Christmas is Coming

Christmastime has taken on a completely new level of fun with a 2-year-old in the mix. She has wanted to be involved in every aspect, from setting up the Christmas tree to hanging the advent calendar (and taking the candies out each day to inspect how many are left), to reminding us which presents under the tree are for her. We've even worked in a few catechism questions that she can answer: 

"What happened on Christmas?" 

"Jesus was born!!"

"Where was he born?" 

"In a TABLE!!" ("No, Lu, a STABLE, not a table...") 

"Who came to worship him?"

 "Three wise men kings!"

 She understands so much more than I thought she would about Christmas, and I love guiding her into even greater understanding of who Jesus is and His unending love for her. 

She's becoming more and more rambunctious every day. Most days at our house involve a lot of ballerina dancing (to the nutcracker music), long stretches of bouncing on the bed, and a lot of running and jumping onto the couch. She is definitely not a snuggler, so we love those rare moments where she'll pause and give us some love. Even if it's just a quick butterfly kiss:

Lucy might be loving this Christmas season, but someone had to pay the price for all that fun: 

Lucy even shed a few tears for penguin's broken foot. But she got over it pretty quick.

Here's a shot through our kitchen into the dining room:

And of course little girl number 2 has been working hard too, getting fatter and longer by the day. Here I am at 27 weeks:

She is just as wild (if not wilder) than Lucy was in utero. I love how constant and unrelenting her little kicks are. They're actually getting less "little" these days, but I still love the reassurance that she's alive and well in there. And I can't believe we'll get to meet her in a few months!