The New Nativity Scene...

...as played out by an almost-4-year-old obsessed with Disney Princesses. This is what greeted me when I went in to the computer room to clean up. I mean...who knew that Jasmine, Belle and Cinderella were at the birth of Christ???? Apparently Maddie! Notice the extra special touch of scattered fish food underfoot. I think there's an extra horse in there also...he snuck in behind the donkey.

Picture Worthy Happenings

Yesterday morning Uncle Joe drove through town and stopped for coffee before heading off to Kansas City on his cross-country drive with his old roommate. We were so happy to see him!

Then...this was great!!! This week Larry did a favor for a friend and was Santa. Our kids LOVED it! I always wondered what it would be like to kiss Santa!

And The Winner Is...

Dana Berroth!!!! (results were chosen from an online random number generator with numbers assigned based on the order of the posts)

Keep checking back...I may yet have another one!

Baldwin Cookie Baking Extravaganza

After 9 hours of cooking baking I think I'm done!!! I've heard of people setting aside one whole day for baking during the holidays but have never done it. I mean, get real...I just started really cooking this year! :-)

Emma and I sat down the other day and picked which cookies we would be baking and I made a grocery list. Due to our pre-planning we only had one call to Larry to pick up something at the store and one run over to the neighbor's for 1/2 cup of cocoa (Thanks, Lori!).

The kids didn't help as much as I thought they would (do they ever?)....but we made it. I still have a few sugar cookies to frost but that can wait. I never knew that baking could make your body ache. This is our list of cookies for 2007:

• Mocha Crinkles







• No Bake Cookies







• Sugar Cookies







• Russian Tea Cakes







• Oatmeal Butterscotch







• Chocolate Chip Snowmen







• Yuletide Linzer Bars

A Mixed Up Christmas

I thought I'd share my Christmas Music Mix and here's the bonus! I invite you all to comment, share your mix, or link back to your mix by midnight tomorrow (PST for all my west coast friends) and on Dec. 9th I will choose at random a winner to receive a CD copy of my Mixed Up Christmas! Yay...let the posting begin!

1. Blue Christmas- Elvis: How can you NOT have a Christmas mix with this song???? It's nostalgic...well, if you're over 50, I guess. It is by an artist whose name alone calls up images of little people with pointy ears and little green shoes with bells on the toes. Need I say more?


2. Joy (to the World)- Avalon: NOT the traditional version...this is a fun, rousing, sure to get you moving faster as you decorate, shop, address cards, wrap, bake, clean...anything you need extra energy for...plus the vocal arrangement is amazing...I love harmonies and small group vocals (as you will see as you continue down this list)...especially ones that sound difficult to pull off!
3. After December Slips Away- First Call: One of my favorite groups of all time.
4. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?- Ella Fitzgerald with the Frank DeVol Orchestra: Ok...hand's down this is one of my favorite Christmas songs ever...I had never even heard it before 1999 but my extremely gifted friends, musical arranger extraordinaire, Vanda Eggington and playwright Kerry Meads, used it in a Christmas show I did that year and the moment was so moving that I used to sneak to the curtain every night just to watch the scene (I obviously wasn't in that scene!). Since then I can't help but listen and fall back in time to the beautiful moment created on stage by Robbi Starnegg and Tom Stephenson...it was unforgettable.
5. Snowfall- Manhattan Transfer: Once again...amazing vocal arrangement (and difficult...). It really is gorgeous. One of those "in-front-of-the-fire-sipping-an-adult-beverage-with-Christmas-tree-lights-on" kind of song.
6. Mystery- Selah: It is the lyrics to this song that draw me in and hold ...riveted:
   

   "God predestined that His son would die, yet He still created man".

   This song brings my heart back to the gospel and the true significance of Christmas. As our worship pastor, Ryan Flanigan, recently posted in his blog:
   

   Our Advent worship is, in the words of Bob Webber, "joyful sorrow."

7. Drummer Boy- Jars of Clay: What post-modern Christmas list would be complete without this version of this song?
8. Here It Is- Over The Rhine: OVER THE RHINE...what else is there to say? Ok...so maybe not everyone has had the fortunate experience to be introduced to this brilliant band...let me give you a taste of their lyrics (from "Here It Is"):

   "I cried when I wrote this, I'll always remember the worst kind of lonely is alone in December, The act of forgiveness is always a mystery, the meltingof ice and the future of history..."

   If it made sense (which it doesn't because, after all, this is a mix cd) I would put everyone of their Christmas songs on this list!
9. I Sing The Birth- Lamb's Players Theatre (An American Christmas) I cried the first time I really heard this song with all it's parts and the rich imagery in the lyrics. We performed this each year I was in this show and each time it never failed to move me.

   I sing the birth was born tonight; The author both of life and light

10. Hold Onto Christmas-4Him: I have this thing about Marty Magehee's voice...basically I could listen to it forever...I have a feeling that all the tenor angels in heaven possess the same resonanace and timbre that Marty's voice carries. Just a note: if you happen to look up this album on the internet...as far as I know, Marty no longer sports that totally rad mullet (the world breathes a sigh of thankfulness).

11. Wisemen and Angels-Staci Frenes: Heard this simple, lovely Christmas song last year. Staci was kind enough to let us use it.
12. Carol- First Call: Love the "olde" sound of this one!
13. All I Really Want-Steven Curtis Chapman: Given my heart for adoption, how could I leave this one out?

    All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in, a shoulder to cry on if I lose, shoulders to ride on if I win. There's so much I could ask for, but there's just one thing I need,. All I really want for Christmas is a family

14. Twist of the Magi-SheDaisy: This song is hysterical! Check it:

    HE: I put your mother on a greyhound (you did what?)You always hoped she'd have the chance to see the world-now she can SHE: I torched your Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues (No, no, no,no)So I could be your only girl-and now I am BOTH: And I did it all for you, I did it all for . This Christmas all your dreams will come true

15. Hallelujah Chorus- Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration (Quincy Jones)