Christmas 2011

I always love Christmas time! Although I don't like the way America has made it into a time of shopping and Santa instead of Jesus, I still enjoy all the traditions. Honestly, this will be the time of year when my heart will probably long for my family and America when I'm in India. However, regardless of where we are, Christmas can and will always be celebrated as the precious day when, "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14) WOW! It's a hard thing to fathom the deity of Christ. Thank you God for allowing us to see your glory through Jesus.

Getting ready for Christmas was quit fun. We stayed up late one night in order to get everything wrapped and ready. Neal took care of Elijah while I wrapped the presents. 

Elijah was actually the center of most of our presents as you can see from the array of pictures and photo albums. 

Elijah had a lot of fun with Daddy!

Each year we celebrate with Neal's family the evening of the 23rd and the morning of the 24th, and then with my family the evening of the 24th and all day the 25th. I've always liked that it worked out where we could see both families for Christmas. Having Elijah there made it even that much more fun! 

Christmas at the Bond's

On their Christmas Eve after getting back from eating at Red Lobster, seeing the lights, going to Crispy Cream, going caroling at a friends house, and reading the Christmas story from the big family Bible, we found out that Neal's dad got a job! We've been praying for this for almost a year now. Praise the Lord for providing!

 Before getting started with stockings and presents we had a time of reading the story of Jesus from the book "The Gift". Then we all prayed for one another, which was so encouraging. 

One of Elijah's new favorite things to do is grab and pull things, so it was perfect for opening presents!

Everyone enjoyed having him there so much. It's great how special little kids make things, even when they are just babies.

Christmas at the Cothran's

I love this picture of my dad with Elijah sticking their tongues out at one another! Elijah's tongue is so little you can barely even see it - so cute!








Our family tradition is to get pajamas on Christmas Eve and get our picture made in front of the fireplace.

(It was strange not having my brother Michael in the picture. This was his first year to ever be away, but I know he enjoyed being with his fiance.)

Before doing anything else we read the story from Luke of the first Christmas when Jesus came as a baby. Normally my dad reads the story, but this year Neal got to. Then we started a new tradition by singing happy birthday to Jesus. We had a candle for Him in a piece of cheesecake:)

With Christmas falling on a Sunday we went to my families church after doing our stocking and eating breakfast casserole. Sadly, I have to confess that I've never liked Christmas being on Sunday, which I know is horrible, but I'm just being honest. However, when we sang songs in worship of our savior Jesus, and listened to the pastor talk about the present from God is His presence, it was awesome. Seeing people you know and meeting new people was such a joy. I loved that time, and my heart was filled with thanksgiving to God for that body of believers, and believers in
Jesus everywhere.

On Christmas night my mom always does a big meal, and my brother Daniel and his family come to join us. She always decorates the table so nice.

 Here's the whole Cothran crew (minus Michael and Rebecca)

Elijah Loves the Lights!

Elijah's favorite thing about Christmas so far is all the lights. He loves to look at the lights on the tree and the mantle. He will open his eyes and mouth so wide when we hold him close to the tree. Even sitting in the living room he always wants to be facing the tree.

 Even if Elijah is a little upset you can usually take him to the Christmas tree to look at it and he will just calm down and stare. 

When we were doing our proclamation ornaments (which is 25 ornaments starting on Dec. 1st  and ending on Christmas that tell the story of Jesus through the prophecies of the Old Testament and scriptures of the New Testament) we were excited to do them with Elijah. Instead of getting excited with us it just put him to sleep. We'd actually gotten behind three days, so I guess there was too much reading that he couldn't stay awake. Neal still held him up to the tree to put the ornaments on.

All Bundled Up for the Cold

A couple of days ago was the first really cold day of the year. It got into the 30s and even below freezing at night. I decided to take Elijah out for a run since we'd stayed in the day before because of the cold and the rain. Neither one of us can stay in for too long:) I got him all bundled up so that he would stay warm and before we went out I couldn't help but take some pictures because he was just too cute!

I love all of his different faces. Smiling, to excitement, to yelling, to the question face. Then of course the concentrating face he gets when he's chewing on his hand...he focuses so hard because he's trying to learn how to suck his thumb. 

Even with mittens on he always has to chew on his hands:) I didn't get a picture of his face after chewing on the mitten, but he had a look of disgust and being puzzled...it didn't taste the same.

"Guess How Much I Love You"

For Neal's birthday Elijah gave him the book "Guess How Much I Love You." In this book, if you're not familiar with it, the baby rabbit has a comparison going on with the daddy rabbit just before bed. They are comparing how much they love each other. The baby always goes first and gives an example, such as loving the daddy as much as the height he can bounce. Then the daddy says he loves the baby as much as the height he can bounce, which is higher than the baby. They go back and forth throughout the whole book until the baby falls fast asleep. It's so sweet.

A few nights ago Neal laid down on our bed with Elijah to read the book together for the first time. Elijah was staring at the book and the pictures the whole time. He was so interested. When Neal was finished reading the book they both fell fast asleep together. It was the most precious thing!

Elijah loves to touch and squeeze Neal's fingers every time he sees his hand. He's so fascinated with his big strong hands. 

When Elijah falls asleep he will cross his hands over his chest most of the time. 

In this case his hands were already on Neal's, so he just crossed them where they were and went to sleep. 

It doesn't get much cuter!

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Elijah's First Shots

Two days ago were Elijah's first shots. I know they are necessary, and I'm thankful for them, but I sure didn't like it! I'd been praying for him leading up to that day. I was in hopes that he would be one who it didn't really affect...my hopes did not come true. He cried so much and so loud. He was actually crying before the shots because we had to take his clothes off to weigh him...and I knew then that it would be awful. I had to move from his side to the head of the table in order for the nurses to stand beside him. He watched me through his tears and wouldn't take his eyes off of me. It was the first time he actually reached for me. Not only did his eyes and head follow me, but his arm did as well. It was a desperate reach for me to rescue him from what was happening...and I wanted to so bad. That evening when Neal and I were putting on his pajamas he started to cry when we touched his little leg. It was red and a little swollen. He was trying so hard to be happy. He would start to smile and then his lip would quiver and he'd cry. I couldn't help but cry with him.

On a good note...he's grown so much!
11 pounds 6 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long! His head is 40 cm...such a smart boy:)

The Colors of Autumn

While we were in the mountains we got to drive through park of the forest...and the autumn colors were amazing. Here are some of the pictures we took. I'm not going to have many words because I just want you to look and enjoy as if you were there.

"The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care."

Psalm 95:5-7

"For this is what the Lord says - he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited - he says: 'I am the LORD, and there is no other.'"             Isaiah 45:18

"But God made the earth by his power;

he founded the world by his wisdom

and stretched our the heavens by his understanding.

When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;

he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.

He sends lightning with the rain

and brings out the wind from his storehouses."

Jeremiah 10:12-13

Gatlinburg Vacation with the Cothran's

Every year my family (Kristen's) goes to Gatlinburg, TN for vacation during the fall season. My mom always tries to schedule our trip around the time the leaves on the trees are changing. It's such a beautiful area, especially with all the oranges, reds, and yellows on the mountain trees. This was of course Elijah's first trip, and he did great.

We got a family picture made while we were there, and as you can see the color of the bushes were amazing! It really helps having my brother Daniel take the picture with his super camera, especially since he knows what he is doing. 

My nephew, Jonas (3 years old), just loves spending time with Elijah. He always wanted to sit by him when we would go out to eat, or hold him at the cabin. Jonas always says, "I yike him." "He's my bes frien." I know I'm not the best speller, but I intentionally misspelled the words in the quotes because that's how Jonas talks. It's so cute! Among many other things, I'm going to miss having my nephews around when we move.

We went to the aquarium there in Gatlinburg, which was mine and Neal's first time to go. They have these glass bubbles that kids could stand in to feel like they were inside the tank. You have to crawl under the tank in order to get in the bubble, and of course Neal wanted Elijah to experience everything. So, he crawled under and let Elijah see the fish all around him...not that he even knew what he was looking at.  

Our favorite spot for my family to go in downtown Gatlinburg is a place called "The Village." It's a cozy little corner that looks like a village in another country. It has some neat little shops. In the picture on the left Elijah and I are at the entrance to the Village, which is always decorated according to the season or holiday. The middle picture is my brother Michael and nephew Jonas sitting on the horse statue that's outside of one of the art stores that we really enjoy going through. To the right Neal is feeding Elijah the bottle while we were on the move...nursing in the bathrooms and feeding the bottle while sitting on a bench or walking became quit the norm. This was great practice for us since we will be traveling a lot in the future.

 

The first night we were out on the town Elijah got really cold. He had never been in cold weather before and it was hard for him to handle. He had his snuggle blanket in the stroller with him, but he always wanted his hands out from under the blanket. Every time he'd pull them out he'd look at me with pitiful eyes and start to cry. I tried to hold him and get him warmer, but with my cold hands I wasn't much help. He cried until daddy got there and could hold him. (Daddy is always much warmer than mommy.) From that time on, whenever we went out at night Neal always held him against his warm body inside his jacket and Elijah was fine.

One thing that my family always loves when we travel is a good restaurant. One of our favorites is the Alamo because they have great steaks. Each of the boys got a 22 ounce steak (Neal and I shared it). We thought there would be lots of leftovers, but to our surprise there wasn't any. It tasted so good! It was a great last place to go for our last night.