Christmas Preparation

On Sunday night we went to our church's Christmas play. It's something we've traditionally done as a Christmas eve-eve service since we didn't have a building in the past. With a building, we're now able to do multiple showings of the play and then have an actual Christmas Eve service, complete with real, live fire (candles).

After church, Tiff, Kasey and Katie came over to help Cathie wrap Christmas presents. Fez and I sat and watched as the girls did a great job of wrapping way more presents than we thought we had. Fez and I agreed that we would both have switched into "sloppy wrapping mode" after about the second gift. The girls kept it up until about 1:30am and headed home.

Afterward, Cathie and I talked about how lucky we are that our daughters have girls like these three in their lives. As a Dad, it's nice to know that my girls have role models aside from just their Mom and Aunts that exemplify what it looks like to be a woman who follows Jesus passionately. Their love of the poor and hurting, their examples around chastity and purity and showing how to walk the fine line to understand and enjoy the world we live in while pursuing the kingdom of God. People like Jess, Kasey and Tiff have really been like big sisters to the girls and and even though they've just recently gotten to know Katie, she's a fantastic role model for my daughters as well.

This is part of why I love being a part of the same church family for almost 15 years. Kasey and Tiff were girls who grew up in my youth group and babysitting my kids and have now become extended members of my family. Katie is currently in our high school youth group, one of my junior high leaders and a babysitter. This is the kind of church I think of as I read the book of Acts. A church where families were larger than just familial boundaries and extended beyond. One of my favorite parts of having these girls babysit is being able to hang out and talk to them afterward. They have a pretty honest view into how we parent and live as a family, for better or for worse. As they've become an extended part of our family and rubbed off in a great way on my kids, my hope is that we can do the same for them and their future families.


Even Lola got in on the wrapping fun. Tiff tried to hold our giant half puma/half cat. The thing is ginormous and has earned the nickname (amongst others, like giant mean cat) "Fatso" or "Fat Cat". It pales in comparison to Dana's cats, most of whom are no less than 40 lbs and have bum legs.