She said it.

Thank you Peacebang.

Thank you, Pr. Pam.

Thank you, Pr. Nadia.

And, for  a real Advent/Christmas gift, check out this video by the Livesays.

Bethlehem is in sight

The package to the distant sibling has been sent.
Gifts for children of all ages have arrived.
BB and my DH are out shopping for me as I type.
We have snow and the kids have been out sledding.
I have pants that will fit me.
FB accounts has been signed off of for the remainder of the year.
Snacks are purchased for trip north.
Christmas with inlaws has been scheduled for tomorrow.
Christmas cards are all that are left...best get to it.

This has been a difficult season for me.  I have been internally fighting the secular 'to do list' and the manic drive to spend and decorate and celebrate in all the ways the culture desires of us.  Mentally, I have written many a blog post on all the ways we try to cram celebration into these four weeks.  Why don't we spread out gifts, cards, parties, coffees, brunches...Why, oh WHY do we do this to ourselves?

In the end I did what I wanted to...told my internal drive 'to do more' to "shut up" ( and I don't say that phrase very often, to anyone.) and went along doing the best I could.

I have written many a judgmental post as well.  Wondering why adults are so obnoxious at preschool programs and why we can't hang up our damn cell phones.  I have even judged people's holiday decorations and Christmas cards.  I have judged myself for how my son is approaching the season...gimme, gimme, gimme. 

But none of them will really benefit anyone, so I hit the delete key in my mind and moved on.  Your Christmas will be all the brighter for not having to read my rants.

Clearing out some of the chaotic mental frustration and holiday angst, helped Bethlehem come in to view.

It isn't a mirage after all!  There, off in the distance is the place Jesus was born, is born, will be born.  I caught sight of it in my rear-view mirror and in the grocery lines and in the eyes of those who dance around my house.  In the end, in spite of all my judgment, and concern, and fear that society is completely lost, devote of any true compass, I catch a glimpse of the place where God came to us.  God's humility, vulnerability and acceptance, strengthens my faith once again.  And I remember, that it is for people such as this...such as myself: judgmental, proud, and self centered...that God put on human flesh and lived among us.

For myself and for you, I wish these final days of Advent to be full of the holy.  Holy waiting in line, holy cooking, holy cleaning (and painting) and preparing.  Holy days.  I also wish you the most blessed Christmas season...all 12 days of it.  Enjoy.  Savor.  Wonder.  Take your time in Bethlehem.  New babies are something to behold and this one is not to be missed.

Peace to you and yours!

No, It is still me.

I was just bored and tried to change things up a bit with layout.  Watch, it will change again.

Not Prepared

If you are anxiously awaiting photos of my home, decorated for the Advent and Christmas seasons, you can see what it looked like last year, here.  As BB reminds me nearly every hour, we have not decorated as much this year.  And, we won't be.

Part of the Story

Here is final paragraph from my sermon on Sunday.  It was a soft sermon.  That is being kind.  Although, I knew it was. I knew I wasn't getting into the text as much as I could have and I made peace with that...I told my stories about children and setting expectations...I got my laughs and had some fun.  Fun.  Huh, fun, with Luke's version of John the Baptist...well, never thought I'd write that sentence.

But, considering I was having a delightful text study in Chicago at 3:30pm...I did pretty well.

"So what then should we do?

We wait.  We wait in hope.  We wait in Joy.  We return again and again to the expectations God lays out for us.  We wait for the day when it will all be second nature…loving our neighbor, kindness, forgiveness, joy, gratitude…when all our responses to the gift of God in the flesh, come as easy as breathing.  We wait for Jesus to come again.  We wait..opening the gift God gave us in Christ, one layer of grace and expectation at a time."

What I wish I could have put together is here.  Hang with her past the horror movie stuff...because the last 6 paragraphs are worth it.

Four!

Here is a photo of the t-shirt.  BB loved wearing it to school and for his party.  I imagine he'll have it on a few more times this year.

 

I made this banner out of paper (can't go into the scrapbook store without buying SOMETHING) that matched the table decorations.

I frosted cookies...had enough cut out 'fours' to feed the neighborhood. 

Here is the beginning of the cake.  When BB saw the crack in it, he wanted his excavators to be digging a foundation large enough to build a skyscraper.  So, I dug out a hole...chocolate cake looks just like dirt.

Here is the final cake. 

Easiest one yet. 

Green frosting.  Crushed Oreo cookies and my royal icing boulders.

And, what else would make a construction party complete?  Why, an excavator, of course! 

(and some soil...)

Thanks to everyone who made it a great weekend.  We love you!!!

Joy

It is a beautiful sunny day here.  We sent the kids out to play after breakfast so that party preparations could begin.  BB dressed himself in his firefighter uniform, along with a winter hat and mittens.  EG came running in hot pursuit, dressed as a bumble bee in tennis shoes.  The bee costume has a hood so she saw no need for a hat.

The sunshine streamed into our kitchen as I sipped tea and my husband ate his cereal. We planned the day and occasionally looked out the window at our bee and firefighter.  After my husband took off for errands, I began to bake the cake (second cake...longer story).  Sunshine.  Smell of chocolate cake powder in the air.  And the sight of our kids out the window.  Joy.

At one point I looked out to see both of them laying on their stomachs under the ball catching net (probably feels like a tent to them).  Their young heads are close together, while their feet kick in crisp air.  The dog bounced around them, her breath forming clouds around them.  Every once in awhile they would pop up and run around then come back to the same spot and snuggle back up together.  Something about the scene amazed me.  My babies.  Out there, together in the world.  There they were. 

What on earth were they up to?

It hit me that as much as I wanted to go out to see what they were talking about, playing, creating, my presence would have ruined it for everyone.  They were out in our small yard becoming their own selves...and today, I watched their relationship develop.  She can talk.  He can listen.  They can take turns.  Together, they can plan and plot and dream.  I know they were sharing the beginnings of what it means to have siblings.

It is siblings that know your story from the beginning...in the best conditions they have your back like no one else in your life ever will.  From my experience, the honesty, loyalty and love that comes from your sister or brother can not be matched, or recreated.  While you can have a full, rich and productive life without one, I wouldn't have wanted to go it alone.

Increasingly, I realize that we aren't just raising children, we are creating a family.  And today I realized something else, I live with a brother and sister...young people who have their own relationship...just them, together.

I didn't go out to the yard.  Hours later, I haven't even asked what they were up to.  It wasn't about me.  It was their moment and I am just so blessed to have caught a glimpse of it.

To my own brother and sister...thanks for it all, and I love you.

Much more fun than my last post.

Yum.

What I learned from Twitter Today...

What if Jesus had been born a girl?

What if...

My Work Here is Done

Today after preschool the three of us went to lunch and then to a neighborhood bakery to pick out cookies for BB to take to class tomorrow.  So many to pick from.  So many.  Eventually, he choose two kinds and we got a dozen of each.  The teacher will probably not enjoy the fact the kids can choose between two decorating styles, but so be it.

In the car afterward, BB began to plan.  He first secured that there were enough cookies for him to try one today.  Then he said, "Mom, are we going to put each cookie in a little bag and tie it with a ribbon and put my friends names on each one?"  While I was delighted that he thought of this very cute idea, the part of me that has been running around getting ready for tomorrow and Sunday, groaned internally--NO!!!---we aren't.  What I said was, "That is a great idea, and sometimes we do that don't we?  I don't think we will tomorrow."  To which he graciously offered, "I'm not sure how to spell anyway...and you don't even know some of their faces."

He also reported back today that his class will be studying Advent all of December.  "The color is blue."

See, my work is done.  What more can I teach him beyond liturgical colors and putting cookies in bags with ribbon for a party?

(They also got the H1N1 shot and we picked up pottery from the local 'paint it yourself' shop.  Tomorrow, some surprises go up and a couple gifts get opened.)