Merry Christmas

 

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

 ¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

 ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 ¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Treasure the true meaning of Christmas as you spend time with your loved ones.

Love,
The Perrys

Go Tell It on the Mountain

According to Zachary Go Tell it on the Mountain goes as follows:

Go tell it on the mountain.  Over the hills and everywhere.
Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Price was born.

He will argue with the best of them that it's not CHRIST, but definitely Price.

Zachary's preschool class (and other classes at his school) performed a Christmas play on Tuesday.  Ms. Anne and Ms. Cathy's class got to be angels.  The other classes were shepherds, sheep, stars and carolers.  Individual kids played Mary, Joseph and the Wise Men.  Words cannot do justice to how cute these kids were.  I wish I had pictures of all the classes, but I was busy keeping Will quiet and Robbie was busy trying to get pics of Zachary from the back of the room.

Afterwards Zachary's class had their Christmas party.  I made these (see below) for the dessert.  It's amazing the ideas you can get from Pinterest.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Watching the clouds pass by

Last weekend Will attended his first wedding in KY.  Nonnie, Uncle Chris, Will and I loaded up on Southwest's plane and headed out to Lexington, KY.  My junior bridesmaid (enter feeling old now) got married this past weekend to her high school sweetheart.  The Wilson family is a dear family to us.  They are our family.  We don't see them nearly as often as we'd like, but when we do it's like coming home.  Anyhoo, Will was the perfect passenger.  He didn't cry one time both going and coming home.  We had to change planes in Baltimore and he handled all of the changing, security and all that comes with flying like a pro.  Maybe there will be more flying in his future.

4 Months

• You're getting better about sleeping at night.  You've learned a new trick, which was/is part of the problem with sleeping.
• You can now roll from your tummy to your back and vice versa.
• You are moving your legs in a crawling motion.  Your daddy, Nonnie and I think it won't be long before you're crawling.
• You took your first plane trip this past weekend.  You were a stellar passenger! You didn't cry one time on the plane both coming and going AND switching planes.
  
• You talk all the time.  You seem to be very happy when you are "talking".
  
• Your eyes are still blue!!!
• You wear size 3-6 month clothes
• You wear size 2 diapers.
• You love bath time and like to splash.
• You are mesmerized by Andrew and love talking to him.
• You're a mama's boy.
• You appear to be getting a tooth on the bottom.  The tooth hasn't poked through, but it will soon.
  
• You tolerate the swing more now than you have before. You still grow tired of it after 20 min or so, but it helps when I'm trying to wrangle the troops.
• You're drinking 5 - 6oz still.  Sometimes you take more and sometimes less.
  
• When we don't have to go here, there and yon we enjoy relaxing on the couch and nursing.  It's a sure way to get you to sleep.
• We've moved you to the crib and you HATE it! It puzzles us because Andrew and Zachary loved it.
• You wake up in the morning (hour at which you wake varies) happy as a lark talking to yourself or your mobile.
  
• If the devil could be an inanimate object, I'm sure it's our car seat.  In fact, I'm 100% positive.
• You make me smile and give my heart a reason to be happy.
• You're growing way too fast.
• You are starting to focus on some of your toys and love to coo at your butterfly.
• You're a tummy sleeper and have been since week 8.
• You love your gym mat and play, talk and play some more.
  
• You like to listen to our Praise Baby CDs.
• Like your brothers, you sleep to the Ocean Waves and I think it calms you.
• You look like Andrew, which means you're going to be super cute.  I am biased, but it's true.
• You're starting to play with toys more.  Santa is bringing you an exersaucer, which I'm sure you'll love.
• You have a good ol' time with your Ahmy.  She has the magic touch with you.
• You went to your first wedding this past weekend.  You had fun at the reception dancing and being passed around.

Journey to Bethlehem

Last night Robbie, Will and I had the privilege of playing Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus at our church's Journey to Bethlehem. It was a LONG night, but such a great experience for us to share. Will wasn't too happy at first, but eventually fell asleep and was the most perfect and exceptionally cute Baby Jesus.

We are so thankful to be a part of a wonderful church family. Journey to Bethlehem is a longstanding tradition at Salem Baptist Church. This year's JTB had over 3,500 people come and enjoy the journey. Hopefully many accepted the good news of Christ's birth and what he's done for them.

I encourage you to come experience the journey next December with your family. You won't be disappointed.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Gobble Gobble

PS. This was typed up right after Thanksgiving, but I didn't have time to finish until now.

Hi All!

It's been a while since I last posted.  We enjoyed most of last week at OIB with my family.  The weather was perfect.  It's always nice to go to the beach in the fall/winter and have the temperatures in the 60s/70s.  We rented a house with my mom and my brother and his family.  The total # of children outnumbered the adults.  Yikes!  The boys, yes, my mom has only grandsons (6 to be exact), had a blast playing together.

On Thursday we cooked up a storm of Thanksgiving treats.  My poor stomach will never be the same.  I'm not used to stuffing myself silly and I paid the price, but Lord help me it was G to the OOD! We ate so much that going back for seconds later that night never crossed our minds.  Can I just tell you one of my favorite treats (besides pecan pie, which is pronounced PEA-CAN, not puh-cahn) is cranberry sauce.  I only eat it once a year, but Lord have mercy I could eat a whole can.  Anyhoo, I digress.

We took the boys on Black Friday to the driving range.  I don't do shopping on Black Friday.  I actually don't do shopping all that much.  I hate the malls actually.  Andrew loves to hit range balls, which I know brings joy to Robbie's heart.  I actually hit a few myself and after some instruction from my personal golf pro, hit a few good ones.  Zachary was in his own zone and whacks the ball like a hockey player.  Can't be great at everything, right?  We ate pizza Friday night (just couldn't do leftovers) and hung out with my brother, SIL and mom watching funny You Tube videos (we have no life apparently).  I don't think I've laughed that hard in all my life.

Sadly, my brother and his family had to leave on Saturday.  The rest of us went to Calabash for yummy seafood.  I don't think one can be from the south and not like seafood and HUSH PUPPIES.  I can taste their goodness right now.  After lunch Robbie took the boys to play putt putt and Nonnie and I hit the outlet malls with gusto.  I love the outlet malls.  I racked up on some goodies for me and for others.  The boys were exhausted after a long day and crashed in the car (YAY!).

We left the beach on Sunday.  Sadness abounded.  I love the beach.  One day I'll live at the beach.  One day.

I need to download what pictures I took, so you'll have to check back later.

Calling all Running (and non-runner) Friends

My 2012 goal is to run a lot.  I gave up running in 2011 (well for the majority of 2011) and now I'm ready to get back into full swing.  I would like to run some fun runs, but would really like to run in races that donate to worthy causes or benefit something wonderful.  As I mentioned in early November, a family in our church lost their son to cancer.  His battle was courageous and he gave cancer a run for its money.  St. Jude Children's hospital has a marathon/half marathon the first weekend in December.  Today is the 2011 race, which means all runners and non-runners have a whole year to put their jogging shoes on and get cracking.  The race is in Memphis, so I know most if not all of us will have to travel for this race, but it's totally worth it.  Think about it, pray about it and join me next December.

St. Jude Memphis Marathon