Looking for Baby Jesus...

Last year at Christmas time we lost the Baby Jesus that went with our Advent calendar. We don't know at what point he went missing, but he wasn't there for Christmas morning. We searched throughout the entire house, as well as through the Christmas decorations once we cleaned everything up.

Once again this year as I pulled out the calendar I went through all the decoration boxes to see if I could find him, but to no avail he has not been found. Every couple days Brayden will say "Did we find Baby Jesus yet?" Last night Sarah said "Mom! I found Baby Jesus!" She was just joking. Not a funny joke. Why couldn't we have lost a sheep or an angel? We had to lose the main character of the Advent season?

We love our Advent calendar. My mom got it for Sarah when she was little, so it has become one of our favorite decorations. I hate to have to replace it, so I have begun a search for another Baby Jesus to fill that spot. I figured I would check craft stores, Target, any place that might have a Baby Jesus ornament or something like it.

I am putting out a request to any of you who would be willing to help us look for a Baby Jesus. If you happen to see something in your shopping that might be a good replacement let me know. The spot he needs to fit in is 2"x2".

We can use all the help we can get so that Baby Jesus can go in his manager on Christmas morning. His mother Mary and the Angels are all praying we do.

Following the Star...

Now that the Christmas season is upon us I wanted to share a Christmas devotional that I am doing this year called "Following the Star". Each day you walk through a short devotion that is focusing on this time of Advent leading up to Christmas and the birth of Jesus. If your looking for something to keep you focused everyday on the true meaning of Christmas check it out at
www.d365.org/followingthestar/

Pastor Jason...

Each week Jason prepares a message for Wednesday nights that he shares with the Jr. High Youth, but this past Sunday Jason had his third opportunity to preach the Sunday morning service at our church. I am super proud of him.

A Happy Thanksgiving...

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It started off bright and early on Thursday morning, when the four of us got ready and headed into New York City at 4:45 a.m. to meet up with my sister Michelle, brother-in-law Mitch and nieces Grace and Claire from Florida to go with them to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We were in our spot to view the parade at 6:00 a.m. and then the waiting began for 3-1/2 hours. Thankfully it was not bitterly cold. We were all bundled up, the adrenaline was flowing and a little hot Starbucks to keep us warm. The parade got to us around 9:30 and we enjoyed all the bands, balloons and floats. Brayden's favorite was Spiderman. Sarah's favorite was everything. Jason's favorite was Santa, because that meant the parade was at an end. LOL! My favorite part was watching Brayden's face when he saw a balloon or character on a float he knew.

After the parade we headed to eat at Virgil's Barbecue for our Thanksgiving dinner. We were more tired than hungry, so we brought home a few doggie bags. Jason said it was the first time on Thanksgiving he didn't feel stuffed.

After lunch we headed back to our house in Jersey and enjoyed hanging out with the Hutchcrafts for the next 48 hours before they headed back to Florida on Saturday afternoon. The cousins loved being together, playing in the leaves, swimming, going to see the Muppet movie (super cute if you like the Muppets).  We are thankful for the times we share with them.

Brayden and his homework

Brayden has been working on a lot of his "homework" lately. Not really sure who assigns him the homework, but he enjoys doing it. Let's hope that continues once school starts in a couple years. Anyway this night he was writing papers to his friends. He is so cute, had to capture his interesting storytelling on camera.

Amazing Game...

If there was a game to fly to Denver for it was this one. The entire game was great, but the last couple minutes were incredible with Tim Tebow scoring a touchdown in the last minute. The final score was Broncos 17 and Jets 13.

Broncos or Jets???

Jason had an incredible opportunity to go to Denver today with his Dad and brother to be at the Broncos vs Jets football game tonight at Sport Authority Field at Mile High. We have a gentleman in our church who works for the Jets and was able to get them tickets. The guys left the house this morning at 8:00 a.m. and will be home tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. A 36 hour trip in total, quite a whirlwind. The question is who do we cheer for? The James family is from Colorado so they are long time Broncos fans, but having been here in New Jersey for over 25 years, as well as having a few Jets players/staff at our church they are partial to the Jets. Jason made a choice and will be wearing his Tebow jersey tonight. My father-in-law said he was wearing his Bronco jersey, but his Jets hat. Seems a little risky to me, but we will see what he ends up doing. From our living room we will be cheering for both - "Tebow! Tebow!" and "J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!" Excited for the guys, glad they can share in the fun together.

Love for reading...

Sarah loves to read. She just finished "Little Women" a 777 page book. Quite an accomplishment I think! This is the biggest book that she has read so far. It took her a couple of weeks to finish it. She wasn't to sure about reading it at first, but her teacher is encouraging her to read more challenging books. I recommended this one and she ended up liking it. After reading this one she said she wanted to take a break and read a "fun" book so she started the Emily Windsnap series and read 2 out of the 4 books in 2 days. She is addicted to reading.

JBQ Weekend

I am feeling a little better today. I laid low all weekend at home and have been getting a little better each day. I should be back to myself by the end of the week.

Sarah had her first Junior Bible Quiz meet of the 2011-2012 season this past Saturday. This is her 5th year doing JBQ. She did a great job and came in 7th place out of approximately 40 kids. She is doing 20 point questions this year. JBQ consists of all different questions from the bible that kids learn and memorize. There are 10, 20 and 30 point questions. We are super proud of her. Her next meet is January 7th.

That time of year...

With so many changes in our weather I think my body is not sure what it should be doing. I started with a sore throat last weekend and it has gradually worked its way into a cold despite my efforts to fight it off. Yesterday afternoon is when I started to feel the worst. I have laid low today and plan to tomorrow as well unless I am feeling better in the morning. Kleenex, vitamin C and decongestant have been my friends although I will be glad to trade them in for energy and a chance to breath through my nose again. I am DECLARING that this will be my one and only cold for the fall/winter season! Let's hope my body listens. The kids both have sniffles, so hoping for them it doesn't turn into anything more.

Hearts full of thanks...

I know I have been keeping you in suspense with the outcome of our nor'easter this past weekend. Well, we SURVIVED. It snowed pretty heavy through Saturday night and by the time we got up Sunday morning the sun was shining bright. As we drove to church it was amazing to see all the trees and their limbs weighed down by the heavy snow. Lots of tree limbs were down everywhere, even in our yard. The picture below is what our yard looked like yesterday. You can see most of the snow has melted. Today it was in the high 50's and should be the same the rest of the week. We did not lose power like so many in our area. My in-laws lost power on Saturday and still don't have it back, hopefully tomorrow.

We are so thankful that our home stayed safe over the weekend and no damage other than some tree limbs down. We made our traditional "Thankful Tree" today and started adding a few things we are thankful for - Family, God, a great church, iPod games (gee, I wonder who came up with that one).