Today I went to the school for two different things.  First I was the secret reader in Addie’s class.  We had a great time talking about pretending and dress up before reading Skippyjon Jones – the crazy Siamese cat who pretends to be a Chihuahua – by Judy Schachner.  If you have not read this you should.  Skippyjon has a bit of trouble obeying his Mama, so a little commentary is needed to round out the story.  But his imagination is awesome, and reading it is fun due to the spanish accent you must read it with.  “Holy Frejolies”

Secondly, I was at the school to help Emma’s class in the library.  While there I got to see Emma’s teacher Mrs. Norton.  Mrs. Norton took the opportunity to tell me that Emma recently wrote about a Christmas memory and the story was so dear that Mrs. Norton decided to share it with another teacher.  Emma brought her writing home today.  Here is her writing:

“My memory about Christmas is when Jesus was born on Christmas Day.  I love Jesus so much.  Jesus is the real meaning of Christmas not presents and tress. I believe in the true Christmas meaning.”

Merry Christmas!

In November we celebrated not only Thanksgiving, but Emma!  It was Emma’s seventh birthday.  We celebrated by taking her, her two sisters and one friend to see Disney on Ice.  She kept asking me “is it going to be like a movie, or are they really going to be there?”  I watched her face when the first characters took the ice and it was classic!  She was so excited.  We had a super time celebrating her!

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Raliegh, NC to be with Brian’s brother Alan and his family.  It was our first opportunity to meet Lily and to see their new home.  It is always a blessing to be able to be with family, especially since our family is spread out over many states!  Owen really liked Alan and Michelle’s dog Maddy, who is a chow dog.  I am pretty sure Owen thought she was a lion!!  Owen would roar at her everytime he saw her – precious memories.

While in Raliegh we got to meet up with some special friends at the park who were visiting family in Raliegh as well.  Our girls were delighted to get to see the Despres and play with Sophie.

If you would like to see some of these special moments, check out the newly updated gallery.

I came across the following clip of a challenge that Ed Young of Fellowship Church (main campus in Grapevine, TX) and when looking into it further found that his challenge has received some national press, and many people weighing in their opinions.

It seems that when you consider it in context and what they are encouraging in their church that this is a really healthy way to focus on building up marriages.  Check out the comments from he and his wife on his blog.  My biggest concern when I heard this was thinking about all the marriages that have much emotional pain in this area of their relationship and how it wouldn’t go well without some major counselling…I pray (as he and his wife are also) that many will seek wholeness in their relationship through this challenge and that many will be encouraged towards greater intimacy in marriage.

This made me think of the Tommy Nelson sermon series on Song of Solomon that Mandy and I listened to on our honeymoon roadtrip.  Those are great messages, revealing the heart of God when it comes to marriage and sexuality!  What a blessing that God created!

…Now, how about that challenge!?