Through all the hustle of the Christmas season, let us not forget why we celebrate it in the first place. It isn't about the gifts we get, the food we eat, or the places we get to go to... it is in celebration of our Savior's birth. God bless you all this Christmas Eve, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their loved ones.

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Luke 2:1-20 (KJV)

¹And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

²(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

¹⁵And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

¹⁶And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

¹⁷And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

¹⁸And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

¹⁹But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Cuddle time...

One of Jake's new favorite things to do on my days off is cuddle. This all takes place just after he wakes up in the morning. He used to NEVER cuddle in the morning. When he was up, he was UP and going full force. However, lately when he wakes up, I take him from his crib and then he lies with me in bed for another good 10-20 minutes.

He will not lie next to me. He does not like to be just beside me.

He has touching me in some way, with his hand, his little toes, or with his head on my chest. Its melts my heart.

I am relishing this while it lasts, because I know that before too long, he will go back to being a

crazy, rambunctious toddler who will do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, and lying with me for that time will not be an option to him anymore. Then, before I can blink, he will be in kindergarten. Then another blink and he is in high school. *gulp*

So for now, I will take the time to enjoy the little moments with him before (even if it makes me late for his doctors appointment that I thought was at 10:00am but was at 9:30am. Oops...)

Wordless Wednesday

(Brad loves his baby brother, and it appears the feeling is mutual!)

Jake (much smaller) + Turkey Baby Food

I thought this was just hilarious - I forgot that my husband had taken a video of this way back when Jacob was on baby food back in March-ish. Anywho, without further interruption, this is what happens when you give a nine-month-old baby food that he doesn't want!

The Fruit of the Spirit & Spiritual Gifts

Yesterday, I went to my weekly MOPS meeting and this week fell on our Bible study week. Last week, this week, and next week we have a guest speaker who is a Mentor Mom at our location, and her name is Christi Haag. Let me just tell you, she is an amazing, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, Godly woman. I listen to her speak and I am immediately drawn in. She is married and has two boys, 14 and 15. Her oldest, Ben, recently confessed to her and her husband that he feels he is being led by the Lord to go into missions overseas, and is patiently waiting on God to let him know where. I mean, PRAISE THE LORD! I only hope and pray that my husband and I can be that kind of example to our children. I cannot say enough about how wonderful this lady is, and how much of a true blessing it has been to know her as the previous mentor mom for our table, and as a true teacher of the word. She speaks it with such clarity and conviction, she is just mesmerizing.

Last meeting, she spoke on "The Fruit of the Spirit" and the Spiritual Gifts that God gives to us. She let us know that without the Fruit and filtering each of our gifts through the Fruit, that our gifts are just like a loud noise to God and won't matter. Just think of that: How good would it be to have the gift of discertion without kindness? Or the gift of serving without love? Music without joy? It all makes sense and I have never seen it that way before.

She explained that the Bible teaches that each of us has at least one gift, and the Lord calls us to use that gift in our lives and in the church. She spoke on several passages, including Galatians 5:22, I Peter 4:10-11, I Corinthians 12, I Corinthians 13, and Ephesians 4:11-16, and Romans 12:1-8. If you have never studied these, I encourage you to do so, as I felt like I learned so much from these.

She then passed out four pages to us, where we took a quiz to find out what our main spiritual gifts were. It was 78 questions long and took about 20 minutes to complete, but when I was done - WOW! - I was surprised about a couple of the results. I knew that I would probably hold a gift for hospitality and giving, but exhortation and knowledge was an amazing discovery about myself, but it makes perfect sense. I scored lower on prophecy and teaching, but that's OK - God gave me the gifts that he did for a reason, and I can use THOSE to lift people up in my own way, and he will send those with the other gifts that he gave uniquely to them to help in their own way that someone like me may not excel at.

If you would also like to take this quiz, it was very neat and I even brought one home for my husband. The link is posted below (I uploaded it to Google Docs, if it doesn't work, post a comment with your email address and I would be more than happy to email it to you). Although he hasn't taken it yet, it will be neat to see what God has blessed him with and how we each compliment eachother in God's perfect plan! :)

Discover Your Spiritual Gifts

Fabulous Homemade Soaps!

Today was my weekly MOPS meeting, and there are about 8 women at my table plus our Mentor Mom. I always knew that one of my mommy friends there, Cathy, made homemade couture soaps and she would occasionally bring some for the door prizes that are given by raffle to the moms at the meeting.

Well, today she was so very thoughtful and brought a custom, all-natural soap for each of us ladies at the table! They were "Oatmeal & Pumpkin Spice" scented that she made for us, and Oh. My. Word. is it wonderful!

Let me just say that up until this point I have never used a homemade soap that I can ever recall in my life. I grew up on the basic bar soaps that mom & dad bought, like Lever 2000 and Dial. When I got older and bought my own, I switched to body wash and have been using Dove for a very long time, which I have no complaints about. But WOW! After trying the amazingness that is the soap that Cathy makes for her business, Classy Sudz, I may be a client for life! :)

If you have a moment, PLEASE check out her site, and if you see something that fancies your interests, try a bar. You won't be disappointed!

THANKS AGAIN, CATHY!

(This is a picture of her Cinnamon Butter Cookie scented soap from her site - uh, YUM!)

Pumpkin Pie Bites, by Bakerella!

Hi there, friends!
I came across this recipe the other day on bakerella's awesome site, and these just look absolutely fabulous! i want to make these - and soon!
enjoy!
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Pumpkin Pie Bites, by Bakerella

I’ve been in a mini-mood lately when it comes to baking and these bite-sized pies met my big craving.

They are really, really easy. Let me show ya.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that I used ready to roll refrigerated pie crust. It comes two to a box and if you roll each round pie crust a little bit thinner with a rolling pin, you can get 24 mini pumpkin-shaped pie crusts out of them. Make sure you use all the dough scraps and re-roll to maximize quantities.

Then, stuff each one in a mini muffin baking pan. This one holds 24.

Press the dough down, in and around the edge of each muffin cup. Make sure the stem for the pumpkin stays sticking out. You’ll notice I alternated cups above. I did this mainly to make sure the pie crusts didn’t touch each other. So I ended up baking these in two batches.

Fill each pie crust with pumpkin filling all the way to the top.

When they come out of the oven, they’ll be puffed up like this. Too bad they didn’t stay that way. That would be pretty darn cute.

But no, after they cool for a few, they’ll fall and be flush with the pie crust.

See… easy mini pumpkin pie bites. These would be really cute at Thanksgiving.

You can even drizzle them with melted chocolate to jazz them up a bit. Just melt some chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. You can also add a little bit of vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Then, transfer the chocolate to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off and drizzle away.

But wait… you say you don’t want to wait until Thanksgiving.

I don’t blame you.

So… pipe some chocolate faces on and make them in October.

Cute!

And I’ll say it again… easy!

Pumpkin Pie Bites

2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Optional
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.
Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)
Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw faces on pies.

Note: The cutter I used was 3 3/4 inches wide, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry. Just use a round cutter around that size or slightly smaller to cut circle shapes out of the dough. Then make stems with the scraps. Press each stem over the edge and down the side of the dough before filling.

Pumpkin pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.

Enjoy!