Jingle comes to stay.

Well, Christmas has come early in our house....in the form of a little 8 week old Dashund puppy. Her name is Jingle (as you can guess, for obvious reasons....)


I do not have any photos of her yet, as my few feeble attempts have come out blurred and hazy, due to the fact that she is too fast, and doesn't stay in one spot long enough to capture her!


I will try again, of course. And post the photos for you all to see. She is really cute, and is now the star of the house. She likes to chew the bottom branches of the christmas tree, and any thing she can find, including my necklace, which she seems to have a penchant for! And we put her in her doggy crate to sleep last night and she cried for 10 minutes, and we never heard her again the whole night......I awoke at 3 am with thoughts that something had happened to her, because I couldn't believe she was so quiet! And at 7 am this morning I went in to find her sleeping on her bed, but happy to see me.


We are otherwise ready for Christmas, I would like to make some fruit mince pies if I can though, and presents need to be wrapped. I thought I'd end off with a little video once again (I do apologise for all the Tangle vid's, but they have helped in bringing in the Christmas cheer n'all).

The reason I enjoyed this one, was because of the way they end their song. I just love Toto's "Africa" song....I will admit to feeling rather homesick when I heard it. In South Africa at this time of year, everyone is outside in the heat, and sun. Barbeques, or 'Braais' as we call them in SA, abound, and one cannot drive anywhere on a weekend without smelling the aroma of grilled steak, and 'boerewors'. There's nothing like it!

That's what it means to me.

This little video made me smile.

There are people all around me arguing about the details of Christmas, should we celebrate it, shouldn't we? Was it really in December, or not? Should we be saying Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays?

One thing I know.....Jesus was born, I don't know exactly when. And without His life, and death.....my life would be meaningless. That's what I know. That's what I celebrate, and why I celebrate.

The Christmas tree, the decorations, the christmas cookies, and stockings on the mantlepiece.....they are all things my family has done since I was little. They are not of paramount importance to why I choose to celebrate, if you took them all away I would still be thankful for Jesus. And I would still celebrate His life. That's what Christmas means to me.

I'm dreaming of a BRIGHT Christmas........

Coming from a land that doesn't really decorate their homes much for Christmas, which is most likely due to the fact that no-one can see the houses from the road because of the 6 foot walls around them. It truly is a delight to see some of the streets here being lit up for the festive season. Some homes go to more effort than others, and I'm convinced that some streets can be seen from the space station! But they are really worth looking at.


We will be taking a tour through some of the suburbs next week to see some more of the really wonderful lights, and that will be another post for another day...watch this space!


In the meantime, however, I thought I'd give y'all a glimpse at the effort some people go to with their Christmas lights....really amazing!

It's Christmas time........

It's Christmas time, and my white board in the kitchen has now become a "Countdown to Christmas" board instead of a "helping-me-keep-track-of-my-kids-school-life" board! They have marked the day we had snow in Houston, there are christmas trees and stars adorning it too.


Yes, my kids are excited....super-excited.


In the midst of this, however, I have been racking my brain trying to find ways of bringing  their focus off the presents ONLY, and onto more important things.  One thing we have decided to do this year, is to make a "present" for Jesus. Each one of us will be making a gift in some form or the other, from our heart. Something we want to give to Jesus to show Him our love and thankfulness for Him. I told the kids we all have to do it on our own, anything we want, and we will wrap it up, and put it under the Christmas tree. Then on Christmas Day we will open Jesus' present first, and tell everyone else what and why we chose to give Him what we did.


I have NO idea, what my kids have decided to do, and look forward to seeing what they choose to give Jesus on Christmas morning. I'm not sure if they even understand what I am trying to get through to them. But I do hope it gets them thinking more about the King of Kings, and a little less about the latest Wii game.


Obviously Kellan has been giving this whole idea some thought though. Because last night during supper, he came up to us and very seriously said, "Mommy, but Jesus is not gonna get a surprise when I show Him my present, because he can see EVERYTHING!!"


Out of the mouth of babes............