Merry Christmas

The Wreath Is On The Door

The wreath is on the door
And the snow is on the tree
God has laid His holy hands
On all that we can see.

Be quick to raise your voice
And praise what He has brought.
Keep now His love in every choice
And Christmas in every thought.

Merry Christmas

Learning To Ride Her Bike

Five months ago her great-grandparents and aunts on her grandmother's side got her a new bike for her Birthday.

At her house they live on a hill on a main st and it is not safe for her to ride it there and this bike is bigger than her other bike or her tricycle and she finally grew into it.

Her mother brought it over this weekend and said it could stay at our house because she could ride it in the garage or outside since it is flat and the sidewalks are flat.

We have an over-sized garage and there is plenty of room to ride around the truck without bumping it.

She ducked her head when she saw that I was going to take her picture. It's not from shyness, but her mom will do the same thing to keep from having her picture taken.

Each time that she goes around the truck her confidence grows. She can even stand up and pedal all the way around. On each round the smiles even get bigger.

Now here is a face of a ride well done.

Poppy, "I'm doing a great job riding my bike. Maybe soon I can ride it outside.

Can I ride just a little while longer, I'm not cold and you know that I'm having fun.

Sure, you can ride a little while longer since you are having this much fun, I wouldn't want to end it now.

 As she races around the car to beat the previous count she breaks into a smile knowing that she has broken her previous time.

I believe this face say's it all about how much fun she has had riding her bike.

This Is How We Spent Our Black Friday

As soon as Chloe woke up this morning she said that she wanted some bacon for breakfast. I had gone the night before and gotten her some bacon because she doesn't like the Turkey bacon that I eat.

She is such a picky eater that we like to keep on hand things that we know that she will eat and bacon is one of the things that she loves.

As soon as she finishes her breakfast she looks over at me and asks, "What are we going to do now?"
"What do you want to do?," I asked her back. "Well we could play Barbie dolls or color some pictures or go and ride my bike." I answered her with, "How about we color some while we are here at the table. I will get the crayons and some paper and we can draw and color whatever we want to."

"Poppy, I will uses the newer crayons and you can uses the older ones ok and if they break with you that will be ok."

 I love it at these times where as we are coloring or playing she tells me things that she has learned at school for the week as well as the year. Her mind is an open book soaking it all in and she has learned alot of things this year.

 

She colors on her page the stars and the moon and the sun and the clouds. And then she said, "Poppy you know that God made the heavens and the earth. He made the stars and the moon and the sun. You see up here with the stars I put the moon and the night together like he did and down here I put the sun and the clouds and the sky and the ground, just like He did." I wanted to hug her as she was talking, but I knew that if I did, the talking would cease and the subject would change so we continued to color.

"This picture on the bottom is a stable." "Jesus was born in a stable because there was no room in the Inn." It's sad Poppy that they had know room in the Inn, isn't it." "Do you think it was cold out there?" "Were the animals out there as well?" "The best thing was that God was there with them." "You couldn't see Him but he was there." "I want to cut this picture out for the refrigerator, ok!"

 "Here is my picture of the stable and the three wise men and baby Jesus mother. I'm not sure how to draw a baby."

Now Poppy, "I will tell you a story and I want you to draw the picture as I tell it to you and we can see it the story matches the picture. We do this in school sometimes and it helps to complete the story.

This story is about the Garden Of Eden. In this garden there were two people, a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. And for their clothes they wore fig leaves to cover them for clothes. Eden was like a garden, with trees and plants and things to eat. But God told them that they could eat anything except from the tree of Good and Evil. Also in this garden was a snake (he is the devil) but don't listen to him because he will get you in trouble.

Poppy, "You did a good job of matching the picture to the story." I was glad that I knew the story so I could draw it.

Now I want you to draw me a coat and I will color it after you are finished. I'm not sure how to draw a coat and you will know more about that than me. This story is about a coat that was made for Joseph, and it was a coat of many colors. His brothers were jealous of him because of the coat and that his parents loved him very much. His brothers put him in a pit and told his father a story that was a lie. What they had really done was sold him to get rid of him. In the end he saw them again and they all got back together as a family.

Here is the coat after she finished coloring it. I think that she did a great job of coloring it.

She wanted me to help her spell the words as she wrote them under the picture telling about the above story.

Now Poppy it is your turn to tell a funny story and you will draw a picture to match the story and I will too.

After thinking for a while, I told her that my story was a rhyme and it goes like this:

Here comes the bride,
Big fat and wide.
Here comes the groom,
Skinny as a broom.

She thought that this was so funny and it would be fun to draw and match this rhyme.

Here is Chloe's picture to match the rhyme.

Here is my picture to match the rhyme.

Chloe said that the groom should be wide and the bride small and thin. I explained to her that the words didn't rhyme. She said I can fix that, listen to this.

Here comes the groom,
Big as the room.
Here comes the bride,
See how she glides.

Oh how quick that mind of hers is. She thought of that so quickly.

She wanted to draw the last picture of Bell her kitten and her Christmas tree. She loves cats and you can tell from this picture.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We were surprised when Chloe came over on Thanksgiving Day and she was dressed like Pocahontas. She had made the little dress at Learning Tree during the summer and she wore it with pride today.

She had her hair pulled back into two braids and she looked oh so cute. She was so excited to be here and to have Thanksgiving Lunch.

When her mother brought her she also brought over her bicycle that we (our family) had gotten her for her birthday five months ago. She said that she could just now reach the pedals. We put it into the garage so she could ride it later in the day.

She has gotten to where she doesn't want you to take her picture and if she sees or hears the camera she will turn her face away from you or move her hands so it will be blurry. I just need a faster camera and it would solve this problem.

I went out of the room and came back in and bingo she was looking right at the camera. I can see now why she turned her head. Aunt Emily bought her some candy after Halloween and this was one of the pieces that she bought. The sucker is on the reverse side and this looks like a mouth on the outside.

When the door bell rang again we were surprised because we were not expecting anyone else, but when I went to the door I saw who it was. David (our son and Chloe's Dad) was standing there and was going to spend the day with us. This was a delightful surprise to us and Chloe.

Chloe was one happy little girl, she had a day with her daddy and was at her grandparents as well. She said, "It can't get any better than this." You can tell from the smile on her happy face that she was going to have a great Thanksgiving.

 

Mom asked David to come and help her in the kitchen so she could get things on the table, so Chloe came to see what was going on.

She needed some help to open some cans and he was having a little problem as well. Chloe was there to give them some advice.

The was time for some one on one before we ate lunch.....,

And some time for a little horse-play as well...,

 

Bring on the food Grandmother, I'm hungry. She will probably eat some turkey and that will be all that she will eat.

 Chloe is sharing something funny with her dad about the turkey.

She is so excited to be having Thanksgiving with her daddy, she is filling up his ears.

After Chloe had eaten some turkey for lunch and had gotten up from the table, she had gotten quite. This could only mean one of two things. She had either fallen asleep or she was into something that she shouldn't be into. After looking around for her I found her on the kitchen counter looking into the cabinets for something sweet to eat. She likes to open the bottom cabinets and used the drawers as steps to gain access to the countertop and then look thru the upper cabinets for Grand Mother's hiding places.