Madeline's Christmas

This weekend, Avery had the privilege to do one of her favorite activities -- acting! In September, she was cast as a supporting character, Gigi, in the musical, "Madeline's Christmas". She performed two shows on Saturday, after rehearsing for the past few months.

Avery was thrilled to have Dad, Mom, Ella & Grandma attend her morning performance, and some of her good friends, Maria, Faithann, Mandi, Sam and their parents attend her evening show. She was overwhelmed (in a good way!) by the support and praise she received from her "fans" :)

I wasn't able to get her picture in full costume (adorable red "Madeline-style" coat), but I captured a couple of shots in her French beret. Acting is one of the things that Avery loves to do, and God has gifted her to shine on the stage. We are so glad to see her developing into the beautiful young lady that God has made her to be!

Pandora Radio

As I understand it, I am late to the game on this, so maybe you already know all about it?! Eric's friend told him about this great online (FREE) Internet radio called Pandora. It is very easy to use and so cool!

1) Go to Pandora Radio and set up a free account
2) Create a "new station" by choosing an artist or song that you particularly like

Pandora will play a song similar to the artist/song you've chosen, then go on to tailor a "radio station" that has songs/artists similar to the one you specified. They use something called The Music Genome Project to identify which songs you will like. It's really amazing how right-on they are in selecting songs that fit what I want to hear!

A really cool feature is that you can create multiple radio stations and choose which one you would like to hear at any given time. For example, I have 4 stations: 1) Fee Radio, 2) Selah Holiday Radio (had to have this for the Christmas season!), 3) Third Day Radio, and (my newest and favorite) 4) Sovereign Grace Radio. The names of my stations are named after the artists that I entered when I first created the radio station.

If you are so inclined, you can learn more about the artist, album, song and lyrics of the song you are hearing. You can also bookmark a certain artist or song. The one thing you can't do is request a specific song -- you get what you get! But so far I've liked 99% of what I hear, and you can skip any songs that you don't like.

One of the reasons why I like this so much is that I am hearing songs and artists that I've never heard before. I am getting so many ideas of CD's that I want (dangerous)! But if you're willing to just wait, and listen to what you get, you can hear it all for free. It's very cool!

Keys to Christmas Joy

It is really easy for me to get caught up in my to-do list around this time of year. Shopping, wrapping, writing cards, & decorating -- it's all fun, but it's not what I want Christmas to be all about. So to combat my hustle & bustle tendencies, I seek out resources to help me stay focused on Jesus. I'm guessing that many of you probably struggle with this same issue, so I thought I would share with you a few of my favorite finds of the season.

Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, by Nancy Guthrie, is a collection of 22 short readings drawn from the works of classic and contemporary theologians and Bible teachers that help readers to focus on and enter into the wonder of the incarnation of Jesus and the story of his birth. I love reading one each morning throughout advent!


Another place where I always find wisdom, Biblical advice, encouragement (and often a good laugh!) is at Girltalk, the website and blog of Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters. This year, I found a great resource there called Keys to Christmas Joy. This is a downloadable article (actually a series of articles) that will challenge you to keep your mind and heart on "the most important thing" this Christmas season. A few quotes that I have been pondering include:

"So let's pray for ourselves and our loved ones: that God would 'help us in our blessings.' That He would give us 'much grace to keep us humble in the midst of riches' this Christmas."

"The actual 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas' is often the sin of worldliness. It's at the root of much of the anxiety, unhappiness, bickering, discontent and strife that permeate what should be a joyous time."

"But if we give priority to our time in God's Word and to prayer, we will find renewed joy each morning. Joy that sticks in the midst of Christmas craziness."

Check out the whole article here. You will be blessed and challenged!


Last but not least, I read a new (to me) book this year called In Search of the Real Spirit of Christmas, by Dan Schaeffer. This book is amazing in that it takes away some of the familiarity of the Christmas story by challenging me to think about God's amazing plan, Christ's sacrifice in taking on human form, and the wonder and glory behind the story that I know so well.

I pray that you will all have a blessed Christmas season, filled with Sabbath rest and a fresh joy that comes with daily surrender to Jesus and His Holy Spirit within you.

Christmas Cute-stuff, by Ella

This is an angel.




This is a wise man. He is from Paris. [Mom: "Why is he from Paris?] Because he's wearing a beret. [Mom: Why is he wearing a beret?] Because his bald head didn't look good!