This was a wonderful Christmas for me.  I just found it less stressful than recent years.  There was a lot  of good things to be said for this one. 

But the best part of Christmas 2011 was not

Baby’s first haircut on Christmas Eve

It was not growing daughters now able to frost the cakes to be decorated for Jesus’ birthday

It was not Christmas Eve afternoon snuggles with my son who likes to lie on the floor and just rest [like his mom used to do]

It was not our fifth annual Christmas Eve celebration with our dear friends/almost family

It was not decorating the cakes for Jesus’ birthday and letting the girls put on as much junk as they wanted to

It was not Christmas morning with our own Santa Nigel with gifts he and Stewart bought with their own money – he made his costume himself

It was not Christmas morning with Ba, Poppy, Nanny, and Nene for breakfast, gifts, and church

It wasn’t fun new recipes to make for our annual breakfast

It was not cupcake hats and “Isn’t he cute,” faces

It wasn’t Tebow jerseys for the big four that I let them wear to church
[It wasn’t even an 11 year old who felt it wasn’t proper to wear the jersey, but wore his shirt and tie instead]

It wasn’t even my surprise gift.  I NEVER get big surprise gifts from John.  Ever. 

It wasn’t even the 12/26 shopping spree with a new “Snow Buddy” for Tab and a new “Elf Buddy” for Johanna

The best part of Christmas 2011 is here.  This came from a friend’s camera phone!  Yay for technology. 

The best part of Christmas 2011 came just at the close of church on Sunday morning.  The service ended just a bit early so that the congregation could get to their cars and drive to our pastor’s house.  Jeff has been engaged in an aggressive fight against cancer now for almost four months.  The treatments are intense, but he is pressing on.  Why was this the best part?  It was all about love.  LOVE!  That is what Christmas is all about.  LOVE.  The love the father had for us was intense.  Powerful.  Sacrificial.  And our call to love (as a verb) is clear!  We LOVE God.  We LOVE JEFF.  Taking our love to his lawn, and his NEIGHBORHOOD was, above all, the best part of Christmas for me.  If I could keep only one thing on this page, it would be caroling for our pastor, his wife, his son, and his parents.  We love them. 

 

This is from 1 John 4 – NKJV – Bible Gateway.

Knowing God Through Love
⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love
¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

My mother’s sister, my Aunt Betty, lives in Kingston, Ontario, where my mom grew up.  Her daughter, my cousin Cathy, lives “out west” in Cold Lake, Alberta.  [Yes, it is very cold there.]  Cathy and her husband Dave flew to Kingston for a visit.  Cathy intends to visit for a month and her husband will continue on to Newfoundland to visit his family for a few weeks.  He hasn’t been back home in 13 years!  [Dave is in the Canadian military.]  In order for us all to get to see one another we decided to meet in Parish, NY at a diner for a lunch.  It was a sunny, dry day for travel and we each made the 90-minute trip to Mapleview Family Restaurant.  We were treated so well and despite the shabby exterior our meals were overwhelmingly good and the staff was more-than-comfortable with the food allergies. 

Cathy and Dave spent too much on my kids, but we all admit that had they not brought a gift for the baby to occupy herself we’d have had a hideous meal. 

                                              Tab, Nan                                                                                                                                       

Cathy, Dave, my girls                                                                     Cathy, Dave, my boys                                        Aunt Betty, Kelly [sister], me

My beautiful cousin, Cathy has been a long-time dialysis patient and has required a good deal of medical care this year.  She was in and out of the hospital a number of times this year.  This trip was supposed to be a huge blessing for both of them.  Dave has lovingly attended to his wife through all of it. 

This morning I received an email that said that Cathy was having trouble walking last evening after returning home.  Dave noted it and took her to the emergency room in Kingston.  Cathy had surgery at 2AM to open a blocked cranial shunt.  I covet your prayers for my dear cousin.  Pray there is no lasting damage. That she will not spend her entire break in the hospital. That the doctors that care for her emergently here will fully understand the whole picture. That they can figure out why her shunt gets blocked in the first place.

Maybe the LORD has allowed this because of a difference in care she can receive in Kingston, as opposed to Cold Lake.  I do not know His plans.  But we trust in Him.

Matthew 10:30-31
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

I wanted to frost Christmas cookies.  The problem is I don’t make a decent sugar cookie. I just don’t.  [I won’t elaborate.]  And we can’t buy the pre-made because of Stewart’s allergies.  So, I split the difference and bought the Pillsbury roll out variety.  I still stink at making them.  The dumb things stick to the counter, stick to the rolling pin, get misshapen as I transfer them to the sheet, etc.  They look sort of funny, but they taste good and they were fun to frost.  Tabitha and Marie PILED the treats on the top.  Stewart demonstrated his maturity in the care he took with his and the simplicity he sought.  Nigel was a little of both.  ALL WERE HAPPY and it brought me great gladness to do it with them.  They are these neat ages where they are all still interested, but none are so young that I was constantly hovering.  It will be different again next year, as Johanna will be 2½ and we will include her in our merriment.  Hopefully the boys will still be interested.  She will certainly be! ♥

The overwhelming majority of my Christmas shopping has been done online this year.  We have the “package man,” [UPS] or the “package lady,” [USPS] at our house almost every day it seems.  Since the kids know where all the gifts come from [God via mom and dad] there is no need to hide them.  So – they are piling up in the corner of my bedroom.   I also have packages waiting to be picked up at Walmart via their site-to-store.  [I LOVE site-to-store!]  I hope to get there this weekend. 

I remember a friend of mine who had a daughter back when I had Marie.  She and her husband were in a small apartment when the daughter was about 3.  They hid all her Christmas gifts in a box right under the kitchen table.  In plain sight.  She never had  a clue. 

As these boxes started accumulating and we started to see the “package people” more regularly my kids realized what I was hoarding in my room.   I am so glad that my kids have never shown any signs of not being able to wait. I am a woman all about surprises! I have often said that you could put my birthday present on the floor in June and cover it with a towel and tell me not to peek and I would not. [My birthday is in December.] I love surprises and never want to ruin any of my own. [We don’t even find out the sex of the babies we are expecting.] I LOVE surprises!

This stuff is NOT all for our kids.  HA!  Don’t THEY wish!

We did extra work Wednesday and Thursday so we could take the day off school today. 

We invited three of our friends to go along and two took us up on it.  We parked our big van out in Timbuktu and headed into the mall for some Christmas window-shopping.  We walked by Santa Claus as we entered and surveyed the line.  The kids quickly dismissed the idea of waiting and on we trod. 

We stopped into Build-A-Bear to see what was new since the last time we’d been in there two-plus years ago.  It was fun, but busy.  Off to Collector’s Paradise, the sports memorabilia store that sells stuff so hideously overpriced they should be embarrassed.  The kids enjoyed looking through jerseys, posters, and cards in search of Tim Tebow items.  I was absolutely FLOORED by how busy that store was.  It was teeming with people.  I barely had room for my stroller and it was hard to count heads.  Then we headed on to Toyland, which may be the most aptly named store in the mall.  [On the way we passed Collector’s Paradise Holiday Outlet, also crowded.  I am clearly in the wrong line of work.]  The kids entertained themselves a good while in Toyland and I played puppets with Johanna.

I headed them back toward the big, red guy.  This time I got them right in line.  Tabitha and our friend Ella really did want to say, “Hi,” to him and I didn’t want the peer pressure of the others to make them miss out.  Neither of our families “do” Santa, but we don’t dislike the guy.  Our family regards him like we do Chuck E. Cheese, or Elmo.  Pretend, but we like make-believe.  Nigel and Marie also decided to talk with him and we even popped Johanna over to him briefly. 

As I just uploaded this picture Marie told me that Santa asked her if she was going to leave cookies out for him again this year; he loved the ones she made him last year.  She was so amused by it.  “It’s crazy, Mom!”

This is Santa asking Tabitha if she liked what he brought her last year.  It is a miracle that she didn’t set him straight.  Her face says it all.  Johanna was totally unfazed and uninterested. 

I don’t know what Nigel is talking about with him.  Nigel is clearly considering what the gentleman said.  Nigel would LOVE for there to be a guy that shows up with presents.  Actually, so would I!

We stopped into Wendy’s drive-thru for Junior Frosties and we all had a good laugh over how small they are. 

I just LOVE having a crew to take out.  And there is something so totally awesome about a van full of kids belting out, “Our God is greater, Our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other.”

We picked up the girls’ brother and brought him back home to play.  Some are making cards, some are making movies of light-saber fights.

Tonight the girls and I are going to see the Nutcracker at a local college.  We’ve never seen it before.  It is a narrated, 60-minute production.  I think that is just about right for my ladies.

Who says homeschoolers don’t get phys. ed?

Phew – now that is a long title.
I was working the bugs out of my new camera.  It took me a while to get it all figured out.  These clips are from the last of three performances.  I wish I’d taped the earliest one, they were perkier!  But I trust the LORD was blessed by their offerings EACH time, just as this mom was.

The adult choir was remarkable, as well.  We are always so blessed by this concert hosted at the Webster Bible Church. 

Nigel had a narration and Stewart had a solo. 

Stew’s solo is from 1:00 – 1:30!

Tabitha went to great lengths to be like Daddy today.
She searched high and low for her normally ignored blue jeans.
She begged her brother to use a shirt and then lobbied for a tie.
She stole his belt.
And she presented herself to us all at 7:15 in the morning.

Then she talked her sister into dancing with her, “Like Mommy and Daddy.”

Because Mommy and Daddy do so much dancing???

By 7:40 she had changed into her normal attire.  She decided the shirt was disgusting because Nigel wore it to church on Sunday.  Glad I hurried with the camera!

I celebrated my birthday a second time with my family, my mom, my sister, and my mother- and father-in-law on Saturday night.  Pizza and wings.  *slurp*  I’m just like the kids! 
I ate 10 chicken wings!  Should a 40 year old do that??!

John made the cake.  Correctly.  [Last year’s cake was not so well executed.]  This was the kind of cake that calls your name from across town!  Chocolate cinnamon-mayonnaise cake with homemade chocolate butter crème frosting. 

I’ll forgive him for putting “41” on the cake first. 
Remember my 37th birthday? 
He has a habit of making me as old as he is!

 

I LOVE these trying-to-get-a-photo photos!