Christmas 2007- In the Form of a List

Nothing is as easy as writing a list and so I give you our Christmas recap, with bullet points.

Lazy, yes.

I never said I wasn't.

• 6 Christmases in 4 days.
• Ann, Eric, and their three kiddos come back from distant lands. Hooray!
• Ann falls to the power of the stomach flu. (So sorry Ann. It's definitely the gift that keeps on giving.)
• The tradition of Grandma Margaret's famous Christmas cookies continues.
  
• Wii!
• Heth freaks out and has a Christmas meltdown, succumbing to the stress of her role as Super Christmas Coordinator. (Did I mention 6 Christmases in 4 days?)
  
• Heth recovers from her meltdown with the tried and true remedy of staying in her pajamas until evening and eating lots of sugar.
• A nativity scene made solely from pancakes.
  
• A precious Christmas morning at my parents'. Teary eyes and family all around.
• Dave (my parents' foreign exchange student) joins in the Christmas craziness.
• We survive the annual wrapping paper war and my Grandparents' house.
  
• Nate and Heth assume the roles of Wii refrees while the children play Wii sports.
• Toby learns to sit unassisted.
  
• Toby eats cereal for the first time. It's one step from sugar cookies.
  
• So much snow.
• Soooo much laundry.

The One Decent Shot

Merry Christmas from the Laundry Pile Family!

Surrender

I would have waved a white flag but the draft would have just knocked more needles off of the tree. The saga continues.

Ironically, yesterday, the day that I posted photos of our house decorated for Christmas, was the day that I took the tree down. Merry Christmas kids! The tree is past it's expiration date! I'd had enough of the needles on the floor and was beginning to worry about the flammability factor. Nothing says Peace on Earth like watching your house go up in smoke!

Jack and I carefully removed each and every ornament and then I delicately unstrung the lights. I gently eased the quickly disintegrating tree out the front door and around the back of the house, leaving a trail of needles the whole way. I set the tree in one of the snow covered flower beds in the back yard for the birds. I should probably hang a sign on it: "land at your own risk". Then I returned to the living room to clean up the aftermath. I ended up with two dustpans HEAPING full of needles. It was hilarious really.

So as not to leave the children with no tree at Christmas time, we pulled out Old Faithful. We still have, in a box in the storage room, the artificial tree that Nate and I bought our first Christmas together 13 years ago. We were ecstatic to purchase a tree that first year of marriage and were blind to the reality of the quality of tree that we could afford. It seemed huge and lovely to us then. Now? Ridiculous and small. You can see right straight through it to the pole in the middle. I chuckle a little bit every time I look at it. This morning Jack and Gemma and I decorated it. Carefully. So as to not dislodge any of the branches. Now instead of losing needles, we are in danger of losing whole limbs.

You know, the whole ordeal makes me realize how much it's not about the tree and the decorations and the "stuff" I do to create the perfect Christmas for my family. Swapping our beautiful tree for a more humble one has helped me refocus a little bit. How I handle this extra stress sets the stage for what kind of a Christmas we are going to have. I have to admit, this week I have been very Grinchy, despite my best efforts not to be. I wasn't going to wig out this year. I was going to be more organized, more peaceful, and more loving to my children. I think the Lord is trying to get my attention and show me to slow down. He is showing me that my best efforts aren't ever going to be good enough without Him. He is the only one who can give me true peace at Christmas, or anytime of year for that matter. Even if the Christmas tree gets thrown out the front door.

My House

Welcome to my house. Have a peek.
There aren't a lot of pictures, I took them stratigiclly so as to hide the fact that the house is "a little bit messy". Ahem.

There is no sneaking in or out the front door. The jingle bell wreath takes care of that.

These are the mittens that are never soggy and wet. They hang above one of the coat racks. One year when we had three kids, my mother-in-law bought these for our family and she has had to buy a new one for us every other year since. I love them. They are so fun to get out of the decoration box.

The tree. Notice how most of the ornaments are near the middle.

This is why. There are no needles left on the bottom branches.


My mom started a little tradition of buying snow globes and music boxes for the girls and tin soldiers and nutcrackers for the boys. I don't have room to display all of them at once so this year it's the boys' turn. I just love how they look with my new wall color.

This year I only decorated the living room. The only decoration in the kitchen is the sugary kind and they don't last long.

Petless

Our fish died this morning. It was a short life but one filled with wonderful fishy type things, like swimming and eating and... well, that's about it.
Rest in Peace little buddy.

"Nameless Fish"
April 2007-December 2007

Chuck

I've been chewing on this Charles Spurgeon quote for a few weeks now. It really struck me.

"He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it."

Wow.

I Should Have Known Better

I have rules. Christmas Rules.

Every year I have fought against the current of the culture and waited. Waited to put the tree up until December 1st or after. This was the rule. My rule.

This year we joined my parents on their tree hunting mission Thanksgiving weekend. Everyone was home and we made it a family outing. See how we descended upon the quaint little tree farm like an army? We were an army with a miniature dachshund for a mascot.


There are more of us behind the trees.

While we traipsed up and down the rows, Nate and I looked at each other and said, "While we are here, maybe we should just get our tree too. No point in coming back later."

And so we did.

I knew there was a reason I liked to wait until the first or second weekend in December.

It was so that we would have a tree left on Christmas Day and not just a pile of needles.

The needles are falling off of the tree like you would not believe. Every day I sweep and vacuum, vacuum and sweep. I could make little pine scented crafts from the pile of needles I get. Combine it with the red fuzz from my rug and who knows what kind of a thing I could create?!

The new rules this year?

• No playing with the tree.
  
• No touching the tree.
• No accidentally bumping the tree.
• No sneezing or coughing or laughing near the tree.
• Don't even look at the tree.

Merry Christmas kids. I don't need to wrap your gifts, I just need to give the tree a little shake and they will be completely covered in pine needles.

Photos Coming Later

A couple of you asked for photos of my living room decorated for Christmas. I'm going to put it off for a little while longer so that I can participate in
BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. Should be fun.

Tuesday

This post is going to rock your socks off.

Really it's not. It's just a list of pretty much nothing. Let's get started.

1. The laundry is reproducing. I'm sure of it. I knew there was a reason to "separate" it, it's really just to keep it from multiplying.
   
2. Three of my children insist on taking their shoes off the minute they sit down in the van. I won't tell you which three. It was tolerable in the summer, even kind of cute. Now that there are socks and boots and sloppy snow/slushy/mud/muck involved, it's really, really annoying. REALLY annoying.
   
3. Toby is catching a cold. He has a well baby check later this week. Kind of ironic I think.
4. Shopping for a winter coat for a 12 year old is a whole new ball game.
   
5. I love my new living room decorated for Christmas. Love it.
6. It doesn't have to be a holiday or a special occasion to eat pecan pie for breakfast. Just in case you were wondering. And once piece isn't enough. Go for the second slice.

Snow

We had our first big snow storm this weekend.
For the record, Nate was one step ahead of nature.