Advent of Christmas: Thanksgiving weekend marked the beginning of our Advent with a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the living room. The new additions for the decoration this year are the personalized Christmas tree skirt and the two personalized stockings and stocking holders (one for Emily and one for Andy). For Advent, we hang up the nativity scene Advent calendar. Emily got to move one item each day from the pocket to the top scene. After listening to mommy's story about that item, she had a vitamin as a treat. She kept asking for more vitamins each time. She could do the commercials for the vitamins! We also printed out some Bible verses for each day's reading. Then we add that into a paper chain. Another thing Emily and I did was to laminate 25 names of Jesus and hang them on a garland one name a day. This year we did not hang them. But next year we will. As far as devotionals, I was reading the books "Preparing My Heart for Advent" and "Watch For The Light: Readings For Advent And Christmas". Both books are excellent. But I didn't finish reading either book. Hopefully next year I'll do better. Since we live so close to the Deerfield community, Emily had the luxuary of watching the Deerfield Christmas lights and searching for baby Jesus for seven nights! That was her favorite activity during those evenings. Even now she still asks "Where did the Christmas lights go?"
Our Advent Bible Verse Chain
Names of Jesue garland
Mom's Baptism: My mom had been a great help during the holiday season so that I could actually do something with Emily and by myself. She completely took over Andy. When Andy slept, she would read the Chinese Bible and other Christian literature that I printed out in her room. Her bed was covered by the books, CDs, and the printouts every day. When she held Andy we sometimes discussed what she read and what she thought about it. Each day I was amazed by her understanding of God's word and her searching heart. Finally she told me that she was ready to be baptized. David and I were so excited about her decision. Ever since then she began to count the days and hours. She couldn't wait to be baptized. December 12 was the day! Her excitement and testimony brought tears to many who witnessed her baptism. Gary and Danita Jackson (our missionary friends from Beijing) happened to be here. Gary translated for mom's first communion. He did a great job! As a celebration, we took her to see the "Gift of Christmas" show in Prestonwood Baptist Church. It was an excellent show that all of us enjoyed it very much. My mom's baptism definitely added much joy to our Christmas celebration. It left such a deep impression on Emily that we heard her saying "Grandma is baptized. Baptize, baptize, baptize ..." in her bed many times and we could visualize her pinching her nose and tilting her head back while she said that. One day when we were watching the movie "Gospel of John", Emily said "he is baptized" when we saw that John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan river. My sister and my brother-in-law watched the baptism through online streaming. My sister called mom later on asking about her feelings and thoughts. I smiled as I listening to what my mom said to my sister. She began to share her faith already!
The material my mom studied right before her baptism
Breakfast With Santa Pajamas Party: Emily went to the "Breakfast with Santa" pajamas party at church on December 18th. She had a great time. I was so thankful that our church had many talented and dedicated people who made our children's Christmas so fun yet meaningful. Emily watched me making a Jingle bell for her since she was too young to do it. She also helped me to scrapbook a Christmas tree. Then she made the reindeer food, played with the toy instruments, sat on Santa's lap for a picture, listened to Mrs. Claus telling the story of Christmas, and had a yummy breakfast (yes, she had the breakfast last since she was so busy all the time). Here are a few pictures of the party:
Sat on Santa's lap for the first time
Making reindeer food
Playing the instruments
What she made and brought home (the jingle bell that has Emily's name on it was a big hit for both our kids)
Listening to the Christmas story at Mrs. Claus' place (a book about a grumpy shepherd who eventually found his way to see baby Jesus in the manger and was singing praises to the Lord by the end of the story)
Early Christmas Celebration: We decided to take a vacation during Christmas since David had two weeks vacation. So we moved the Christmas celebration to the weekend before although we did have a good time on the real Christmas also. On our "early Christmas Eve", we had a finger food picnic in the living room. Then we sang the Christmas Carols, read "The Night Before Christmas" and watched the movie "The First Noel". We opened our gifts the next morning. Emily and Andy loved their new toy: a RC school bus. To teach Emily about the joy of giving and thinking about others, we took Emily to the dollar store to pick out one gift for each family members. She did a good job.
Handing out the gifts from the dollar store
Our Christmas Eve finger food picnic
Thank You letter from Santa and Reindeers for the cookies, milk, and reindeer food
Happy Birthday Jesus!
Did Andy grow up?
Digging out the stockings
Our kids' favorite Christmas gift - the RC school bus
Playing in the mall
Openning gifts from Gayla
Our Christmas was spent in Destin, Florida. We lived in a very nice suite hotel. It has everything we needed so we didn't eat out for one meal while we were there except the first night David brought in some pizza and chicken wings after we arrived there. While we were there, we tried to stick to the kids' regular sleeping and eating schedules. Both our kids were troopers that they made our long drive and stay so much easier than we had thought. It took us two days (6 hours of driving each day) to get there and two days to come back. We stayed in Destin for four nights. Emily didn't have a single whimper during the whole trip although she didn't feel well. Andy was a little fuzzy about one hour before we arrived at the hotel so we had to stop for 10 minutes. He cried again on the way home about one hour before we arrived home. We had expected some adjustment after coming home. But we were pleasantly surprised that both kids didn't require any adjustment. We were so thankful for them. Here are some of the pictures from the trip:
Family picture at the beach
"I got the whole beach!"
Sunset
Beautiful white sand
Looking at our hotel from the beach parking lot
Looking down from our window
Ready for a heated pool
Emily's favorite playground
Andy went along happily
Emily's favorite line: "Let Emily do it!"
Because of the weather, we spent lots of time indoor. Here's Andy's new trick
Looking around in the hotel
Exercise in the fitness center
Watching Christmas DVDs together in the sofa bed
Playing in the trundle bed
Oh, Bubble bath
Playing, playing, playing
Our New Year's Day was spent with my friends Kathy and Li. Emily got to play in their indoor playhouse and the outdoor jumping house. She had so much fun!
Gift Exchange with Family: We drove to Austin for the belated Christmas gift exchange with Amy and Dad on Jan. 2nd. Andy and my mom stayed at home because Andy didn't feel well. Here are some of the pictures:
As far as giving this Christmas, we were thinking to give to a Chinese Christian organization who has a ministry for the village orphans. Also, we'll let Emily to put our coke-cup full of coins in the coin machine and donate whatever it has to Ship of Life Back to School kids. She (and Andy) will do that every time when the cup is full for a cause of our choice.
For 2011, my one word resolution will be "closer": I'd like to walk closer with my Lord and God by reading more of His word and being more of His servant. May you have a blessed 2011!!!
(P.S. Many of you have read my mom's letter on her baptism (she wrote it while David and I were out attending a wedding). But for the record of our own family, I'll post it here. This is the English version of it:
I had the opportunity to visit America in 2008 for the first time in my life. Back then I didn’t have any idea of what a church was. So I went to the church several times with my daughter and my son-in-law to see it. I listened to the sermons but I didn’t understand anything because I didn’t know English. My daughter would translate for me on the way home. With her help, I understood more about Bible and the content of the sermons. My heart couldn’t get settled every time long after we came home from church – there was a stirring in my heart. I gradually changed from an atheist to a person who believed that God exists. Later on my daughter gave me a Chinese Bible. I read it and had stronger belief in God, in His greatness, and in His omnipotence. In order to save the people on earth, God sent His only son to this world: born of a virgin, crucified by the people, resurrected three days later, and re-appeared later. All of these are true. There’s no doubt that Jesus IS the Son of God.
This time I came to America, I went to church with my daughter and son-in-law to listen to the sermons again. I also had time to read more Bible study materials. Some of them were written by the Chinese who became Christians in their later life. Our friends from Church are so kind and sincere, so outstanding. They touched my heart deeply. I told my daughter: I want to be baptized and become a true Christian. I love God. I love our Lord Jesus. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I accept Jesus as my personal savior and the Master of my life. I’m looking forward to entering the eternal Kingdom and becoming a child of God.
Today I am going to be baptized with uncontainable excitement and a deeply touched heart. The baptism is not for washing the dirt off my body, but for cleaning my sin, to become a real Christian according to God’s standard. In the last I want to thank God and thank the Lord Jesus for His saving Grace! Thank American churches and their preachers! I also want to thank my daughter and son-in-law.
Thank you!)
