured up visions of birthday cake and candles in her mind. Anyway, it appears the light bulb went on and she gets that Christmas is about Jesus and that it's a special day.

We brought our Saturday to a close by dropping the kids off at our friends' house (thank you!) and going to a casual Christmas party where we ended up with an awesome white elephant gift--a framed cheesy portrait of another guest couple!

Christmas Tree Lighting

We attended the Christmas Tree Lighting at our city hall tonight. It was a chilly 28 degrees so we bundled up big time.
Sophie got a photo op with Frosty and Rudolph.
There were carolers and on stage dancing and singing, including cheerleaders. I thought it odd that our local minor league hockey team cheerleaders didn't feel the need to cover up in the cold. But let's face it, they perform on ice typically and Texas loves their cheerleaders.
There were all sorts of organizations from businesses to churches handing our free hot cocoa, cider, candy canes, popcorn, cookies, ornament crafts, and coloring books.
After over an hour of gaiety, our mayor counted us down and the tree was lit. Lights can do amazing things to a 35 foot green cone! We didn't stay for Santa's visit because the whole family was cold and done!
More photos from today (Love the first photo)...

Oh, I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See?

Well, it was snow. Our first snow day for the season. And our last day for gardening season apparently. Hello frost, goodbye veggies.

So Keri and the kids bummed around in their jammies for a good part of the morning and then Sophie's friend, Kenzie, came over for a play date. Well the snow stopped and melted away. And after running around like fairies and becoming bored with the toys, Keri decided to put on Frosty the Snowman at Kenzie's suggestion.

What better way to celebrate a snow day! Okay, sledding of course. But remember the snow had melted and we live in the Dallas area so good luck finding even a hill here.

After Kenzie departed, Keri introduced Sophie to glitter! Keri drew a snowman shape with glue and Sophie got to sprinkle and well, pour the glitter. Keri spent the next while wiping glitter off the table and floor, and brushing it off their clothes.

At snack time, Keri let Sophie splurge and make marshmallow snowmen with left over frosting for glue. She had a blast and to prove it, once she enjoyed her excellent sugar loaded snack, she ran around the kitchen island 73 times.

Previous Quote of the Blog

You can't plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind. --Gordon B. Hinckley

Rhys' 6 Month Well Check

Well, Rhys weighs in at 21 lbs., 2 oz., placing him in the 93rd percentile. His height was 28.5 inches, placing him in the 95th percentile. And last but not least, his head measured 18.5 inches, placing his noggin in the 99th percentile. Poor guy had one oral immunization and 3 sticks of a needle to get other immunizations, including his flu shot. The cool camo band aids didn't help ease the pain at all, unfortunately. He is a bit fussy today and enjoying some yummy Tylenol.In other news, we went on a winter walk today. The temperatures are nice and chilly and we are having sprinkles off and on. So since my kids like the outdoors and rain, I bundled them up and set off for a brief stroll.I love Sophie's fierce "cheese" smile!