Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

It's good to be home.

I couldn't post it yesterday since we were traveling pretty much the whole day, but here it is...

I forgot to take my camera to church thus greatly limiting my photo opportunities for the day. So instead of the portraits you get a couple of our decorations. And one of Naomi playing in the fridge. Which she loves to do.

Since we're heading to SC on Monday (!!!) we decided to open the presents we have here today. As you can see, Judah was a big fan of his bike. Naomi enjoyed eating a cookie and watching Judah play with her toys.

It's movie night again.

I was a cranky pants most of the day today, with little patience for my sweet babies. Especially my older baby who seemed to want to argue/whine/disobey about almost everything we did. Tonight, though, we read more books than normal in his room before bed and he giggled along with Llama Llama Red Pajama. It was a nice ending to the otherwise long day.

It's hard to even express what a blessing my daughter has been to me. She is easily the best early Christmas present I have ever gotten. I can hardly believe it's been a whole year. I feel incredibly blessed that God gave me such a wonderful gift when he sent her along. I pray that he would continue to make me a mother who depends on him and points her, and her big brother to Christ. We did a quick photo shoot this morning, and although I'm sure I'll take more pics today, I loved these. Happy Birthday, sweetheart.

The most fun activity today was that Jeff and I got to go to a taping of The Tonight Show, which was a really cool experience. Of course, cameras are completely verboten, so if you want to know what that's like, just watch the show tonight. And imagine it a little louder. Our music director and her husband and daughter babysat for us. We come home to find Judah "playing" the violin with them. He had a blast.

Today the kids and I went to the dollar store so Judah could pick out a gift for Jeff and for Naomi. He doesn't quite understand that when you, say, buy your sister a gift it is supposed to be something she would like. Not just another thing that you want. But we managed to find a few things to get, with a little encouragement. Of course then he told Jeff what we got him, so we still have some more work to do explaining how this whole present thing works.

Today was sort of a long Sunday. It started last night, when Judah threw up a couple of times. He seemed fine today, though, and had no issues with breakfast or lunch, so we headed off to church. Then he threw up on the floor during snack time. Sigh. The camera didn't get much use after that.

It's late and I'm tired, so these photos hopefully let you see we had a great time tonight!

My camera battery was dead for most of the day, so I couldn't turn it on until this evening. I got one iPhone shot of the ENORMOUS pile of sugar that was spilled on my kitchen floor, but the only thing I shot with my good camera is the Christmas-related cooking I was doing this evening. I'm now rather worn out as I feel like I've spent most of today either cooking or cleaning up. I decided yesterday that next year I need to start the Christmas projects a little earlier. The second week of December is not really an ideal time to try to make everything you want. Especially now that in addition to Christmas, there is a sweet little girl with a birthday just one week before Christmas that I want to celebrate also.

The Grove is a  ritzy, outdoor shopping center in Hollywood. I felt completely unfashionable. But the Christmas decorations were lovely.

I think you can see why.

We are all always happy to see Daddy. For more DPP, head over here !

1. A sleeping baby. Actually she FINALLY got a tooth so she's been teething and extra fussy. I snapped this one before I had to wake her up (sigh) to go pick up Judah. 2. Playing in Judah's chair. 3. Our new favorite game. Which involves either Judah or I pushing her down the sidewalk in the car to the other person who catches her. Everyone love d this game, including Lucy, who also ran back and forth between us.