Since we keep getting snow... (part 2)A White Christmas

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I've always wanted a white Christmas. As a little girl, I wrote letters to Santa asking for snow on Christmas day. In Tampa.

Yeah, I wasn't so realistic back then.

And while it wasn't really white until the day after, I'm counting it. It was breathtaking.















































And, finally, because snow angels are so 2010, what do my kids make?


Snow snakes.

Of course.



(And, yep, I said I was going to post this a couple days ago. I had great intentions.

And then I spent most of that day tracking weather news. And then yesterday we all hung out here. 

I'm not apologizing for the delay, though. I {heart} family time.)

Since we keep getting snow... (part 1)

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...maybe I should post some of our snow pictures, huh? Here's the photo reel from our first snow, which was the first weekend in December. I, of course, took a bunch of pictures.

I mean, there are years in which we've gotten nothing worth photographing. You have to take a bunch whenever it snows because those could be your only snow pictures for the whole winter. Most years, that is.

This is obviously not one of those years.

Tomorrow morning I'll post pictures from our mid-December snow and our Christmas Day snow. (Er, day after Christmas snow. I don't think we had any in our neighborhood on Christmas Day. It rained a bit, but the snow didn't come down in earnest until after midnight. But I like the ring of claiming a white Christmas and it was white in some parts of our city, so I'm not exaggerating much by considering it a December 25th snow!)

And then Tuesday or Wednesday I might be posting more pics, if another winter system really makes it's way through here as they have forecast. (Plus there have been a couple of other days with flurries that I'm not documenting. What is up with this?!?)

(Not that I'm complaining. I'm a Florida girl at heart. And a stay-at-home momma who isn't required to attempt driving in the snow. So it warms my heart to see my lawn in white!)









If you have snow and a toy tiger, what should you do?


Make tiger tracks, of course!


And, of course, you know the old saying: It's all fun and games until someone decides to play in the semi-frozen birdbath with non-waterproof gloves. (We were too late to stop it. So we chose the second best option: documenting it!)




The fun did end when he realized how wet and cold he was.


Parts 2 (mid-December snow) and 3 (Christmas Day snow) coming tomorrow!

must, must, must read: Radical

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My first thought when I got this book was Can it really be as good as the hype?

Yes. Yes, it can. (Or, dare I say it, even better.)

My biggest concern for David Platt’s Radical is that it will be a hit for a time, and then it will be forgotten. It needs to be a hit because its message is all about rejecting the Americanified so-called gospel and radically embracing the biblical true gospel. It could be forgotten, though, because it would be easy to read it, plan to make changes, and then fail to follow through. How often have I been convicted but then failed to change? *gulp* More times than I’d like to admit. Thank God for grace!

My prayer is that I won’t do that this time. In Platt’s words on page 3:
The first was simple. Was I going to believe Jesus? Was I going to embrace Jesus even though he said radical things that drove the crowds away?
The second question was more challenging. Was I going to obey Jesus? My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus’ words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him. In other words, my biggest fear is that I will do exactly what most people did when they encountered Jesus in the first century.
This is a challenging book. It’s not a hard read, but it was hard to evaluate my life and the mediocre faith I’ve settled for, particularly in light of the biblical exhortations for something more genuine to the Gospel.

I’ll have some thoughtful nuggets (i.e., excerpts) from Radical in the next few months, but I’ll just end with this: read it. Seriously. It’s one of my top books on the year by far. I’ve seen it on other top lists this year, and I sincerely hope it survives the hype of being the latest Christian book to recommend.

(Plus I just checked the price at Amazon, and it's $5.49 right now!)

Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah for providing a review copy. They didn't ask or require a positive review. (And, because I had previously purchased another copy that I have misplaced, be expecting a giveaway of it once I find my second copy, because I would LOVE to bless one of y'all with this book!)