As we were at the LEGO Discovery Center celebrating Grant's birthday last Friday, I heard the news of the shooting in Newtown. My heart is sad and I have no words, except those I pray several times each day.
We live in a fallen world, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the senseless death of 20 children and 6 adults at the hands of an obviously sick and disturbed person.
Anna is making snowflakes (thanks Theresa for pointing us to this) to send when the children in Newtown return to school in January. It seems like we should be doing more.
I found myself needing to just enjoy my children this week. We baked, decorated cookies, crafted, wrapped presents, and read aloud (a lot!). I do not take lightly the treasures I have living with me, because one day it could all change in the blink of an eye.
1. We enjoyed such a great Santa letter writing activity from Keeping Life Creative... you might want to bookmark this one for next year!
2. Our annual Gingerbread Man decorating evening was much fun. I always buy the premade Gingerbread Men from Publix and let the kids decorate. Simple. Easy. Done.
3. Lots and lots of Christmas books have been read this week. One of the favorites was Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia.
4. A few weeks ago Anna made tons and tons of these yarn pom poms. We saw packages adorned with them at the Southern Living Home, so we made them for the packages under our tree.
5. Grant and his buddies at church - we are SO thankful for our little church!
6. The musical at church for the children was Aaron, The Allergic Shepherd. It was SO CUTE!
7. Grant and his friend celebrated their birthdays last weekend at the LEGO Discovery Center in Atlanta. Daddy took the afternoon off from work and we beat the crowds by going Friday afternoon. Note: doing big attractions with kids in a big city can sometimes be nerve wracking because of the crowds. We have discovered going on Friday afternoons is great - no school kids and really no one else, either!
8. Grant's friend spent the night and at 7 a.m. the next morning they were sitting in front of the Christmas tree putting LEGO sets together. Life is good.
One of the highlights of the week was Anna's piano recital. She used some of the carols she learned for the recital to also help me with the series on the blog this week.
She is growing at the speed of light... sniff...
Speaking of the blog series... did you catch The 5 Days of Christmas Carols?
We're planning more fun things for the weekend and look forward to celebrating our Savior's Birth.
I am getting quite excited about going to The BEECH Retreat in just over a month! Each Thursday night BEECH hosts a Twitter chat from 9-10 p.m. Eastern. I have been learning SO much from these chats. If you want to participate just follow #beechrt.
I'm also super excited about meeting my friend Jen (she'll be my roommate!) -- and so many other friends, too. I've never been to a blogging conference and am just thrilled with the opportunity to spend three days learning about something I love.
What was going on in your home this week?
I'd love for you to link with Collage Friday! Share your post with photo collages by signing the linky, grabbing a button (in my sidebar) or text linking back to this post, and then visiting other bloggers on the list.
*There will be NO Collage Friday next week - Christmas vacation! I will see you January 4! This linky, however, will remain open for 2 WEEKS, so if you feel the urge to post a collage next week, you can link up here again (I'll still be reading!).
Many blessings for a Merry Christmas!
