Crabs in my Closet- Thank you Jesus!

There are hermit crabs in my closet and a bike in my bedroom hiding under a blanket. I'm sewing a nose on a green pig, it must be Christmas Eve. I am so thankful for children at Christmas. My children. Just look at them. Each one of them was a miracle at birth, who beat the odds and made it into this world when they shouldn't have. So many past Christmases in which we struggled with our barrenness and losses. It doesn't seem to matter how much you love Jesus it hurts to celebrate the birth of a child when grieving your own loss. Christmas songs, church services, they all hurt. I have a friend who is grieving the loss of a child this Christmas and it brings back all my own grief and loss. 10 years with no children of our own here on earth. For those of you who are in the midst of loss, I know and I am so sorry.
 While I still grieve my 5 children in Heaven, and my heart yearns for our child in China who is spending his last Christmas in an orphanage, I am so grateful that I can share the joy of Christmas with these my precious children that God has given me.

Merry Christmas

The Making of a Christmas Card

Here's our Christmas Card. 

We had a lot of fun making it. Any concept that doesn't involve 6 people looking at the camera and smiling at the same time is a good thing.  We've had a lot of questions about it so I thought I'd show you how we did it. I like to come up with the ideas and Brent is a genius at making it happen.  The fun part was staging it. I put a table in a corner and put a red drape behind it. Then we all did our best pantomime impressions by ourselves with a table and a wall and Brent made computer magic with the shots. Here's some of the shots that went in to making the picture. 

 

Merry Christmas from us!

Nightly Ritual

before and after

$9 thrift store desk.

dry brushed with one of my favorite colors.

ready for action.

Christmas fun at the park.

 Caricatures

Santa

Hold Still!

Carriage Ride

Ho Ho Ho!

Face painting

Pretty 

Daddy kissing Santa Claus!

Lunch with Lucy

Fun with Hair

And the winner is...

Kindle Fire Giveaway tonight!

Our CHIPIN somehow ended early. So we had to start another one for today as the drawing will be 7pm tonight. So if you've been checking the blog for a winner, it will be tonight and we've actually raised 30% of the $5000 goal, it just isn't showing up since we had to restart the CHIPIN. If you donated, don't worry, we got your donation and your name is in the hat. thank you so much for helping us bring home this precious boy.