Merry Christmas from the Harringtons!

This Christmas season we can imagine how Mary and Joseph felt with the special arrival of their newborn baby, the Savior, the King! Many of you have been praying with us about our daughter's health. Our special blessing, Kathryn Joyce Harrington, arrived on November 8 at 2:50 P.M. Over the last few months of our pregnancy we were faced with constant concerns related to her health or to Amber's health. The Lord in His goodness and grace healed Baby Kate, who was born with no health concerns! She was born alert, wide-eyed, and smiling.

 

Kate is a constant reminder of the Lord's willingness to answer prayer. She is also a reminder of the blessings that we have. It is easy to take blessings, both big and small, for granted. This Christmas season we are thankful for the blessings of health. We are grateful for time with family that we can spend together instead of through an international Skype call.

We are thankful for YOU and how you have blessed us in both big and small ways. Thank you for remembering us in your prayers! We pray for showers of blessings on you and your loved ones this holiday season!

We are thankful for the best gift of all: a tiny newborn, who lay in a manger and would forever change the course of history through His love and sacrifice on the cross.

Failed.

In the world of Pinterest we have a wealth of opportunities for failure and few successful attempts at creatively cute masterpieces. Today I join the thousands who have [once again] failed at a Pinterest craft.

Here are some examples of others failed attempts:

Every Christmas we try to send out a card to our friends and family. This year we have precious Baby Kate. So I cruised around on Pinterest looking for "Newborn Christmas Photos". I found hundreds of adorable shots of wee ones ranging from posing with Christmas ornaments to being captured sleeping in a little stocking.

Here's "THE ONE" I chose for our 2013 Christmas card:

I know, too cute, right?

Here's what we TRIED:

Those, friends, are NOT smiles. She was SO upset. So upset that fluids started coming out from everywhere! After a few pictures, lots of screaming, and a few laughs from us we called it quits and called Target. Target happened to be running a deal on Black Friday. The deal was all the photos taken in the photo shoot on a CD with all the copyrights to it, which would allow us to print our Christmas cards through another company like Shutterfly. Little did we know that you did not get the CD on that visit, you had to wait a week.

A week later a HUGE storm hit most of the United States, bringing with it ice, sleet, freezing rain, freezing temperatures, and crazy road conditions. "Crazy road conditions" mean that if there's anything white on the ground around these parts we freak out and forget how to drive safely. To the joy of every school aged child, some schools were closed for almost a week. News broadcasters were emphatically pleading with the whole state to stay home. Basically it looked like this:

 

This storm delayed our photos getting to us in time, but we still got some super cute pictures of Kate. I don't know how those ladies at Target did it, but here are a couple:

So maybe my Pinterest project failed OR maybe it didn't. I love all the shots we got of our sweet girl. I'm glad that we have proof that we tried to do something creative with her. Really it's so we can look back at these attempts later and laugh, but also next time we just skip the trying to do it ourselves and go to a "pro".