Christmas Sunday

She's so grown up. 

Her and her cousin, Noe Girl. The little hands, holding on tight. Kills me.

Emerson participated in the Christmas program. To which Josh and I had this reaction.

Christmas service was held at our local community center so I was skeptical with the size of the congregation and the enormity of the room. See the littles? Off to the far left?

But I was thankful she did it because a whole row of family came to see her 2 minutes of fame.

It was a busy but nice weekend. We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday, went to church on Christmas Sunday, lunch afterwards with family. But I have been feeling especially exhausted and unwell so it's been hard for me to do much of anything really. You know I'm not at my best when it takes me two days till I start cleaning up from our dinner party. :p

32 weeks.

7 weeks to go.

Trying to keep my perspective right -
"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:14 "Without Christmas there would be no grace. Wrapping those words up in my heart today. The Jesus story is ours to be told." - Herwelshness

Our neighborhood seems to have a disproportionally high number of inflatable Christmas decorations. Like this house. That Santa is so big it's hitting the second story.

I'm feeling the spirit though. Christmas lives on.

True to form, we cancelled cable today now that USC football season is done. A few months short of Josh's wish but you give and you take, yes? See ya Keeping Up With The Kardashian reruns and Million Dollar Listings Los Angeles!

We finally mailed our Christmas cards. Hallelujah. My little helper and I at our local post office with the nicest employees (weird phenomenon for me). 

Emerson is staring at a little boy who was standing very close behind me. And in her normal voice kept saying, "baby mama! baby!! baby!" I really need to work on teaching her the inside voice. :p

2 1/2 weeks till Christmas!

Outtakes

Some outtakes from our Christmas photos. 

Emerson is usually meh about taking photos but when it's your Uncle Luke behind the camera, the same Uncle Luke who plays with you, blows bubbles for you, helps you overfeed the fish, and generally spoils you in every way, she lights up. Just for him. These pictures are really how she feels about my brother in law and I love it.

The trees in our neighborhood have turned. It is lovely. That and the crisp weather really makes for a wonderfully aware season.

I think it's safe to say that my daughter is fascinated by our Christmas tree. We've said over and over to her that she cannot touch the ornaments but the other day I saw her going for it so I called her name, "Emerson". She looked back at me, with one hand on the tree and said, "touching the lights mommy, the lights". 

This girl man..