Christmas Eve 2006 - Will I Remember...?

It's almost 7PM on Christmas eve and I got to thinking about 10 or 20 years from now. Will I remember Christmas 2006? Will I remember Quatro and Seis's first Christmas as members of our family? The excitement of leaving cookies and milk for Santa? Quatro yelling to Uno and Dos that the cookies are NOT FOR THEM!!! :) Or Quatro running around hugging everyone yelling Merry Christmas, showing more loving emotions to us then she has ever done? Or Seis getting upset that she didn't get the Dora slippers we got Quatro instead of the Zoe's slippers we got her? (Gotta love being 2 and 3) Or how about Dos and Uno singing the 12 days of christmas in only a way Dos and Uno can? These are the memories I never want to forget. But it all goes by so fast...

How about you...will you remember Christmas 2006? Will you remember the important details that make times like Christmas so memorable? Wherever you are this Christmas, I hope that you will take a few moments to enjoy all that is happening around you...the sights, the smells, the conversations, the foods, the gifts, the friendships and the family.

How about after Christmas? Will we all take time to reflect, only in real time? Reflection doesn't have to happen after something happens. We can "reflect" as we live our lives. Making cookies together, playing at the park, bringing your kids to school....incredible memories happen everyday, yet they seem to fade away so quickly.

I'll be honest I don't know where that all came from, but I felt it important enough to write down. I hope this helps you as well as helps me remember to enjoy all the blessings God's given us. It's so important to embrace our blessings as they happen as well as after we have received them.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas - Praises to God

This is a Christmas light show that we saw when in Brussels.

Christmas is in 3 short days. It's taken me a little bit to get back into the swing of things, but I'm in the spirit now. The last few nights we have been working on Praises to God with the kids during our devotions time. I thought I'd just write out the things I praise Jesus for in my life.

I praise God for:

• Wife: the most incredible woman I have ever met. God molded the perfect person for me to grow old with and without her I'd be a lost soul.
• Uno, Dos, Quatro and Seis: 4 precious kids who are beautiful, funny, creative, dedicated, devoted and the most well behaved children a parent could ask for. My life is rich each night I come home and am greeted by 4 huge hugs.
• Family and friends: Growing up the chubby smelly kid, I could never have imagined being as loved as I am. My family, Wife's family, our friends in New England and in Texas...I'm truly blessed by our friendship and our times together.
• The opportunity to see new parts of the world this year: God has opened my eyes to see how reliant we all are on Him. Regardless of our economical situations, we all need and desire a relationship with God.
• The gift of eternal life: This gift we all have received through the birth, crucifixion and reserection of our Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16&17 says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

I pray for all of you and your families. Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and may you all have a blessed and properous New Year!!