Torturing Annie the cat

Kansas City Christmas

Picking out our Christmas tree

Decorating it.

Great Grandpa Sherrill & Princess, the dog

Gigi

Present time!!

Daddy's new tool bag

Papa Richard

Santa came!

Christmas day tupperware sorting

Pop Ed swinging Harper around

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Wichita Christmas

Alexandria and Jill playing piano (Brad rocking out in the background)

Uncle Jason

New fishbowl toy!

The family


Grammy Janice looking at her new photo book

Harper eating her new shopping cart cover

Auntie Jill

Papa Jeff

Cousins Price and Ellery from Houston

Oooooklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains!

My sis is moving to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks. She and her husband will be the Bible Belt's newest residents! This is my long distance dedication to them both. Good luck and godspeed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrSnlLuuKSM

And here is why I love my sister and am actually thrilled that she'll be closer to me. Here is a picture of us from the weekend:

My mom bought us matching Christmas pajamas. We get these every year. Since we are both going to be with our in-laws on actual Christmas day we had our Wichita Christmas on Sunday.

Saturday night, after an evening out, my sister (who is 26 ya'll), ran down to her room to try and find her new pajamas. My mom hadn't put them out yet. She came back upstairs very slowly with a really dejected look on her face until my mom handed us the above pj's. My sister was so very happy.

Then, we couldn't get through the picture because of an inside joke from eight years ago.

And that's the joy of sisterhood. When you get together you still get to be ten-years-old. I'm not sure that's it's wise to capture these moments permanently in photos, but there you go. I get to see my sister a lot more often in the New Year so I am happy!

Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas!

I know I get off topic here (the topic being namely, my daughter), but sometimes I like to share some other things with you on this blog. Today, for some reason I was thinking about an incredible documentary that Josh and I saw a couple of years ago about Father Mychal Judge, the priest who died on 9/11(he was made famous by the photograph of the firefighters who carried his body away from the crumbling towers in a chair). The documentary about his life is called "The Saint of 9/11." I know it is available through Netflix and I bet you could find it at your local library.

Rather than describe the film I've included the trailer here. It doesn't really do the film justice, but the only thing I'd like to add to the trailer is that it is an uplifting film. Very, very uplifting.



And on the topic of uplifting, here is yet another of my favorite documentaries. This one is about how a small town school found a way to understand the enormity of the Holocaust. Lest you think that I am tempting you to watch a depressing piece of cinema right before Christmas, I will tell you that this movie too is very, very uplifting.



And that folks, is why I share these films with you in the first place. For one, it feels like our precious little country is kinda in the gutter lately and we need to reinforce our generally good humanity. And secondly, the holidays are supposed to be happy and joyous. They hopefully remind us that we need to dig deeper to find new ways to love and understand each other and to embrace each other's differences. These films are pretty incredible at doing just that.

Or, you know, if you're a holiday-hater then these might at least be a welcome break from non-stop cable re-runs of "It's a Wonderful Life." Scrooge.

'Tis the Season to be Charitable

I know that many of you are strapped for cash this year. I know Josh and I are feeling it with a new baby! This, however, is my "soft ask" (as they call it in the non-profit industry) for you to consider a charitable donation to Higher M-Pact.

Lots of you already donate your time and money to causes that you are passionate about. You will be receiving lots of requests at this time of year to stretch a little further for a myriad of other organizations. I know that I choose who to donate my time and energy to based on the issues I hold the closest to my heart. So if children in need isn't your thing, please disregard this post :).

I am the Center and Education Coordinator for Higher M-Pact. We serve low-income, high-risk children and families in the urban core of Kansas City. You can learn more about this organization and our programs here: http://www.highermpact.org/.

At this time of year we do a really wonderful thing. We adopt families who could use a little extra help providing a memorable Christmas for their children. I spend lots of time in the homes of these families and I can tell you--there's nothing more heartbreaking for me than knowing that not only are some of these kids not expecting a visit from Santa this year, but parents are struggling to provide even the most basic needs: winter coats, food, electricity.

You can make one-time donations through our website if you just have a little extra to give. You can also sponsor an entire family if you have a small bundle of money you're not sure how to spend. Even if you can't make a donation you can consider volunteering if you're in the Kansas City area. If nothing else, you should peruse our website. There is a great story behind the founding of Higher M-Pact!

Please feel free to contact me directly and have a fantastic and Merry Christmas! jvansickle@highermpact.org.

Some pictures...