How special that Grandma and Aunt Joyce could be here this year to celebrate our sweet baby girl, Juliana's, birthday in heaven - she would have been 10 years old on November 26th!
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Merry Christmas!
Advent his year was full of wonderful activities to prepare our hearts for Christ. Christmas itself was a low key quiet one at home ( I was sick with the flu). We are so thankful for these precious moments together!! Merry Christmas from the Pintos!!
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| Breakfast with Santa |
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| "Santa, can I please have baseball stuff?" |
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| Enjoying time with good friends |
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| For part of our Jesse tree time each night the kids watch a 5min video that re-enacts the Bible story for the day. Our daily family prayers during Advent consist of the Jesse Tree readings/video and prayers, opening the door of the Advent Calendar and adding a piece to the magnetic nativity scene, saying a prayer, and picking a card from the box to give us an idea of how to bring Hope, Peace, Love or Joy to others the next day of Advent. I then read them a chapter of Jotham of Jericho, our Advent book this year. I love this time of year , sharing these traditions with the kids, and I love how excited they get for all of it! |
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| We went Christmas caroling with the Regnum Christi priests and a bunch of other friends/families - about 120 people in all - in a close by neighborhood. |
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| Shawn and about 40 other guys dressed up like Santas and had a fun pub crawl to earn money for charity (and to have a fun time of course!) |
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| The older 3 participated in their school nativity production again this year |
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| Samuel was a shepherd at the Children's Christmas Eve Mass gospel re-enactment |
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| Christmas Eve with this year's Christmas PJ's |
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| I guess Henry was a little concerned about his behavior this year and whether he made the naughty or nice list :-) |
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| Henry and Grace created sleighs |
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| Wow! Look what Santa brought this year! What a fun surprise!! |
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| very special engraved picture frames from Grandma |
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| Grace made this as a gift to the family - each day we choose a stick with a kind act on it to perform for the next day. |
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| A board game Grace game Shawn |
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| gingerbread decorating |
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| The sugar cookies the kids made on cookie baking day |
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| Nicholas and Grace each showing off their new bikes from Santa and new sporty clothes from Grandma |
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| Daddy gave Mommy a pizelle maker for Christmas - what a yummy treat! |
Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange
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| As a family, we have enjoyed the Jesse Tree tradition every Advent in our home for years, just with simple paper ornaments colored by the kids. I've always wanted to share this age old Catholic tradition with more families and organize a Jesse Tree ornament exchange. Well this year I finally did it. I created a sign up for 28 different ornaments related to scripture stories from Creation to the Nativity which help tell the story of Jesus' geneology as well as salvation history, and invited 28 of my friends to join in by signing up to create or buy 28 copies of one of the ornaments. I then held an exchange party in my home a couple weeks before Advent started. Everyone brought an appetizer or dessert and we all visited and then went around and filled the bins I had made with 1 of each ornament. I was pleased with the success and have been thrilled to hear my friends have been enjoying this tradition with their families this Advent season - helping to keep the reason for the season in focus. |
Happy Thanksgiving!
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| We were so thankful to have Mom, Aunt Joyce and Andy, Kelsey and Asher here with us to celebrate Thanksgiving together this year! What a blessing! |
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| Mom and the kids made all the pies for Thanksgiving while I was at work! |
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| Some of us spent a fun day at the Aquarium while they were here. |
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| There were many games of Checkers, Sorry and many other board games played while they were here. |
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| Sometimes many games going at once |
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| Also lots of outside time riding bikes, etc. |
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| Of course making leaf piles and jumping in them is a must! |
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| Lots of silliness.... |
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| On the day after Thanksgiving all the girls went out to lunch on canton Street then to see the Nutcracker . |
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| Just hanging around having fun |
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| Grandma got to see one of Nicholas' basketball games |
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| Uncle Andy took Asher and Samuel to the Roswell Mill one day for some nice outdoor time. |
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| They also went to the park to play soccer for a bit |
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| Uncle Andy and Nicholas taught Samuel how to play chess so the boys enjoyed several games while here. |
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| So thankful for family, friends, faith, health and all the blessings of this year! Thank you God! |
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