A frog reading a Christmas Story

I had to leave the house to substitute teach today at 6:30 am. After school, I had a family photo shoot. So I didnt get home until 5:15. Not much time to do any fun Advent activities. Tonight, we opened up Door 8. Inside was a wind up butterfly. Very cute! Blogging without pics just isnt as fun! Sorry!
We are both tired, Audrey asleep next to me, already.
So, we curled up in bed with 3 Christmas books and a Frog Princess puppet. I proceeded to read The Berenstein Bear's Santa Bear, Jingle Bells, and Mercer Meyer's The Night Before Christmas. Audrey wasnt happy when the puppet got in the way of her view of the book....but she got the gist of the "fun" idea.
Tomorrow, I teach again. Jim will be spending the whole day as Daddy. He came home tonight with a bag filled with crafts and paints and stickers. So Audrey is in for a great Daddy Day!
I just finished my devotional from today, yet another Girlfriends in God.
It focused on the gifts that Jesus was given on that first Christmas.
The gift of Trust from Mary. Can you imagine: "trust me Mary, your having a baby, the messiah." Imagine what the young girl thought??!!!
And The gift of Obedience from Joseph. Imagine that trust he had to have in God and in Mary!
The gift of Praise from the shepards.
and the Gifts of sacrifice from the wise men.
The devotional stated:As the Christmas season approaches, I encourage you to examine your heart and life. What gift does Jesus want from you this year? Is it whole-hearted trust? Is the Father waiting on your willingness to obey before revealing the next step on your journey? Do you live in the gear of attitude and praise? Is He asking you to lay everything down as a sweet-smelling sacrifice unto Him? The best gift we can give Him this year is our heart, soul and mind.

My answer is: what is he NOt saying to me....Circle z for all of the above.
I will start by giving him my trust.
Trusting that over the next few weeks he prepares my heart for whatever he has for me.
God is good.
AND< I didnt even need to read this with a puppet! LOL!

Are you Ready for Christmas?

Today, we opened up our 7th door of Advent.
Inside, there was a skiing wind-up snowman. Super fun!

I decided to make the rest of the day a crafting, baking, special day( I have to subsititute teach for the next two days, so I am trying to get in as much fun as I can).
First, we busted out our paints.

We made a Christmas Tree with Audrey's Feet.
Then, we made a hand print wreath, which went a little awry. but she loved it anyway.

Eventually, Audrey had paint everywhere. Thank God it is washable.

It was so much fun!
I found Toy Story on VHS in our craft closet, so we enjoyed seeing it while we painted and played. And then we watched, The Ant Bully. So good!

Then, we ran to the grocery store and gathered ingredients to bake some of the recipes we found in our Disney Family Fun Magazine.

First we made Reindeer Munch, which was AWESOME! We will definately make more of this!

Then, we made cinnamon Almond and Peanut Brittle. I JUST CAN"T GET IT RIGHT! I follow the recipe and for two years, it comes out too chewy...lose a filling chewy!

I think I will stick to buying Old Dominion...LOL!
We will be reading our Christmas Story at bedtime today with a puppet. :)
We will Jingle the neighbors and friends when it stops raining! HAHA!
For me today, I sat down and enjoyed one of my Girlfriends in God Devotionals. Here is the poem they shared today. Are you Ready for Christmas?
“Ready for Christmas,” she said with a sigh
As she gave a last touch to the gifts piled high…
Then wearily sat for a moment and read,
Til soon, very soon, she was nodding her head.
Then quietly spoke a voice in her dream,
“Ready for Christmas, what do you mean?”
She woke with a start and a cry of despair.
“There’s so little time and I’ve still to prepare.
Oh, Father! Forgive me, I see what You mean!
To be ready means more than a house swept clean.
Yes, more than the giving of gifts and a tree.
It’s the heart swept clean that He wanted to see,
A heart that is free from bitterness and sin.”
So be ready for Christmas - and ready for Him.

In the devotional it says:
It seems like everywhere you go during the month of December people ask the same question. At the grocery checkout counter - “Are you ready for Christmas?” At the bank drive-through window - “Are you ready for Christmas?” At the doctor’s office - “Are you ready for Christmas?”

I am always taken aback when my friend Jeanne says, if God comes tomorrow, I will be happy.
I dont want to go yet, but it doesnt mean that I am not ready.
Listen when I write this: I AM A SINNER. I swear, I fail God EVERY SINGLE DAY....That is why I am so happy to say with 100% of my heart, that I am READY! God loves everyone even me, STACY SALTER. When I fail, he fails me not, even me, the swearing loud driven in the wrong direction woman he stares down at everyday.

So I am challenging myself today and for the rest of my days to strive everyday to be a person he can be proud of.

This is my truth in the midst of being me:
Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

YES, I am READY for Christmas

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen....

This morning we got up and opened our 5th and 6th Advent doors.

We forgot our door yesterday. Behind it was a Reindeer finger puppet and a reindeer slap bracelet.

Audrey loves to open the doors. She'd like to open all of them, so it definately builds some suspense for her. Keeping with our reindeer theme, we sang Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer, a couple dozen times. She was a quick learner, what can I say!

Then, we opened up one of our mini Christmas books, while Audrey ate her toast. This led us to read all 6 of our mini books.

If you are ever looking for a cute gift for a toddler that likes books, I highly recommend these little books. She loves them! She tells me that she will read me a story and says "Once upon a time....." So cute!

Last night we made cookies, and will set out to JINGLE some friends tomorrow.
We love Disney Family Fun Magazine. They had our activity for today.

We took 3 mason jars, 3 strips of tin foil, 3 candles, 1 toothpick, a marker and an egg box, and made a luminary set that says JOY.

We cut the foil, traced the letters, poked holes over the outline and then wrapped the foil around the mason jar and filled them with candles and lit them.

JOY seemed the most appropriate for us, since it is Audreys middle name.
Audrey made up her own letters and did not WANT to poke thru her drawing.

We will light them on our porch tonight!

Give without remembering. Take without forgetting.

I believe with 100% of my heart that it is better to give than to receive at Christmas.
I make a list of everyone I want to buy a gift for or do something special for, and I get to it, with vigor.
I love to surprise people. I love to show a person that during the holiday season and always they are not forgotten and are appreciated.
We have alot of planned giving on our to do lists from now until Christmas.
We started the first of our GIVING plans today.
Audrey and I went to the grocery store and bought 1 bag of dog food and 1 bag of cat food. We drove to our local animal rescue and dropped it off. We are fortunate to have a safe dry place for our dog Molli and our cat Jagger. Audrey loves animals, so we decided that would be a great holiday giving idea.
If you want to give to your local animal rescue leagues, they are always listing their needs on their websites, or you can call and ask. Often, they need old newspapers, blankets, etc....so anyone can give.
NEXT, we went on a little fun necessities shopping spree and we made a Care package for one of our favorite military friends. We can't wait for Christina to receive her special surprise package( hopefully, she isnt reading the blog...LOL) We sent her candy and lipstick, a christmas book about home, a snowglobe and some little makeups, soap, etc... Merry Christmas Christina Burdge and thank you for serving our country. Christina is one of my best friend's daughters. She is in the navy and stationed in Italy., We couldnt be prouder of her and we wanted to share our appreciation by sending her this surprise. SO, Christina, if you read this before your package gets there: SURPRISE and ENJOY! We love you!
God so loved the world, that he gave his ONLY son. That is the greatest gift of all.
That is our scripture for today.
No pictures for todays blog, just a notion that I hoped is placed into the hearts of all my readers. Tis better to Give than to receive. God Bless you!

Letters to Santa

When we arrived home after Dickens, we settled into our Advent routine again.
Audrey opened her Advent Tree to find a tree finger puppet.
Then, Audrey wrote a letter to Santa Claus. I think it said, a pony! LOL!
She even got help from daddy with her letter.

Audrey was so blessed to open so many beautiful gifts from our friends.
we needed to say Thank YOU! in a big way, so we made reindeer thumbprint Thank You cards. Unfortunately, her little thumbs were so small, we had to use my thumbprints, but they came our really cute!

Today is a busy day of Advent giving. Read more later!

Celebrating Advent...Dickens style

We headed to my parents for Dickens of a Christmas this weekend.
We didnt take our advent tree, but we still managed to celebrate.
We thoroughly enjoyed our annual gathering.
Audrey spent her morning with Mom Mom. Our family and friends spent the evening at my parents playing games, eating good food, and exchanging presents.
It is certainly my favorite time of the year.

Lost in the mix

When I woke up this morning, very early thanks to my little girl, came downstairs and something silly caught my eye. THIS:

In the midst of all of the Little People christmas sets, there was baby Jesus. Right in the middle, reminding me what advent is really all about.
Funny, how that happens! How I catch myself being reminded in some unlikely spots. God has a sense of humor.
We have special plans for this evening. We will be heading to Williamsport to see Summer Street aka Christmas Candy Lane, a whole street of houses that celebrate the holidays by decorating every year. Nobody bows out( I dont think that they can, I think it is part of their convenance as home owners). I can remember it being there as long as, well as long as I can remember.
That will be our family activity. Aunt Jen will be coming along and Mom Mom.
We had leftover red and Green Pancakes this morning. I guess I will be putting food coloring into pancakes for quite a few years now. They still tasted as good as they did yesterday.
We opened day 2 of our advent tree and inside was a fingerpupppet snowman. Audrey took him over and introduced him to the Little People.

.
Then, we read Rudolph to the Rescue.

. They should have stopped with Rudolph Book....this one was weird. LOL...yep I said it!
We sang Silent Night as our song this morning.
Then,

I dressed Audrey up in her Snowflake best and we decided to take some time to write our names and santa's name on the cold front door.

Our scripture this morning was actually part of my devotional Girlfriends in God.
Psalm 96: Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
In the midst of your crazy day, think of that picture and stop and give thanks for God's sense of humor.
Happy 2nd day of Advent!