A quietly merry Christmas

It has been a quiet Christmas. We went to Philadelphia for a week and reveled in the quiet joy of being surrounded by family. I was pretty sick, but kept hoping that I would suddenly wake up better. Back at home, loaded with antibiotics, and starting to feel more like my normal self and I am realizing just how sick I was. But it was lovely to be with my parents, rest on the couch, watch my kids play with their grandparents and uncles and aunts. It was lovely to just let Christmas happen without feeling the need, or desire, to frantically plan events, details, perfection. We didn't even take many pictures, which I will probably regret later.

My heart has been tender lately. I feel emotional and vulnerable. I am trying to let myself just be and not try to fix. I am searching God's Word and world for His love for me. I am seeking and asking. His love has been taking me by surprise, brilliant, brief moments of deep awareness that flit across my consciousness and are quickly gone. I want to grip tight to those moments but I rest knowing that they will come again.

Today we began bringing order back to the chaos that is our house. Clutter and disorder stresses me out so I slowly began taking down the decorations, vacuuming the play/school room, trying to get the boys to organize their new toys. Aaron goes back to work on Wednesday and I want us to be ready to jump back into our normal routine.

This is the first year that Jeremiah has been aware of "New Year." He heard there is supposed to be a party at church and is excited. I have no desire to stay up until midnight and was hoping for a quiet night at home with hot chocolate and a good book. I guess we are going to have to come up with some kind of compromise.

Now, it is time for a nap.

Small Group and Community

 The kids waiting on the Christmas parade. It is small town and corny but the kids love it. It is mostly a hit because they get free candy. And this year a guy was dressed as a Storm Trooper so that was an added bonus for our boys.

Decorating and eating Christmas trees at our small group Christmas gathering. 

Every Sunday night a group of people meet at our house. A gaggle of kids ranging in age from newborn to elementary school aged make noise and play games and wander through our time of discussion and prayer. This group of people, unlikely friends to outside eyes, they know us. We discuss Sunday's sermon and how to apply it to our lives. We pray together. We cry together. We ask questions about God's Word together. We celebrate with each other and we mourn with each other. We try to help each other practically as best we can. These people are part of our community. Our family. The wise old gentleman and his wife who have lived long and seen much and pray deeply and still get teary eyed over the wonder of God's love. The family from a country far away whose culture is different and who show us what sacrifice and commitment and hard work and faith look like. The family of blended cultures whose language I don't always understand but who are quietly, patiently, hard workingly faithful and wonderfully encouraging. The farmer's family who work the earth and run summer camp and provide us with good food and let our kids run wild over their land. There are other families who come and go as their schedules allow.

We are not perfect. We have much to learn about being more intentional, about loving each other well. But every Sunday night we make the effort. We gather. As time has passed and we have shared, struggled, and celebrated together our bonds have formed. These people are part of my tribe, my family.

"The Day That Our Lord Came Down"

At the concert the other night we were introduced to another band, Pas Neos. We have really enjoyed their music. They have deep, spiritual, meaningful, biblical lyrics. The boys especially like me to crank up the CD and rock out. They were an amazing band to watch live. And again, we were in a small, intimate venue which makes a concert experience so much more intense I think.

Anyway, I love Christmas music but over the years I have been more selective about what Christmas music we purchase. I want music that reminds me of the miracle of Christ coming to earth. This song has been on repeat in my kitchen this week. It is a perfect Advent song.



The Day That Our Lord Came Down
(Num. 24:17, Mt. 2, Lk. 1&2)
 Rejoice O daughter and highly favored one! The Lord of hosts gives the holy hill to your Son! Blessed among women is the mother of Immanuel!

This day your eyes have seen salvation, Israel's splendor and consolation. the King became humanity's crown the day that our Lord came down.

Look to the heavens, a guiding sing in the eastern sky! her dawning leads you to the birth of Dayspring's light! a star out of Jacob, and a scepter from Israel. Glory to God in the highest - and eternal life among those of His delight! the praise of the host of heaven sounds, the day that our Lord came down. 

He has made a better way! The Savior come in infant frame, amidst scattered sheep, a Shepherd's found, the day that our Lord came down. He has made a better way! The Firstborn Lamb and Child of Praise, the glory of God shone in Bethlehem town, the day that our Lord came down. 

(From The Wheat And The Tares cd)

Concert - Future of Forestry

We went out last night. Actually paid a baby sitter and went to see Future of Forestry in concert. We were wavering about going but we finally made the decision to just do it. I am so glad we did. This was an amazing, soul nourishing, worshipful experience with talented musicians.

Enjoy this video of "O Holy Night", one of my favorite Christmas songs. Then find them on YouTube and watch more of their music. Really amazing stuff. And if you get a chance to see them live, make it happen, you won't regret it.

Randomness

It has been a quiet week around here. I came down with a bad cold. I have spent most of my time resting in bed while the boys amuse themselves. I am going to brag on them. They have played so well together and done such a great job of keeping themselves occupied while I rested. Jeremiah showed so much maturity and independence, even making lunch a couple of times. And of course Aaron has been amazing, working hard all day then coming home to cook dinner and deal with the evening routine.

This year I am learning to embrace imperfect. To just take one day at a time. We have decorated our tree and put up our Jesse Tree. But not much else "Christmas-y" has happened. I am okay with that. Our favorite Christmas tradition anyway is to sit in front of the tree and read Christmas books, and that happens a lot. Tonight we will go to the annual Christmas parade in our town. It is nothing spectacular to adults, but the boys love it and we will go as long as they want to. Our Jesse Tree tradition has been somewhat simplified, we are following 24 readings from The Jesus Storybook Bible. We are re-using our ornaments from our Ann Voskamp readings.  Our Christmas cards are done. We didn't have a good, recent family picture so I made a collage and called it a day.

We do have preparations to make for spending Christmas week in Philadelphia. But again, simple, imperfect, easy are all being embraced.

School this week has consisted of Jeremiah doing his math work sheets on his own. He has been spending a lot of time doing creative writing in the new book he bought, Write Your Own Story Book. Literally, he has been spending hours concocting stories. So I am calling that Language Arts for the week. One evening he crawled up into bed with me for some snuggles. He had his book and read me some of what he wrote. I asked him why he liked writing so much. He said, "Because you can use your imagination. It's like writing down what you see in your brain. Like writing your brain down on paper." He then concocted a plan in which he would write stories and give them to the people we know at the Library to read. If they like the stories then maybe he could get them published. His exact words, "I want to write some books and have them published so that they can be at the library and for sale at bookstores and yard sales."

So there you have it.