A parcel arrived from a far off land...

We were out front finishing up our house lights, when the postal truck pulled up and the lady came up the walk and said "a parcel for you!" Parcel....how quaint! :)

I glanced down and said, "Oh my, that is a lot of stamps!! That must be what happens when it comes all the way from Dubai!" I was so excited to see that my dear friend, Gloria had sent us a Christmas gift! She and her family live in the UAE.

Here is Isaac after the "parcel" had been opened.

Vivi with a cute ornament for our tree!! What fun! It has an Arab man and a few donkeys. I wrote on the bottom our friends' last name and the year so we will always know how it came to be ours, although I do not think this ornament is one you would forget! Gloria knows how much I love my Christmas tree, there was no more of a perfect gift to send!!

But it got better when I started to see wrapped up, her homemade cookies. She and her daughters bake these and they are quite the artist with the icing (you will see in a minute). They are so yummy!!

And finally this really great magnet for our fridge. Where else can you get away with a camel magnet then from Dubai? Greatness.

Here is Vivi munching on a cookie and holding the gift bag that says "welcome dubai".

And the ornament displayed proudly on our tree.

Now for the exciting part...

She painted this cookie!! It represents Africa! The card said it is for all the babies in Africa who do not have mommies and daddies (translated from her 2 year old daughter!) how sweet.

Thank you, Aliza!! And thank you Furman Family for your sweet, sweet gift!!

Why did they send us this particular cookie you may be wondering...

Well, Billy and I are planning on going on a mission trip to Uganda, Africa in June. We will be going with the adoption agency we adopted Vivi from to volunteer with their baby home over there, working with a ministry called Africa Renewal Ministries. You can click on the link on my sidebar to read more. We are very excited for this opportunity. We will be over there for 10 days. We will also be working with a children's home that has over 300 orphans on it's campus. We cannot wait to see what God will do with this trip and how he will use us to love on the orphans in Uganda. I will post more beginning in January as we begin our fundraising.

The stockings were hung by the chimney...

Our Advent calendar.

The kids are enjoying seeing what treasures it holds each day.

My Willow Tree Nativity.

On top of the entertainment center.

The dogs decked out in their holiday attire.

They were very embarrassed as we laughed so hard my stomach burned.

They closed their eyes and endured their humiliation.

My sweet Lucy girl.

Operation Christmas Child

Before...will all that stuff fit?!
It sure did! Good thing for those rubber bands.

We filled our shoe boxes for Samaritan's Purse a couple weeks ago. We did a boy box age 5-9 and a girl box age 2-4. We do this every year and the kids really enjoy it. We bought hygiene products like toothbrushes, washcloths, hair combs, and socks. And then the kids chose fun stuff like candy, toys, crayons, stickers, and pads of paper. We were shocked to see that all of the stuff we bought fit in the boxes we picked up at church. The kids were so proud to carry them in that Sunday to give to "children in Africa", as Isaac said. We do not know where in the world our boxes will go, but we talk about children in Africa so I assume that is why he said that. Our church donated a total of 1700 boxes to the drive!! The organization also includes books about Jesus in the child's language in each box. That night Isaac said that he wanted to pray for the children who would get our boxes, so we did! We just love this opportunity to give the gift of Christmas to children around the world. I will remind the kids when they see the ground below our Christmas tree covered in gifts all for them this year, that many kids are beyond grateful for the little shoe box of gifts they receive. What a great perspective for young kids to learn early.

Oh Christmas Tree

Sneak peek at our Christmas decor as we put it up this weekend.

More to come...

Dealing with Race at Christmas

I had to post this adorable video on Transracial Adoption I saw off of Shawnda's blog. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but in it, the mother touches on the idea of "white privilege". I went to a race seminar a couple months ago and we did a table activity that dealt with this. Often times as Caucasians, we do not realize the priviliges that are afforded our race in society. Here are just a few examples: the majority of role models: professionals, celebrities, magazine covers and other media are white. It is not difficult to find children's books with characters who are white, that also includes children's programming on TV and movies. It is not hard to find someone near our home who can cut our hair. We are typically not scrutinized and stereotyped by what we wear, talk like, or our music choices. We are not followed in stores when we shop. Do you see what I mean? The video talks about how this adoptive mother had to become quickly aware of how white the world around her was. This time of year, reminds me especially of this. Most decorations and characters at Christmastime are white: Santa, angels, nutcrackers, children on tv and in books, snowmen, elves. Even manger scenes are light skinned except for that one wise man. I have tried to be dilegent over the years to find items that do not fall into this trap. Years ago I found this at a craft store and it now sits proudly on our mantel as the only nutcracker we own:

On one of the days this week Isaac was home from school, we watched an episode of The Cosby Show. The 3 year old character, Olivia was asking Dr. Huxtable what color the real Santa Clause is because all the mall Santas were white. Bill Cosby answered in a very funny transaction with the child that Santa became whatever color the family was that lived in the home whose chimney he was coming down! This cracked me up and I asked Isaac if he believed that. (We do not observe Santa at Christmas but he has seen his share of pictures and mall Santas.) He said, "No, Mom he is your color. Everybody knows that." This made me kind of sad to think that at 5 years old, he already had this set in his mind. Of course I am sure based on the region where he was born, the real Saint Nicolas was white and this is where we get this notion, but still. Needless to say, I was pleased to find this ornament given to Isaac a few years ago by Billy's aunt when we put up the tree this year.
I said "See, Isaac Santa can have brown skin too." He looked at that ornament for awhile and wasn't sure what to think!! Thankfully I do not decorate with Santas, other than their mall santa photos, so he won't have to look at that white face and snowy white beard all over the house! I am currently in the process of finding an African American or Hispanic angel for our tree who is in a white or red dress. This image would be a good one to have as well!

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!

We had a great Thanksgiving at our house!
The decorations were up.

The food was cooking.

The parade was on! No football in this family. :)

The table was set.

The troops were fed.

We took a break from the prep to have a snack of appetizers,

as Isaac likes to call anything on a cracker!

The turkey was buttered and bagged!

This was my first real turkey to cook. It turned out so moist, that bag was the secret.

No basting for us!

The kids were getting restless and ready for Grandma and Grandpa to come over!

Show time!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009 from our family to yours!