In the First Light

In the first light of a new day

No one knew He had arrived

Things continued as they had been

While a newborn softly cried

But the heavens wrapped in wonder

Knew the meaning of His birth

In the weakness of a baby

They knew God had come to earth

As his Mother held Him closely

It was hard to understand

That her baby not yet speaking

Was the word of God to man

He would tell them of His Kingdom

But their hearts would not believe

Thy would hate Him and in anger

They would nail Him to a tree

But the sadness would be broken

As the song of life arose

And the firstborn of creation

Would ascend and take His throne

He had left it to redeem us

But before His life began

He knew He'd come back not as a baby

But as the Lord of every man

Hear the angels as they're singing

On the morning of His birth

But how much greater will their song be

When He comes again to earth!

Amen!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Santa's little helpers - Dinner style

Hannah and Samantha LOVE to be in the kitchen helping. Tom made his famous roast the other night and of course, they couldn't be left out of the kitchen for the preparations. It was very delicious...we may have 2 chefs in the making!

Hannah started by scoring the roast and putting cloves of garlic in for flavor

Samantha started peeling the carrots and then Hannah came to help outOur finished product was a very yummy dinner...complete with Grammy's homemade bread

Chesapeake's Christmas Parade & Gingerbread Houses

We had a fanastic time attending Chesapeake's Annual Christmas Parade. It was very chilly and it even snowed during the parade, which the girls thought was "da bomb"!

This was the front of the parade, the police bikes. Can you see the snow falling a little in the background?

Hannah was in charge of picture taking. We weren't quite sure of the "theme" of the parade, but the floats were very nice to look at.

That morning, the girls made gingerbread houses. If you have a chance to buy a kit that comes with 5 mini-houses...skip over it. Way too hard. Just buy a big one and let everyone decorate it. Here's our attempt at decorating them :)!

They didn't really come with instructions, so we just had to "wing" it when it came to what pieces went with what houses. I was in charge of putting them together and the girls were in charge of decorating them. Luckily we had help. We had Hannah's friend Olivia and my niece Becca helping us to decorate them.

Christmas Program & Field Trip

On Tuesday night, the girls had their Christmas Program for School. They did a great job. The theme was "Twas the Night of Jesus' Birth". Samantha's class just sang songs and played the drums during "Little Drummer Boy" and Hannah's class played a flute-like instrument during one of the songs. Enjoy the pics!

Samantha looks so cute playing her little drum...although she does look less than thrilled.

Hannah had a fantastic time practicing for this song. She could be heard each night in her room practicing. One of the songs they did is called "Hot Cross Buns".

On Wednesday, Samantha's class had a field trip to Glazenfyre and to Chuck E Cheese. Well, they were supposed to go to Hunt Club Farms to see the animals and Santa, but considering it was 19 degrees outside, Chuck E Cheese's warmth won over the hearts of the parents attending :). They got to paint an ornament at Glazenfyre and then have pizza and some fun at Chuck E Cheese.

Santa looks adorable and will be a beautiful addition to our tree once he's fired-up.

This is one of the girls favorite "rides" at Chuck E Cheese's.This game is new to our Chuck E Cheese, but it is so cute. You touch the screen to pop the bubbles. There were actually 6 or 7 new games and even I had a great time spending Samantha's tokens :).