I did not pose these!

Okay, so these are the moments that make all the challenges of mothering worth it. We got our lovely tall Christmas tree yesterday, got out the ornaments, put out the nativities, hung some garland, and generally made the house festive. In the midst of it all, one of the things Evan and Sara paid most attention to was the stack of christmas books that are always under our tree. They get stored all year with the decorations, so they are fresh every year. I started collecting them when Jeff was born. I captured these images yesterday while we were decorating and today after church. It is a sweet thing to catch your child in the glow of a sunbeam, curled up with a good book.

Another moment that gives me hope that I've actually had an influence on my kids happened late last evening. Eric and I got home from a date around 9:30 pm. As we walked into the house, I noticed an enormous ring around the moon. I ran in the house and told the kids there was something cool to see outside. Bless their hearts if they didn't all just come running out, look up and start oohing and ahhing over the moon ring. Johnathan even wanted to take a picture but we couldn't get the tripod set up fast enough and it was gone. They thought it was as cool as I did. They love the skies and sense in them the same messages of love and evidences of God's grandeur that I do. That makes me so happy.