He's Makin' a List and Checkin' It Twice

Last Friday night we had a visitor at our house. We were sitting around in the living room and there was a pounding on the front door. I sent Emily to answer the door and would you believe that Santa was in our front yard! When she saw him I heard her make a slight gasp under her breath. After Santa came inside and passed out chocolate and candy canes, he had Emily write down her Christmas list on a piece of paper for him. She was so surprised and excited that she couldn't even think of what she had said she wanted. When I told her some of the things she had told me she was asking Santa for she said, "Yeah, right." When Santa asked Emily if she did a good job keeping her room cleaned up, she was honest and said, "not so much" but she promised Santa that she would keep working on it. Eli would not sit on Santa's lap at the mall the other day, but he wasn't scared at all when Santa was at our house. When Santa asked him what his name was he answered, "Eli Christian Adams". I guess he didn't want Santa confusing him with any other Eli. Well, tonight is Christmas Eve, so we will be getting Santa's milk and cookies ready (Emily has already baked them) and getting the reindeer's oats ready. Then we will hang our Santa key on the front door before we go to sleep. (Emily says she staying up all night, but she says that every year). Everyone have a Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful...

The best thing about the snow and ice is seeing how excited the kids get over it. Tuesday Eli and I watched it snow huge flakes all morning. The last time it snowed it was only a little bit and it didn't last very long. When it melted away Eli was mad. ha-ha! So he kept asking me if the snow was melting and I had to tell him we had too much snow this time to melt away for awhile. We had to get out in it at noon to pick up the kids from school due to their early out. Of course Eli had to walk through the deepest drifts from the van to the school doors. That was the only logical thing to do. Then Wednesday night Michael, Emily, and I went caroling with our chruch. It was a little cold, but the response we got from those we caroled warmed our hearts. Then we had hot chocolate and donuts at the church afterwards, so I stopped by home and got Matt and Eli so they could go with us to that part. When we got home that night I took these pictures of the kids on our deck before we came inside. I only wish the temperature would warm up a bit because it's just been too cold to let them play in it for very long. Hopefully this weekend, we can get the sleds out!

The Missing Blankey

When Eli was a baby he never took a pacifier and as he's gotten older he's never become attached to any stuffed animal. It's just his blankey that he can't live without. When I was weaning Eli, Matt found this soft, fleece-like "Lightning McQueen" blanket and Eli instantly took to it. When he sleeps he has to have the two silk tags in his hand. When he was younger, he would wake up in the middle of the night saying, "Where's my tags?" and I'd have to go into his room and give him his tags. He has slept with his blankey every night for the past two years...until last Saturday.

While Emily and I were at Monkey Cove with Girl Scouts, Matt, Alyssa, Michael, and Eli went to visit at Grandpa Calvin's house. Saturday night when we were putting Eli to bed, it was discovered that his blankey was missing. You guessed it...it was left at Grandpa's house which is an hour drive one-way. Eli didn't understand that part...he wanted to go to Grandpa's and get it right then. I told Eli we would find him something else to sleep with for one night and I took him into his closet. I got down some of his blankets from when he was born. Each one I showed him I got the same response, "That's for babies." Next I moved on to his pile of stuffed animals that he ignores. Each one of those I showed him I got the same response, "That's for girls." Finally I found the stuffed brown bear that he got on his first visit to the Omaha Zoo. He actually took it and hugged it. I thought, "Hmm, this might work." I covered him up, gave him his bear and as I turned out his light and walked out of his room I heard him say, "I don't want this" and then I heard "plop" and the bear hit the ground. The only thing that saved us that night was that Eli had a head cold and I had just given him medicine right before we discovered the missing blankey. If it hadn't been for his drug-induced sleep, we may have been up for a long night. On Sunday after church Matt went to his Dad's and retrieved the lost friend. When Matt returned with it, the look on Eli's face was pure happiness as he gave blankey a huge hug.

Girl Scouts Weekend at Monkey Cove

Emily and I spent the night at the newly remodeled Ramada Inn in St. Joe Friday night. We were there with 250 other Girl Scouts. The Ramada
now has an indoor water park called "Monkey Cove." Friday night we got to swim in the water park, participated in a scavenger hunt throughtout the hotel, made crafts, and learned line dances. My favorite part of the whole weekend was watching Emily do the YMCA. And I'm not talking about just the letter parts, but the whole dance. And she also learned the macarana. I was laughing so hard. During the freestyle dance, she was breakdancing...I still don't know where she learned that. I told Emily she was taking after Aunt Melinda with her trendy dance moves. These two together are sure to be the life of any party! Saturday morning after breakfast we swam another 4 hours before going to McDonalds for lunch and then heading home. Oh, I almost forgot about the water slide. It was very tall, enclosed, a corkscrew, and dark inside. After Emily started up the stairs, I went over to the end of the slide to watch her come out. I kept waiting and waiting and finally I turned around and there she was coming back down the stairs! Oh, well--maybe next year!

More Pumpkin Pictures

I forgot to post these pictures that I took of Eli before we carved our pumpkins. After Halloween we set the carved, rotting

pumpkins out by the road with our trash. When Eli heard the garbage truck coming he ran to look out the window. And he was not happy to see the garbage man putting our pumpkins into the back of the truck. In fact, he was not happy about for several days. Just when I thought I was going to have to go buy more pumpkins, he seemed to forget about it. He's past pumpkins now...we've moved on to jumping in the leaves.

God Bless America

In last week's presidential election our country had a chance to stand up for God. We had a chance to cast a vote for the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on and that our forefathers fought to preserve. We had a chance to vote our Christian convictions and say "yes" to faith, to family, to life, and to truth. Although I do not understand why God allowed the election to turn out the way it did, I do know that God allowed it to happen for a reason. The following true/false quiz was an e-mail I received a few days ago written by Pastor Wyman Richardson from First Baptist Church of Dawson, Georgia. It really put things into perspective for me and I wanted to share it with everyone.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, 'Jesus Is Lord' will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control. _____________________________________________________

That e-mail really got me to thinking and now that the election is over we must move forward. The best thing we can do now is pray. In order for our country to return to the righteous nation that God wants us to be, we need to be praying for our elected leaders. You can visit the website presidentialprayerteam.net to join others in praying for our president-elect and other national leaders as well. It will give you specific concerns to pray about. And we also need to be praying for a spiritual awakening among believers of Jesus Christ. God has the power to change the hearts of people and with prayer, I believe it will happen. We must unite and stand up for the truth of God's word and continue to vote our Christian convictions. God Bless.

Thank You, John McCain: A True American Hero

"I would not be an American worthy of the name, should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.

And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history, we make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much."