It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So we decided to kick off the Christmas season with the spirit of giving and sharing...

in the form of sharing a communal cold with each and every person in our family!

Yay!  

(still recovering from said cold as we speak)

But aside from that, we managed to get out and do a few things...

Nate had a Christmas performance at school a couple weeks ago

where he sang this little number.

Here he is standing next to the gingerbread man he made in front of his classroom.

(His is on the bottom with the bowtie)

Nate is one of the shortest kids in his class, so he got to be smack dab in front.

 Looking at these pictures is bitter sweet.  

It keeps the tragic deaths of those sweet little babies fresh in my mind 

and reminds me that it could have been my little baby.

But unlike the mothers of those lost children,

I have the luxury of getting to hug and kiss my son yet another day.

The only comfort I take is knowing that they are now back in their first home,

with someone who will care for them better than anyone else ever could,

their Heavenly Father.

And that through Christ, we will all live again.

I truly pray that those families find some comfort of their own, somehow.

These are pictures of our trip to the zoo to see Santa swim with the sharks...

(this Santa has been sipping the "special" egg nog if you ask me...)

and the zoo lights!

We also stopped by Dad's work to check out the fun there...

We love the giant snowglobe!

Too bad the boys can't stay behind glass more often...

 We also had our first snow of the year...which the boys made the most of!

(even if it was less than an inch and melted within hours)

We were visited by Scout and his silly antics...

Some holiday crafting...

(SPOILER ALERT! Marice and Andrew avert your eyes now!

...not that you even look at this blog anyway)

 and some good old holiday baking!

Yep,

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!