It can get crazy- miscellany monday

It can get crazy in a pastor's family around Christmas.  Or any church working family for that matter!  Here is my crazy...

1. 6 days until our open house!  We live in a parsonage and just feel it is a great way to say thank you to those who work so hard to keep our house up and running during the year.  Yes, the parsonage is our home but it is the church's house.  At least that's what I think.  So inviting people in is not a big deal to me. Plus, I love doing things like open houses and parties.  I know this might not be for all clergy families, but it works for ours.  If I didn't love baking and decorating, I probably wouldn't do it.  I only have one more batch of cookies and one batch of nuts and bolts to finish.  (See recipes coming soon....)  Then it's the little things, getting the big coffee pot, getting apple cider made, napkins, and the final clean up!

2.  We celebrate the Day of St. Nicholas at our house instead of Santa Claus.  This might change as the boys get older and all of their friends are talking about Santa, but the story of St. Nick is a good one.  A small boy was upset and St. Nick asked him what the matter was.  He told him his sisters would not be able to get married because their father could not afford the dowry for them.  So that evening St. Nick snuck into their home and left enough for the sisters to have a dowry.  He was a kind and giving man.  People began leaving their shoes by the door in hopes that St. Nick would bless them as he had blessed this other family.  That is where the tradition of stockings came from.  It changed from shoes to socks somewhere along the lines.  The church celebrates the giving spirit of St. Nick on the 6th of December every year.  My hope is next year I have my act together and we can actually get a name off of a gift tree and "give" as St. Nick did to someone else so the boys can learn and realize the true meaning of giving.  Hopefully we can still do that this year, but I would love to tie it all together next year!

3.  I think we have successfully potty trained the big one.  I know we will still have accidents but we haven't been in diapers in almost a week.  Talk about crazy....

4.  The little one now does "so big", "peek", and "head" for us.  He also yells a lot.  We both find him amusing.

5.  In all the craziness our lovely baby sitter was able to come over last night.  The hubby and I snuck out to have Chinese and had 2 blissful hours uninterrupted by kids. We came home and they were fresh from the bath and all ready for bed.  What a great night.

Linkin' up with Carissa.