Sometimes it’s not the best photo you post. It’s the one that captures a memory you don’t want to forget.

My daughter at age four. Her determined jaw and curling tendrils of hair. The fact that she’s snipping cubes of paper even though we started cutting strips for paper chains. Her still-chubby fingers learning to twist the paper just so, then wrap small pieces of sticky tape around them. Her sweetness in crafting with mom, and wanting songs for bedtime, even though it meant going to bed right away rather than staying up late for more play.

Sometimes a photo is so much more than a picture.

We got a shout out on Shutter Sisters today! How cool is that?!! Just last night I was surfing the site, clicking away on each contributor and making mental notes on the contents of their camera bags. Shutter Sisters is an inspiring site for me, so it’s exciting to get a mention from them. They’re also hosting a giveaway each day of December. So stop by, look around, and maybe win something!

I made an agreement with myself that I’d only buy regular coffee—and then spruce it up with Splenda and creamer and various flavors found in free shakers at coffee shops. I promptly forgot my agreement with myself and have enjoyed numerous lattes since.

But today’s drink, an Espresso Truffle (mmm), was completely legit and myself couldn’t get mad at me for this one. Hello, sweet gift card/birthday present. You provided guiltless caffeinated pleasure on a windy and cold December afternoon. Thank you, dear giver of aforementioned card. And thank you, Starbucks, for not carrying “rainbow” cookies, because then I didn’t have to share my present with my daughter. (Kidding, kidding. But not really.)

I am a poor representative for the Jesse Tree, but I’ll tell you what I know. The Jesse Tree is a way to count down to Christmas Day with your family, a method of accounting for the larger story that lead to the birth of God as a human baby. I’ve been reading New Way to Be Human by Charlie Peacock and, as result, have thought quite a bit about the larger Story that exists. In the author’s words:

It doesn’t matter whether I’m confused and unsure… a novice spiritual traveler, or someone with a heart full of certainties. If I’m serious about following Jesus as his student, I should know the Story he was sure of. Following means stepping into his controlling, explanatory Story.

Luke’s gospel tells the Story of Jesus and the two disciples on Emmaus Road. Luke 24:27 says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Jesus told stories in the context of the larger Story he and his Jewish contemporaries already knew—The Book of Beginnings, the Law, the Prophets, the Wisdom Books, and Songs.

Jesus knew the Story he had stepped into. His follower Matthew knew too. Matthew started his gospel account with, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). It’s an account of the genesis of Messiah Jesus, his beginnings, his origins. Matthew 1:17 says, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from Christ to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to Christ.”

Why begin with genealogy? Matthew’s message is: “Get this first. You won’t fully understand what I’m about to tell you unless you have the right starting place. If you really want to understand Jesus, you have to know the Story in which he’s participating (and is in fact the climax of). If you know this, you will know better how to participate, and you’ll be less likely to find yourself inside the wrong story or in an insufficient one.”

Peacock’s book had made quite an impact on me so far. It’s encouraging me to learn more about this family I’ve been adopted into (Romans 11:17) and to relish the rich history of God’s people. I like the Jesse Tree because it acknowledges, to quote Sally Lloyd-Jones’s excellent Jesus Storybook Bible, that “every story whispers his name.”

Full disclosure is called for here. The holidays do not generate crafty feelings within me, which means there is no way I would’ve created a Jesse Tree this year on my own. The other members of the Mom-to-Mom leadership team graciously undertook the HUGE project of creating 30 Jesse Trees for Zion, Grace and Redeemer moms this year. So this cool Jesse Tree banner was a gift—and I am grateful! We’ve enjoyed reading verses that correspond to little ornaments each day, then hanging the small symbols on the felt tree. If you want more info on Jesse Trees, I recommend Googling it.

Speak now or forever hold your peace. Or something like that.

If you’d like to have your name added to the roster in the right sidebar, you must sign up for the December Photo Project by midnight on December 8. You can join the project and sign up for it on the blog up until the last day, December 25, if you’d like. But I won’t add anymore names to the list of participants after tomorrow. FYI!

When real life and Kung Fu Panda play meet:

Jeremy: Do you need to go potty, Shifu?

Shifu-Livia: I might. But my kung-fu bladder’s not full.

Thirty-one years ago, and a few odd minutes, one amazing woman delivered her second child, a baby girl. She must’ve been completely exhausted as that baby weighed a whopping 8lb, 9oz. Thank you, mom, for going through all that pain and effort just to get me to this earth. Since I was your second child, I’m sure you knew that the delivery was just the beginning… You had many more years of pain and effort—and joy!—ahead of you. Now that I’m a mother, I know how much you sacrificed for me. I love you! You began a legacy, continued it in many ways, and for that I am thankful today, on my birthday.