christmas eve

I haven't put the gifts under the tree all this week because I knew the temptation would be too great for my little guy. But tonight I thought it would be nice to put them under and I was tidying the house anyways, so I did. Elijah came up stairs with Jon to go to bed and immediately saw the gifts...now 45mins later we are still trying to get him to go to sleep. Jon is very patient with him.
I guess that's half the fun of christmas. he doesn't really get the idea that if he goes to sleep the morning will come faster.
Oh well.

Philippians 4.4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: REJOICE!

Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me- put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Christmas time is here!

Well, it has been awhile. The real reason being that I dread using my very very slow dial up connection. (Sasktel please stop exploiting the fact that I will in the middle of nowhere so that you can overcharge me and make up for the revenue losses you take by offering great deals to those in the populace, so you can compete with the competition.)

Anyways, the reason I decided to blog today was because I had some pictures to share and I had nothing else to do. (Correction: I could have clean the bathroom, cleaned my stove or mopped the floor, or cleaned up the huge mess Elijah made in the guest bedroom...but who wants to start into that at 9:30pm)

So this first picture is of Grace. We all went to the youth banquet and the kids got into some chocolate, as you can tell. She is so cute. Yes, Scott and Liz that is the shirt you sent her...and I did get all the chocolate out :)

And the second one here is of the Christmas tree at the Chalmers household. Nothing special, but I like it. Sorry the picture is so dark. I've done alot of popcorn and cranberry stringing this year...that's my Christmas tradition. I've been really trying to keep Christmas simple this year. I have the temptation to want to make things complicated but God's always asking me about my motives. It is way too easy for me to make Christmas about some many other than things, rather than Christ. So this simple tree is a reminder to me to make Christmas about Christ. I think people who can have a beautiful Christmas home and Keep Chirst as their focus are amazing. I'm sure there are alot of ppl out there that can do it...Unfortunately for me...my heart is wicked and self absorbed...not to be self abasing or anything!

So ya, the point of all this is to say we are enjoying or Christmas season. We've done some good visiting, and I've been baking, and I've personally been learning alot about myself.