THIS IS THE YEAR . . .

2009 is the year that...

• I will celebrate my 40th birthday (February 19)
• Eric & I will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary (March 20)
• Avery will be 9 (April 30) and Ella will be 7 (March 11)
• We will have lived in our house for 10 years (December)
• We will have attended North for 8 years (March)
• I will have served in MOPS for 6 years (January)
• I will have been a Christ-follower for 12 years (November)
• I will have been a Seton Catholic Central high school graduate for 22 years and a Cornell University grad for 18 years

Wow, lots of years to celebrate.

To ring in the New Year, we traveled home to celebrate the birthday of one of my best friends, Christine (aka T.T.). She hosted a fun, fun party (you should have seen the "Dancing Queens" routine!)

We loved spending the evening with my sister, Coleen & her husband, Jerry

as well as our good friends Jackie & Chet (along with many other friends, new and old).

"You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance" Psalm 65:11

Thank you, God, for a new year of Your promises!

PHOTO SHOOT

One of Ella's favorite activities is to build a "fort" in the family room. She just pulls the cushions off the couch, adds a blanket roof, and she is in business. Yesterday, after she put the blanket on, she got a glimpse of her reflection in the TV. Apparently it reminded her of the back-drops that photographers use when she has had her picture taken. So she asked me to get the camera so that she could do a "photo shoot". Here is my beautiful Ella, modeling in her little studio . . .

RARE (AND NOT SO RARE) SHOTS

Avery & Ella have 9 cousins on the Tillis side of the family, ranging in age from 16 (Jake) to 6 (Ella). It is RARE that we get a good photo of all of them together, but this Christmas we did!

From left to right you see (with their moms' names in parentheses for those of you who know all of the Tillis sisters!): Jake (Kristy) - 16 years; Ella (Maria) - 6 years; Erin (Kristy) - 13 years; Samantha (Coleen) - 13 years; Kelli (Kristy) - 8 years; Greg (Lori) - 12 years; Amanda (Lori) - 8 years; Tyler (Coleen) - 10 years; Avery (Maria) - 8 years

Another RARE (and hopefully not common) photo is this shot of my mom and dad. Mom had surgery this past fall that resulted in some temporary paralysis in her face. As you can see, there is hardly any remnant of the paralysis anymore. Dad had his second shoulder surgery just last week, thus his immobilized arm. Praise God for lots of answered prayers for their quick and full healing!

Other RARE shots are pictures of the adults in my family. I don't know why we only take pictures of the kids! Here is a picture of my sister, Coleen, and her husband, Jerry (with their new Brita pitcher -- woo hoo!).

And here is a picture of my sister, Lori (and her new purse :)

The last couple of shots are not so RARE, but just so very CUTE! Here is Jake (16 years old) with the ornament he received from Grandma & Grandpa. Jake is a black belt in Krav Maga (sp?), thus the martial arts ornament. Jake is so talented, smart and an all-around nice guy. He was the first Tillis grandchild/nephew and will always be special to each one of us. I am so proud of him (and have lots of embarrassing stories to tell his future wife someday)!

Last but not least, here is a shot of Avery & Amanda (both 8 years old) in their matching American Girl pj's. And of course, matching pj's for their AG dolls too :)

I love all of our photos from the Tillis Christmas celebration but couldn't possibly post them all here. We are looking forward to some more time with our Tillis family over the New Year!

FAMILY TIME ON CHRISTMAS EVE

We always look forward to Christmas eve with our Connor/Weisensel family. This year (and last year) Great-Grandpa wasn't well enough to join us, so Eric and the girls visited him in the afternoon. Later in the day we headed over to Mom & Gary's house for our annual Christmas get-together.

Game-playing and puzzling are always a part of the fun on Christmas eve...

...as well as good food and Grandma's awesome cookies! We hope you enjoy the full album of our Christmas eve festivities, as well as some more photos from our family's Christmas day.

Merry CHRISTmas!

FAVORITE GIFTS

American Girl stole the show this year, as far as gifts go. On Christmas eve, both girls received American Girl pajamas from Grandpa & Grandma W. Avery's pj's included a matching set for her doll!

Both girls asked for an AG doll and held out hope that they would find one under the tree. Mom was tricky...I put the small presents under the tree and hid the dolls in the guest bedroom (the shape of the boxes would have given them away!). Their last presents under the tree were "accessories" for Mia & Nellie, the dolls they requested for Christmas. On the back of the presents was this note:

They ran to the guest bedroom and excitedly opened their new dolls. I was so proud of both of them... neither one showed any disappointment when they didn't see the dolls under the tree. They have been working on having an "attitude of gratitude" in all circumstances, and today they showed that so beautifully!

Mia and Nellie were welcomed into our family in an enthusiastic manner. They were the center of play all morning and both have a cozy bed in their new "mommy's" room. As Ella said when she opened Mia, "I never thought I would have an American Girl doll of my own!"

Awwww...

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS 4: JESSE TREE

Special family devotions for the Christmas season have always been a tradition for us. Last year we used the wonderful heirloom Christmas tree countdown, made by Eric's mom, and tailored our devotions around each ornament as we placed it on the tree.

I've always wanted to do a Jesse Tree with the girls, and this year I found a wonderful book to provide the basis for our devotions. The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God's salvation plan from creation and throughout the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit."

Our Jesse Tree was actually a poster (you know that I am NOT crafty!!). Each night, the girls colored a "leaf" for the tree that coincided with the story we read. Sometimes the story we read was about a person in Jesus' lineage (Abraham, Ruth, Mary) and other times the story was about a prophet or event in the course of God's plan.

The book we used is The Jesse Tree written by Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrated by Bee Willey. I highly recommend this book. There are so many fun ways you can create your family's Jesse Tree, based on the stories. Next year we might use molding clay and shape the symbols :)

Our Jesse Tree devotions have been an awesome reminder to our family that God didn't begin thinking about a solution to sin at Christmas. God's big plan to reconcile people to Himself began in the beginning, with the promise of a Messiah, and many lessons along the way to illustrate our inability to save ourselves.

So tonight, on Christmas Eve, we rejoice that Jesus is alive! He has come and saved us through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

"Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:6-11 (NLT)

Merry CHRISTmas! Thank You, Jesus! We love you!

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS 3: CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Each year we love to drive around town and see the Christmas lights. Sometimes we make a detour while we are already out, other nights we have the girls get into their pj's and then head out in the car, instead of heading to bed. We have a few "regular" spots that we go to every year. This year I received a notice via email about a couple who decorates their house with more than 100,000 lights. So tonight we headed out to check it out. It was unbelievable!

This picture didn't come out very well, but it was a gingerbread house with a nativity on the side and the heavenly host on the roof.

We ran into our friends, Sean & Kristin, who were also there getting involved in the Christmas cheer.

The couple who own the home start decorating in July-August and they come outside each night to welcome guests to their holiday display and hand out candy canes

If you live in our town and would like to see the lights, email me for specifics. Everything will come down on Dec. 26 and this is the last year they are doing it.

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

Oh the weather outside is frightful . . . at least it was yesterday! Ella's school was cancelled and we ended up bringing Avery home early so she didn't have to ride the bus on the slippery streets. We had about 10 inches of snow yesterday and it is beautiful!

Today it was cold but sunny so we all went to a park to sled. Eric was bummed that he couldn't sled (still nursing the back) but the girls and I had a blast!

Ella was especially hardy -- down the hills and back up again, even when she was so tired she could barely make it up.

Avery decided to take a break and didn't really get up again :)

As we prepare for Christmas, we are excited that it might actually be "white"! And we praise God, the creator of snow, and everything else, for the pretty world that we live in today.

RUDOLPH COOKIES

Check out these adorable reindeer cookies that Ella made! Just a dab of white icing fastens the twist pretzel antlers, red M&M nose, and chocolate chip eyes to a Nutter Butter cookie. All set for her Christmas party at school tomorrow!

SMALL GROUP CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

What an awesome night! Our small group joined together with our "other half" to enjoy good food, awesome singing, and wonderful friendships. We are blessed to have GREAT musicians in our group!

With Gary on the guitar, Allison on violin, Chris on piano, Harlan on drums and Willie with the bass, we sang many Christmas favorites and even enjoyed a rousing rendition of Feliz Navidad (thanks to Kristen!).

Here are a few photos from our evening together . . .

Kim, Falen & Cheryl

Kathy & Dave

Jill & Kim

Chris & Loriann

The guys: Eric, Willie, Jim, Gary & Harlan

Karen, Kim, Jill & Michel

Cheryl, Kristen & Kathy

This is our current small group:

And our "other half" that multiplied into a new group last year:

Thank you, Mario & Michel, for hosting us and to Kim for putting this wonderful evening together. We love all of you guys!

COUSIN LOVE

I didn't grow up in close proximity to my cousins (and I only have a couple of them), so it is great fun to watch our girls develop a close friendship with their first cousins. This weekend they had a lot of time to spend with their girl cousins on the Tillis side. On Saturday, we went to Skaneateles to the Dickens Christmas festival. It was freezing, but the frequent indoor stops and free hot chocolate helped to warm us up.

To Avery & Ella's delight, their 8-year-old cousins, Amanda & Kelli, returned home with us for an overnight stay. They had many rounds of hide-the-Webkinz and various other made-up games. Not to mention a VERY late night and early morning. We spent this afternoon at the Strong Museum and made many happy memories.

We are thankful for my sisters and Eric's brothers and the many cousins who bless our family!

To see the full album of our weekend with the cousins, visit our Kodak gallery here!

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS 2: WHERE IS BABY JESUS?

This is one of our very favorite traditions, and it is actually a tradition from the Tillis family. I've been doing this all of my life (slightly modified for our family)!

We have 8 nativity sets, ranging from the "nice" porcelain set in the living room to the plastic set that I got the girls to play with when they were toddlers. Each year we set them up around the house. Almost every room has one. However, the baby Jesus figure from each set is hidden until Christmas morning. When the girls wake up on Christmas, the first thing they do is place each baby Jesus in His manger.

Usually I lay the baby Jesus figures on the dining room table and the girls take them from there to the appropriate mangers (followed by Eric with the video camera, of course!) However, last year Avery decided that the figures should be hidden so that she and Ella could hunt for them. At first this sounded a little sacriligious to me, but then I thought, "why not?" and so our new tradition includes a hunt for the figures. Hmmm...that strangely mirrors the egg hunt that we do at Easter...

The reason that I love this tradition is that it focuses my children on why we are celebrating Christmas. There hasn't been a year where they run to see what's under the tree first. They have always delighted in placing baby Jesus in His manger before we turn towards the presents. I hope this means that they're beginning to understand that He is the greatest gift that we will ever receive.

"The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23