Christmas Week

We started off our Christmas week with a couple days at Michelle's grandparents' farm. The kids had a great time climbing on farm equipment and hay bales, playing in the dirt and doing anything else outside that we would let them do.

Katie, Josh, Jacob and Aaron on the tractor (not running).

Mamaw showing Katie how to hit a golf ball. Luckily, she didn't hit her 1 1/2 year old grandson standing 10 feet in front of her.

Katie and Aaron after a round of golf.

About 20 people showed up for the holiday gathering in south Arkansas. It was almost like there was nothing else going on down there... We exchanged gifts - Matt was shocked at the bag of socks that great-mamaw gave him. I think he secretly was hoping for a High School Musical CD (he's a huge fan)--but unfortunately, he received the same gift all the men in the family receive every year.....a package of socks.

Here are a few family pictures we took during Christmas.

Katie, Jacob, and Josh with Great Papaw and Great Mamaw.

Aaron, Josh, Katie & Jacob with Papaw and Mamaw.

Josh, Katie & Aaron

Aaron, Katie, Jacob & Josh

A couple of days before Christmas I found this card Katie had made under our Christmas tree next to her piggy bank. The card says:

To: God From: Katie

Merry Christmas, Jesus!

Here's a picture of her gift to Jesus. Yes, it is a piggy bank, and there is money in it. She gets an allowance every week, and we make her take 10% of it to church, and the rest she either gets to put in her own piggy bank or this black piggy bank which is her China piggy bank. We got this idea for her to have a "special" piggy bank after she told me that she wanted to give some of her money to her Mamaw and Papaw so they could use it to tell the kids in China about Jesus. She decides every week whether she wants to put money into it or not, but we put the piggy bank under the tree this year so she could give it to her Mamaw and Papaw since they were able to spend Christmas with us. Much to our surprise, she had put over $20 in the China piggy bank since this summer.

Christmas morning was a little chaotic at the Thompson household. My sister and her family, as well as my parents were here to spend the holidays with us. We told the kids that they were not allowed out of their room until 7:00 a.m. After a quick breakfast we went downstairs to open gifts. The kids were ecstatic at the Nintendo DS's that Mamaw and Papaw had bought for them.

Here's a picture of them later that night all curled up in me and Jeremy's bed playing with their new favorite toy.

They also had a blast playing the High School Music game that Katie got from her Grandma.

Aaron, Katie & Josh really got into singing and dancing to all of the High School Musical songs. Even Jeremy and Uncle Matt got into the wildcat spirit by singing a duet together (FYI - Jeremy had to tell Matt several times to quit gazing deeply into his eyes). Unfortunately, I was forbidden from taking any pictures.

HOLY PANCAKE!!!

Every now and then the Creator of the universe decides to bestow blessings upon some of his closest followers by branding his holy image onto food. We've all heard of Jesus' face showing up on pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc., but few of us are actually holy enough to have experienced this special touch of God ourselves. Your wait is over. While making pancakes for Michelle and Katie this morning, a holy light shined down on me and the voices of an angelic host echoed in my ear. Take a deep breath. Below, you will see photographic evidence of God's divine favor on my life.

What am I to do with this unexpected blessing from above? Bidding starts at $5,000. Amen.

Christmas Lights

Jeremy finally got our Christmas lights up this past weekend. This is the one thing I think he hates doing more than anything when it comes to getting the house decorated for Christmas. But he puts the lights up without complaining too much because he knows Katie and I love them. As you can see from the picture below he's super excited about the task at hand.

And of course he has to pose for the camera while he's working--he wanted me to take this picture of him. You would think he'd be a little more careful about maintaining his balance since he's about 30 feet up in the air, but no.

What a stud--or at least he think's he's one.

Sweetie, thanks for putting all the Christmas lights up they look great. And thank you for not falling off the roof of the house and breaking your neck while posing for these pictures.