A Beautiful Baby...

Jessica, Cory, Bryan, Mark and I all loaded up yesterday and went to Stork Vision to have a peek at baby Hendricks. All I can say is, wow, what an emotional experience. I had never seen a sonogram live - the heart beat brought me to tears. The main goal of Jessica's trip to Stork Vision was to learn whether her beautiful baby will prefer ribbons and bows or snails and puppy dog tails. And, drum roll please, the ribbons and bows have it - introducing baby girl Hendricks...


Sucking her thumb...



This is a 3-D picture - amazing technology - if you look closely you can actually make out her entire face...



We're in love!

Deck The Halls...

Okay, it seems to me that maybe this year my halls aren't decked with their usual flare. I'm hoping by posting a few pics of what I have done so far I will be inspired to do a little more. Of course, it is four days until Christmas and I haven't wrapped a gift or baked a single cookie so the odds of massive Christmas decorating taking place today aren't good. And really, does it REALLY matter? Okay, here's what I have so far...

The kitchen tree - otherwise known as "my" tree...



It is full of peace and love...











And, of course, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care (and next year there will be a new one for Jessica and Cory's beautiful bundle of love)...



And then there is the living room tree. It is full of snowmen, handmade paper ornaments, Santa, silly stuff and souvenir ornaments from the places Mark and I have visited along the way. It is so fun each year to look at the various ornaments - they all have a story and, after all, who doesn't enjoy a story?









So maybe we're a little more decked than I thought we were. Now if I can just force myself to get those packages wrapped!

One more thing - A speaker I heard the other day made what I guess is one of the most simple and poignant points I may have ever heard. Basically he said that the only things we as humans really have in this life are faith, hope and love. It occurred to me how true this is - at the end of our lives these will be the only things that ever really mattered. Not the job, not the house, not the car, not the money - only faith, hope and love. It is my hope for each of us this Christmas season that we will explore our faith, our hope and our love and that we will never lose site of the true meaning of Christmas.