2 mysteries.

"Here are two mysteries

for the price of one--the plurality of persons within the unity of God,

and

the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus.

It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas,

that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie.

"The Word became flesh";

God became man;

the divine Son became a Jew;

the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby,

unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises,

needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk

like any other child.

And there was no illusion or deception in this:

the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality.

the more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.

Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is

this truth of the Incarnation."

[knowing God.] --j.i. packer

-j. shae

And the Winner is. . .

I am so very sorry to have made you all wait so long before I announced the winner of the Christmas tradition contest I posted about a month ago. I enjoyed very much reading all of your fun and creative traditions, thanks to all of you for sharing! But, I had to pick one and it was from. . .

Hannah, in California.

"Our family has many traditions but I think my favorite would be on Christmas Eve, after everything else is done, right before we all turn out the lights and go to bed, my mom concocts her secret recipe of "Sleeping Potion" and gives us all a nice, warm cup full. It tastes delicious! Then off to bed. Of course I know it is mostly psychological, but I used to think it made me so sleepy I couldn't even walk to bed, so my daddy would pick me up ( me pretending to be sleeping) and carry me to my room."

I thought this was the cutest idea, and think that someday I will make it a tradition of my own when I have my own family :)

So Hannah, let me know what your choice would be in a gift card (either Starbucks, Jamba Juice, or Coldstone) and I will get it to you.

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas guys!
~Jessica Shae

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

These are some pictures from our Christmas Eve spent with grandparents and aunts.

~Jessica Shae

Christmas time is here!

Here are some pictures I took last night of all the beautiful decorations around my mimi and papa's house.

Their "baby grand"

The Christmas tree

And all the presents beneath it.

And then a self portrait of the photographer

*This is about the only way I ever acutally get in pictures since I am usually taking them all*

~Jessica Shae

Christmas traditions: part 2

I was planning on having several posts of this nature and posting recipes and other random traditions that we have, but, the last few days have been so busy. They have been packed with shopping, cleaning, packing, practicing singing, working...and a million other things that have all led up to us being here at my grandparents house in Frisco, TX (but more on that later).


So I am just going to post one more tradition that we have and you will have to be satisfied with that :)


This is a tradition that we started about ten years ago. Every year after Christmas we all go shopping during the after Christmas sales and everyone gets to pick out an ornament. Then my mom packs it all away in our own boxes that she has labeled with our names.


And the point of all of this?


Well now, once we are all grown and married, we will each have a box of our own ornaments that we have collected since we were little to put on our own Christmas tree, and we won't have to start from scratch. I love it, and can't wait to use my ornaments on my own tree someday!


So that is all the traditions that I will be posting this year probably, and I want to remind you all that if you have any more traditions that you would like to share...you have until the 25th of this month to write me about it and then I will be picking my favorite and awarding them with a gift card of their choice :) (For more info on this go here to read my post about it.)


Also, we are at my grandparents for the rest of the week, and are already having a wonderful time! I will be posting pictures all throughout the week so be looking for them a little bit later :)


A Very Merry Christmas To You All!
~Jessica Shae

Christmas Traditions: part 1

So I said that I would be posting some of our family traditions over the next few days, so here is the first one.

Movies:
My family has several movies that are clearly marked for Christmas ONLY, and we watch them in the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas day. I thought I would share the list with you, and while we have watched these, I want to say that we have a TV Guardian (it takes out any bad or dirty language that might be in the movie, I HIGHLY recommend it for every family). And I rarely ever "recommend" a movie to anyone, because every family has their own standards and preferences for movies and I wouldn't want to offend anyone with these. But overall these are family friendly movies and probably you all have seen most of them :)

Favorites that we have been watching for as long as I can remember...

• It's a Wonderful Life
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Charlie Brown Christmas (I think this is my favorite!)

Others that have become favorites over the last few years...

• Elf
• Polar Express
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Home Alone 1,2, and 3
• A Christmas Carol

And a new favorite that we added just this year that I will recommend... :)

• The Nativity Story... This one was so good and I think it will quickly become my favorite. It was very well made and followed the biblical account almost perfectly. I have never seen such a moving portrayal of the birth of our Lord, if you haven't seen it then I will recommend this one and say "Watch it!".

Do y'all have any other movies that you love to watch this time of the year? Let me know!

Merry Christmas!

~Jessica Shae

Christmas traditions

Tradition: the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice

~~~~~~~

Christmastime more than any other time of the year is the time for remembering the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, laughter, friends, good food, special parties, and traditions. It is a holiday that comes alive for each one of us in different and unique ways through traditions we have practiced for as long as we can remember. Over the years my family has developed alot of our own traditions of things that we do every year during the Christmas season. They involve certain movies, music, food, and activities that we all love.

But I am always curious to hear what other families/individuals do to make their Christmas time special. So, let me know what traditions your family has, write it in the comment box below this post and then I will also be posting some of our own traditions over the next week and a half. Also, as a little incentive for y'all to actually participate in this activity, I will be choosing a winner of the most creative, fun, and original post and the winner will get a Starbucks, Jamba, or Coldstone gift card, whichever they like best. You can share anything from your favorite movie to your favorite food/recipe or anything else you can think of.

I can't wait to hear from you all!

~Jessica Shae

The 12 days of Christmas

I found this clip this morning and was so impressed/laughing so hard that I thought y'all might get a kick out of it also :)

*You will have to scroll down and turn off the music before you listen to it.*

Laughing. . .

~Jessica Shae

It's begining to look alot like Christmas!

I have my own little Christmas tree that I put up every year in my room and last year in my stocking I got the most ADORABLE ornaments...

I took a picture of one of them on my tree today and had to share it with you it makes me so happy :) I love Starbucks!

Merry Christmas. . .

~Jessica Shae