Merry Christmas!

It's a little after 7am on Christmas Morning & I am currently waiting for my two girls to wake up to join in the Christmas festivities. It's given me the opportunity to reflect a bit on Christmas and its meaning. "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6, NLT). It is so easy to get caught up in the stuff of Christmas that we forget the deeper meaning. I really like this passage from Isaiah - imagine what it must have been like to hear this in the midst of a very dark time - to know that a Savior will one day come to redeem all of mankind. A simple child, born in a manger - and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This is our God.

These are my thoughts this morning as I wait for our house to be transformed into world of excitement, wonder, and Christmas cheer. In the meantime, I thought I would share a little from our Christmas experience this year. These pictures are from the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. We went on Saturday night with a couple of our good friends (Aaron & Amy) and my parents. Ellie had a great time looking at the lights (they had lots of glow-in-the-dark animals outlined in lights). One really cool display was of the Tacoma Narrows Bridges with Mount Rainier in the background - very creative (for those of you not from Tacoma, they are currently building a second bridge to span the Tacoma Narrows - in the picture it is the one with the cables lit up). They did a really good job replicating the bridges - even leaving off certain sections of the bridge that aren't quite finished yet.