Five on Friday

1.  It snowed... again!  We have not seen the ground in over a week!  Thankfully, roads are clear most of the time, but it has snowed 7 out of the past 8 days!  I need to take Asa back out in it today or this weekend since we have a fun, fresh layer of snow (I think we picked up an inch or two this morning).  I will post videos of him shuffling through the white stuff very soon.  It's adorable. :)

2.  I finished our Christmas letter!  I just need to print it, stuff it in envelopes, stamp them, and they're off!  I'd love to get stamps and have them out tomorrow.  I meant to get them out the very beginning of this month since our address has changed.  Ooops.  Tomorrow wouldn't be too terribly late though, right?!

3.  Asa is much more open than usual to trying new foods lately!  We are still a definite "no go" as far as dairy is concerned (poor little tummy), but almost every dinner we had this week Asa ate for dinner also (or left overs from the night before if ours had dairy).  He's tried shredded barbecued chicken, shredded Russian chicken, white chicken chili, baked beans, and even a soft taco (minus cheese, of course).  It's so fun to see him willing to try something new. :)

4.  I am almost done with one Christmas sewing project.  I only have some decorative stitching remaining to complete it.  Then I need to start on my 2nd Christmas sewing project.  I've heard from pattern reviews that it comes together rather quickly, and I'm reallllly excited about the fabrics I'm using, so I hope that's true!  I have 2 other projects in the works as well, but I think they'll have to wait until after Christmas since they're not actually Christmas presents and my first 2 projects are. :)

5.  I put up a lit garland on our banister and a little lit tree and they are a HUGE hit with Asa!  Every morning he stands at the bottom of the stairs and points at the garland and tree until I ask, "Do you want your lights one?"  I hear an enthusiastic, "YEAH!" in response and see the twinkle in his eyes when I plug them in. :)  We're going to try again this weekend to find a real tree, but we might have to resort to my little artificial "classroom" tree if we don't find anything.  As I mentioned, I think we're both working through how different Christmas feels this year.  It's a good reminder that Christmas isn't about family or friends or even loved traditions.  Those things should not make Christmas for us. Jesus does.  Period, end of story.  So as weird as it would feel to use our little fake tree (I used it in my classroom when I was teaching), it doesn't affect one single iota of what Christmas is about.

I will close with this sweeter than sweet video. :)