Christmas Highlights

The highlight of Janelle's Christmas has definitely turned out to be her new cash register. I have to say, the thing is pretty sweet. It's been a week since Christmas and the family has already logged many "store" hours. This generally consists of walking around the house, filling up your shopping basket with random things like fridge magnets, chapstick, one lone sock, and a container of Play-Doh, and then taking them to Janelle to "checkout." She is having a blast but I'm not sure she has much of a future in retail. She runs a very special store where somehow you end up leaving with your merchandise AND more money than you came with. And sometimes she doesn't even let you pay. She just rings up your items and insists that you accept a large wad of cash. That's my kind of store.

The highlight of Lilly's Christmas is an easy call: sweets. We've always been very careful about what we fed the girls when they were babies. We would rather err on the side of caution and figured that they would consume enough junk in their lives. There was no need to rush into it early. So Lilly hadn't even tasted sugar until her birthday cupcakes earlier this month, Now, however, my little sugar addict is hooked. She has sampled tidbits of cinnamon rolls, Christmas cookies, frosting, fudge, and Nana's Amaretto Supreme Chocolate Cake. She spent the majority of any holiday gathering we attended toddling around making sad puppy-dog eyes at anyone who would make eye contact and then repeatedly signing "more." If you find yourself looking at a sad-eyed Pickle, standing in front of you making the sign for "more," please do NOT give her any baked goods! We are starting an intense Christmas cookie detox program this January.

Andy and I are having a hard time naming a Christmas highlight. As cheesy and cliche as it sounds, it's because we have been so incredibly blessed this year and we can't choose just one thing. After some discussion, we have decided to pick the entire year of 2009 as our highlight. There is not one thing we would change about this past year. Even the difficult things God has used to bring glory to His name and shape us into people who more passionately pursue Him. We praise Him for the blessings of this year and look forward to 2010, knowing that whatever comes, He holds our family safely in the palm of His hand.