Christmas

Charlotte woke up early this morning, so James put her in bed with us and we all went back to sleep.  My kids are early risers, usually waking up by 6:15 or 6:30, so I was really surprised when Hunter didn't come in to wake us all up until 7:15.  He asked if he could climb in bed with the 3 of us, and I thought he must've forgotten it was Christmas.  But then as he was climbing under the covers, he said, "I have to tell you something.  When we get out of bed and go in the living room, we'll get to see my big nerf gun."  So I said, "Well let's go see it!"  I wish I would've videoed their entrance instead of just taking still pictures, because he was jumping around screaming this long monologue of excitement that really didn't make any sense at all.  It was priceless...

You can kind of see him screaming here...

Charlotte hugging her Cinderella baby...

My dad got her an Ariel baby just like that last year, and she loves it.  It actually kind of creeped me out at first because they seem a little weird.  But when we were looking at the toys at Target recently, she kept going to all of the different princess baby dolls.  I was going to get her a "real" Cinderella doll instead of the baby one, but she loves babies so much, I had to go for the baby version...even with the creep factor.  That was definitely the right choice because Char loves her.  Now she walks around carrying Ariel in one hand and Cinderella in the other.

And drumroll.....the big nerf gun!

Both kids were thrilled with the candy in their stockings...

Char got Tangled and H got Finding Nemo...

Coloring book...

Bubble tape!

They've each had about 6 pieces of bubble tape today!

Char wanted to try her dress on...

Beautiful princess!

After church our family came over for lunch and we took several family pictures...

We missed you Courtney!

Our verses tonight were John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

The truth is I was wrestling with God for a while there.  I actually think I may have written about it on here early on.  Our God is complex, and there are so many things to learn and understand about Him...more than our human minds can possibly take in.  And I got to a point in my journey of learning about him where I had begun to think too much of myself and not enough of Him.  I didn't revere him the way he deserved.  I thought too highly of myself to see that he deserved my revereance if only because of his character and his history...what he's done for us. 

But here's the truth:  He is God and I am not.  He is God.  What god comes down off of his thrown to live the life of a servant?  Mine does.  And why would he do that?  Because he loves me.  Me, who thinks way too much of myself at times. 

God humbled me just when I needed it.  I'm so thankful for this Christmas season.  To be able to relish in the sacrifice of the true God of the universe, who had his redemptive plan set before time began.  A redemptive plan that started with a baby in a manger...a baby that changed everything.