Christ is born! We are blessed!

So, whether or not or not Christ was born on December 25th (probably not), whether he was born in a manger or a cave, whether there were donkeys and sheep present, His birth and life and death and resurrection are still the GREATEST story ever told! God sent Him to earth, and like it says in the song Hark the Herald Angels Sing, He was "born that man no more may die." This is amazing!

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs that I love to listen to during this season. It is called One Child, and the version I know is by Natalie Grant.

The seed, it grows
and somehow becomes a life
It moves, she knows
that her baby has arrived,
She's so scared, but she's so blessed
She lays down her fear
for the hope at her breast
for she knows...

One million chains could never hold back this moment in time
One thousand dreams could never dream what this moment truly means
Heaven and earth, they cradle the infinite Joy born on this night
For it only takes one Child to forever change the world

He stands beside her,
he'd share her pain
if he only knew how
He whispers 'I love you'
as he gently strokes her brow
He's so scared, but he's so blessed
There's a thundering pride
pounding deep in his chest
For he knows...

Christ is born, we are blessed
Every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall confess
That we know...

This Baby cries
and for the first time
The world hears the voice of God weep
Mary sings a lullaby
As the Hope of the nations
gently falls asleep
She knows this is the one Child
To forever change the world.

some christmas pictures...

MERRY CHRISTMAS all! here are some pics of our day so far, more captions and stories to come later!

our christmas plans

merry christmas eve! i hope you all have a wonderful holiday filled with joy, laughter, family, friends, good food and warm homes. we've got some exciting things planned for our first christmas together:

tom's twizzler straw into my vitamin water. yum.

things started out yesterday when tom brought me my favorite vitamin water (i shared with him, since he shared his favorite strawberry twizzlers with me) on his way home from work for dinner.

during dinner, he told me of his plans to take me to one of my favorite restaurants, mimi's cafe, for breakfast on christmas eve!!

well, we went today, and it was divine! i had some fancy french toast, stuffed with a sweet cream cheese/orange zest mixture and topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries and strawberry syrup. it came with four slices of bacon and two eggs, which i chose to have poached (only the best way to eat eggs). tom had a crab and avocado omelette (which was also scrumptious) and his meal came with a fresh-baked honey-bran muffin (the best muffin EVER).

we came home and played our current favorite card game, casino. this game was new to tom, but he has really gotten the hang of it and has won 3 of the last 4 games we played. the tide has turned. it always happens when i teach him a new game! i win all the time at first, and then he gets really good at strategizing, and i never win again... good thing i am not super-competitive! i just enjoy spending time with tom and playing fun games!

he is at work right now, but he will hopefully get off really early tonight, because we are going out to dinner at our favorite thai place with the family j. pin kaow is amazing! eating at two restaurants in one day is very rare and extravagant for us, but tom said it was a special occasion and justified since we will be cooking all day tomorrow!

since the family j did the main course for thanksgiving, tom and i are in charge tomorrow. tom is preparing a standing roast (should be delicious) and i am making creamed new potatoes with peas and one of my favorite desserts, pretzel salad (this is paula deen's version, mine is a little different because i don't use pineapple and i don't mix the cool whip into the cream cheese mixture, but i spread it on top as a separate layer). becky is in charge of a green salad, rolls, and another dessert.

i think she is making a birthday cake for Jesus with the kids. such a fun tradition. we will eat like royalty when we celebrate the birth of our King!

i can't wait to give my nephew tuff his present! we got him two books (he loves books! even at 16 months!) and a little boy's backpack to put them in. see, his sisters got backpacks a while ago from their aunt s, and tuff loves to wear one in particular around the house all the time when i nanny. the problem is, it is patent-leather black with pink ballet slippers on it. not very manly! especially for a boy named tuff. so we got him one that has dinosaurs and skateboards on it. very masculine.

you'll have to wait until a future blog to find out what i got for tom for christmas (and vice versa)!

christmas decorations!

as tom was just explaining to me just now as we ate dinner, today is what he likes to call christmas adam. you know, the day right before christmas eve... ha ha.

here are some pics of our tree and stockings. tom decided to write his name on his stocking in 550 cord after i told him my plan was to glue and glitter it on. i think it turned out pretty well, and i especially like the cam-green flag on it! also, we got the ornament of a bride and groom at a bazaar about a month ago. it says: tom & deanna- august 16, 2008. LOVE it!

this last picture is of our christmas card wall. these are all the cards we'd gotten as of yesterday. i love getting cards!!!

quick update! a.k.a. vegas snow, gingerbread, and homework.

we have been loving our first holiday season together! granted, we get a tad envious when we hear about the white christmas weather back home, although our family and friends back there seem to be growing restless now. there is something just a little strange about getting ready for Christmas in the sunny, kinda warm weather... although, as you may have heard, our area got a little snow last week. where we live, it did not accumulate at all. but nearby, in north las vegas, i think people got some real measurable amount of the fluffy white stuff.

here are some pics of the snow:

this is a view of the mountains that surround the valley we live in. when they have snow on them (currently it has melted off again) they are so beautiful! i took this photo last week while driving to my sister's.

here is Miss M watching the snow fall outside. notice the lack of accumulation.

you can actually see a couple of flakes in this one!

...so, then, what else have we been up to?

well, most weeks i head over to my sister's 2-3 days a week to nanny for her three kids while she is at work (she is a nurse at the base hospital). this experience has been such a blessing in many ways! i am really enjoying getting to know my nieces and nephew so well. before, when i lived in bellingham/vancouver and they lived in spokane/vegas, i would only get to see them every once in a while. usually they were pretty excited to see me, but initially would be shy at first and need to warm up to me before being comfortable.

now, though, we have such a history together! we are building many memories and i will always treasure this time, and i hope they will too. this last week, we built real gingerbread houses together! my sister actually baked the pieces one night. the next day, the kids and i built the house and decorated some sugar cookies, and the day after that we decorated the house and made a gingerbread man land! it was TOO fun! check it out:

aprons? check. candy and icing? check. holiday cheer? check.

i love them.

Mr. T eating the sprinkles he was supposed to decorate the wreath with.

some of their cookie creations. yum yum.

our finished house. it even had a pond and little men all around it. check out my sister's blog for more pictures.

most days tom comes over at some point to say hi to us when i'm nannying. he is still on night shift, which means he works 4pm-midnight. so if i nanny from 7am-5pm, our little visit at the house is the one of our only chances to hang out that day! we usually play on the playground with the kids- they love tom!

tom has been doing really well in an online math course he is taking! this means that he is doing homework a lot! i'm so proud of him and his hard work towards his bachelor's degree, which he is eventually hoping to get in professional aeronautics. this will aide us in our calling to overseas missions. here is a picture of him doing homework.

work it!

who are you?

note: this pic of tom (taken when he was testing out our camera's waterproof-ability by holding the camera underwater at daybreak park and shooting it upward) has nothing to do with this blog. i just think it's hilarious!

hey! i'm pretty curious these days about who is enjoying my blog... my curiosity has been piqued by the real-time log that i put on here from feedjit (see bottom right hand corner under the map).

so, i thought i'd ask you all to do me a little favor (pretty please)!

did you get a thank-you card recently from tom and i and find the web address on it? if so, i'd love to hear from you so i know if my little advertising ploy worked!*

or...

maybe you were linked to my blog through someone else's?

or...

maybe you don't fall into either category.

whatever way you've found me, i would really appreciate it (and also get a huge kick out of it) if you would leave me a comment* on this post and let me know who you are and what you think of the blog!

*of course, i have to moderate all comments before they are posted. if you write me a comment and would rather i not publish it onto the blog, just let me know in the comment! but please still write one!

**i'm curious about the person who views my blog (and my sister's) from lebanon, or. we are racking our brains but just can't think of who you may be, or who we know that lives there. leave me a comment so our puzzle can be figured out!

THANKS to you all!

pictures from our AZ overnight camping trip/christmas tree hunt, and exciting news about my brother!

i really wanted to post pics from the trip tom and i took up to the mountains in AZ to get our christmas tree... but my sister beat me to it! check it out on her blog's entry from december 3. we camped out there overnight and then the family j joined us the next morning. it was a GRAND time!

also, she posted some exciting news from my brother right before the camping blog... look here. i am so proud of him and what he has accomplished!!

december? already?

well, the mini-pecan tarts were a complete success! i should've made a double batch because between the 6 adults and 2 kiddos (Miss O and Mr T thought they were delicious! but, picky Miss M missed out because she wouldn't try them- oh well, more for us!!), the tarts were gone about an hour after we got to The Family J's house.

You should check out my sister's blog to see some of the fun we had on Thanksgiving. It was such a wonderful time!! We played Monopoly after we ate dessert. I hated that game when I was little because it seemed like it lasted forever, but now I see how it can be fun, even though my sister's father-in-law crushed us all (thanks to someone who sold him a property that allowed him to build hotels... hmmmm...).

Here is the picture I promised of the tarts:

don't they just scream "eat me!!!!!!"?

hard-core tom appreciating their delicousness.

love!

On another note, on Friday Tom and I drove to northern AZ to camp out (in about 14 inches of snow!!) and then get a Christmas tree the next day. It was the best time ever, potentially the first holiday tradition for our new family. I will definitely blog about it soon! Our tree is gorgeous, too!