Texas again

Here we are in Houston. We've only been gone two-and-a-half years, but we're still completely shocked at how warm it is down here. My kids are walking around in jeans and long sleeves while most people are wearing shorts and tank tops.

We had a lovely Christmas. Here's Julia opening the big Santa present. She looks surprised because she thought Wiis were only for "rich kids." (Turns out Wiis are for rich kids AND poor kids who have generous grandparents.) The Wii has been great fun. Well, it was until Jenna grabbed the Wii Sports disc (which is only available with the purchase of a Wii) and bit down on it. That disc lasted us a grand total of three hours on Christmas day. I don't know what got into that child. We have a ton of CDs and DVDs that she's never felt compelled to chew on. Anyway, just let me sing the praises of the Nintendo company because when I called and explained what happened, the customer service rep (after laughing rather heartily) said they'd send us another one free of charge. Thank you, Nintendo! Jenna will NOT be handling any more of our Wii discs until we are certain she is capable of keeping her teeth off of them.

Here's Jenna with her big Santa present, the seven-doll set of Disney Princesses. Yes, the same set I kept rolling my eyes at whenever I saw it at Target. The same set I thought was ridiculously priced. The same set I returned to Target for five days before Christmas because I knew deep down the whole time that Jenna would love it. Which she does.

Another surprise under the tree this year was a package from WorldVision containing information about Vandana, the 7-year-old girl from India we are sponsoring. Chad and I decided to sponsor a WorldVision child at the Third Day concert last month, and we surprised the girls with the news on Christmas morning. Vandana lives in a society in which men and boys are the first to get food when it's available, so many women and girls are malnourished. (How MESSED UP is that?) Our monthly sponsorship will help feed Vandana as well as pay for her education and other needs. We look forward to sending her letters and hearing back from her and including her in our family's daily prayers. For more info on sponsoring a child through WorldVision, go here and click on "sponsor a child."

After looking at photos from last year's Christmas and this year's, I discovered Julia and I have committed a holiday fashion faux pas. Look carefully:

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008


Christmas 2007

That's right. Julia and I wore the same pajamas two years in a row. We'll have to plan better next year.

For something we DIDN'T plan on this year, we managed to work in Jenna's first ER trip over the holidays. A cart holding a folding wall partition rolled over her finger in our church gym last week and basically peeled the end of her finger off. It looks much better now, but at the time, what with all the blood and skin hanging off, it was pretty icky. The staff at Arkansas Children's Hospital was wonderful and got her all bandaged up before sending her home with some nice pain meds. The whole experience gave me an idea though. Why not equip children's hospitals with wet bars? I think parents who are rattled from carrying their blood-dripping children into the ER might appreciate it.