"We heard you have a baby in there..."

"...now let us in!"

This seems to be the general consensus from our neighbors these days. They keep stopping by to hold the baby and offer me help in raising him. Our downstairs neighbor came by with her 2 year-old grandson, who was super pumped to see Sam. He also had never seen a Christmas tree and so he really wanted to pull it down. His grandmother kept telling him not to hit it over and over.

Another neighbor, a mother of twin girls, came by the next night. She said she heard from one of her 7 year-olds that we had a new little girl. She brought her daughter over too, but before Bill could open the door, the little girl ran back home with a look of shock on her face. Those girls never have gotten used to us Whiteys. The mother recalled a funny story from two years ago when we had just moved in and my mother was still here. One of the twins was screaming and crying in the hallway outside their front door and I went out to investigate. They were too scared and shy to talk to me, but finally the less-shy one said that they didn't have a key to their house and didn't know what to do (no one was home). So, I brought my cell phone out to them and we called their mother. The mother is still grateful for our help.

This is a great time of year to share about the reason for Christmas. We hope that, despite not being able to go out due to the cold weather, that we will be able to share with our neighbors who come here. Merry Christmas!