Home for Christmas

The kids were my "helpers" at the office during the morning on Christmas Eve while the girls were off enjoying their day of preparations. We had a ball. We got Josh an Egg McMuffin and the girls a donut from Dunkin, and we enjoyed the morning together at the office. There were lots of blank Word documents created. Lots of shredded papers and lots of cups of water from the water cooler. But it was a hoot. 

The weather was so unseasonably warm that the kids went out to ride bikes in the afternoon after we got home while I did some cooking prep. We had roast beef for dinner and then got ready for church.  What to wear to Christmas Eve church in 70 degree weather was a real quandary...and the girls' Easter dresses were actually in the running until the last minute. 

Josh sang a solo during the service. We were so proud of him!  He handled a very packed church like a champ.  We had worked hard on learning it at home, but thankfully Miss Shirley was the accompanist for the service because, well...this piano player is rusty and wouldn't have handled the crowd with the grace that our 9 year old did. He absolutely made my Christmas with his song. It was called "A Shepherd's Heart" and was beautiful. 

When we returned from church, Clocky had made his return to the North Pole but had left some new Christmas pj's for the kids. I was grateful for this because somehow, outside of the realm of my OCD, the kids have begun crafting their own "pajamas" out of whatever they can find. Mostly I have been too tired to fight it. Pink fleece monkey print pj pants with a tie dye tshirt...sure. Football print lounge pants with a minecraft tshirt...why don't you just write my ticket to the funny farm right now. At least this way, thanks to Clocky's generosity, our Christmas pictures do not make it appear as though we are homeless or have no clue how to match. 

We set out our cookies for Santa and then hit the hay. Josh felt very strongly that I ensure that Jason didn't stay up late to make sure we would all be asleep when Santa arrived. 

And arrive, he did. 

Joshua woke me up at 0 dark thirty (aka 5 am) to go open presents. It may be unconventional and perhaps cruel, but I made him wait until I had gotten a shower to go downstairs. I find it unthinkable to wake any earlier than my 5:00 normal wake up time to get ready before the kids on Christmas. To add to his torture, the girls didn't wake up until after 7:00, so it was a painful

wait for him. 

The opening of the presents was done in a flash and then came the near panic attack about finding the living room floor again. We started putting toys together immediately and finding space for things in the playroom. This Mama likes things picked up and has little patience for clutter, even at Christmas.  Especially at Christmas. There is just so much stuff!

I loved watching the kids' faces as they opened things- not just the items they had asked for, but especially the ones that had been selected for them unsolicited. Mara loved her tea set and Lauren loved her makeup set. Both received immediate attention from them. 

I have no words. 

Josh has been asking for a bookshelf for his room for the better part of a year. And he was in love. He quickly set out to fill it up with his books. 

We welcomed Jason's family in the afternoon and had a wonderful time exchanging gifts with them. We had a great meal together and enjoyed a few slushes...what's Christmas without whiskey slush?  I can't answer that question because I don't want to know. 

To say our hearts were full was an understatement.  We are so blessed. So loved. And not just with earthly things. The idea that God put on skin, became one of us and humbled himself for someone like me is almost too much to comprehend. But I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had to reflect on that this Advent season. God has given me perspective when I most needed it. 

One more Christmas post to share from our Richard celebration from the 26th.  Maybe I will be able to keep this hot streak alive with another post tomorrow!

Christmas-- Part One

I'm really hoping to stay on top of Christmas posts and get them up before, say, Easter this year.  I know-- it's good to have goals.  Our Christmas celebrations began the weekend before the actual holiday with our annual Richard Family celebration at Stacie and Noah's house.  It was a wonderful day, full of lots of laugh, and lots of music, and lots of silliness.

 

You couldn't help but be laughing as soon as you walked in the door.  Stacie's idea to turn this into an ugly sweater party was a terrific one.  Not only did we all have a blast shopping for/or decorating our own ugly Christmas sweaters, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing what each other had on.  We had everything from Ralphie's bunny suit from "A Christmas Story" to Gizmo from the Gremlins, to ones that lit up and ones that were just too ugly to explain.  It was an absolute riot.  Never challenge a Richard to a contest involving creativity.

 

We ate way too much- but everyone had made such delicious things to share.  Abby and Scott took the prize for their smoked salmon which will now definitely be making a rotation into our entertaining menu.  It was so good! 

 

The kids had a wonderful time playing together-- in fact, we saw very little of them until a herd of them went running past on some sort of a spy mission, or to refill on fuel of cookies or snacks.  They really seemed to enjoy each other.  While I don't mean this to sound as it may, we were all grateful that the kids were old enough now to be able to play on their own a bit more, without needing us quite so much.  Not that we aren't all missing having babies at the parties, but there are certainly advantages to having older children who can fend for themselves a bit.

 

There was a chugging competition for the decision as to who would be the proud caretaker of the Queen Titihaha statue for the coming year.  The rules are that she has to have a prominent location in your home for the course of one year, and then must be passed on in some way to another family member.  When she passes from one to the other, there needs to be a story or a poem about her adventures for the year.  This year surely did not disappoint.  Noah and Stacie had written quite a story about her year in the Hollow, and we all laughed hysterically as Cory read it.  I can't wait to hear how she makes out in Perry County for the year with Cory and Shannon and the boys.

 

Just for something fun, we also set up a photo booth for everyone's enjoyment, and it turned into some great pictures that I think we'll all get a kick out of.

 

Here's the rest of the day in pictures for your enjoyment...I'm sure they don't capture all of the fun, but suffice it to say that it was a fantastic day spent with some of the most special people on the Earth, as far as I'm concerned.  I've always looked forward to the opportunity to spend time with my family, and as it gets harder and harder to get the whole crew together, it means even more to us when everyone prioritizes the time to be together.

 

This was the perfect start to a Christmas season that had left me feeling a bit out of the spirit of things.  And it was just what I needed!

 

The chugging contest, although none of them knew what they were trying to win.

 



Jason was such a good sport about the sweater contest-- and took it up quite a step with his Ralphie costume from "A Christmas Story".

I wish I could post the video of Dad and Uncle Butch's version of "White Christmas".  It was hysterical.  Both of them made this party so much fun this year.  And their sweaters were "top notch".

 

 

The straw that broke the camel's back.

The month of December has had me at its mercy since the puke in the car incident after Thanksgiving. A combination of too much going on in too many different directions, my role as mediator in affairs that I would have rather been left out of altogether, difficult situations at the office, and schedules for the kids that just won't relent--- it has all just been too much. Add to it the normal December hustle and bustle of activities, gift buying, decorating, and baking and I have just about been at my knees. Joy has been elusive...and peace, well, it hasn't been near. 

I have had a completely new understanding lately about how much of kids' celebrations and activities revolve around food. And until your kid is one who is limited in his ability to participate in such things, you never even have cause to notice it. Poor Joshua has been breaking my heart lately in his reactions to his food allergy limitations. In the past, he has been satisfied to have me bring an alternative for him that is safe. But over the past few weeks, he has been acutely aware of the fact that he is different. And it is breaking his heart...and mine right along with it. I am getting questions about why people have to always have food around and why it has to be so difficult. Why people always have to know he has a food allergy because he brings his own food everywhere we go?  Why it can't go away.

I have tried my best to answer all of those things the right way-- to tell him God makes no mistakes, so if he chose to give him a problem with peanuts, then there is a good reason for it. That there are so many other kids with issues far greater than his who are in hospitals or unable to go to school at all.  To be grateful for all of the things he can have and not focus on the one thing he cannot. But when push comes to shove, and you find yourself time and again having to say no to all of the things that your friends are doing, it just stinks. Sucks actually.

Just this week there have been 5 separate incidents requiring us to either pinch hit, make special arrangements or just decline attendance in something. A gingerbread house for school, a party at church, even our family Christmas party...all complicated. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. 3 of them happened today and I find myself really heavy hearted about it. I want to be able to fix it-- to do something that will help him-- but I find myself exhausted, out of time and stuck. And perhaps tonight I am feeling just a bit sad for my son.  So when the kennel told me tonight that they will not be flexible on the time we can pick Toby up on Monday morning-- I did what anyone would do when that last straw snaps.  I sat on the stage at Upward basketball practice and had a good cry. Never mind the 20 other people sitting around me. Never mind the chaos of the gym. It kind of matches the chaos in my head. 

Praying for the peace and joy that I know God promises us in this season to find its way to me. 

Things That Happened Over Thanksgiving

This post may resemble a disjointed list more than anything like a thoughtful journal entry. And I suppose that's what I get for being a little less than regular with my posts. But I will say that I am so grateful for the nice break we all had to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family. 

Celebrations started on Monday with Mara's party in Nursery School.  I am the class parent for her class, which truly meant nothing more than organizing a very short list of snack foods for their party and baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies because that is something the Pilgrims and indians clearly would have had at their feast. At the party we made hand print turkeys ans pilgrim hats and enjoyed everything you can remember about a preschool Thanksgiving party.  It was adorable and I loved the chance to get to know the other kids in the class and watch their teachers do their thing. 

Wednesday was the day of parties for the big(ger) kids, and we were lucky to have Daddy along for the fun. God bless his heart- he had no idea what the noise level or typical chaos rating was going to be for 15 kindergarteners and 23 3rd graders who were juiced up on a combination of carbohydrates, chocolate and anticipation of their break. I suggested Jason take an appetizer of Excedrin migraine before we got into school. All went well- including a major pinch hit for us in Josh's class where we needed to replicate chocolate fondue that was nut safe. It wasn't quite as cool as the other kids', but Josh rolled with the punches like he normally does. 

As soon as we got the green light to head out, all of us piled in the Suburban and pointed it toward Lewistown. The kids were thrilled to be going to stay over for a few nights. Toby was spending his first trip at the kennel. The kids wasted no time once we got there, and Mom's house went from tidy to a train wreck in under a half hour. There were games,tea parties, Nerf wars, puzzles and art projects for days. 

Our Thanksgiving dinner was delicious- as always.  And we all enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather and went for a walk after we cleaned up the kitchen. It was lovely!

Friday came too fast and soon it was time for us to head home. I had a goal of getting our tree up and trimmed before we had to retrieve our retriever at 5:00 pm. This plan likely would have turned out great if it hadn't been for Lauren's bout of car sickness as we pulled onto our street. I then spent an hour cleaning barf out of the car, while questioing my rationale for allowinf goldfish crackers to be the snack for the ride home. We tossed her car seat and all of its vomit soaked nooked and crannies. Then, we were challenged by a pre-lit tree that was no longer lighting, which required us to unwrap all 8 trillion lights from the tree. It wasn't a "ho ho ho" moment, let's just say.  By some small miracle, we ended up getting the tree done with 15 minutes to spare before taking off to get Toby. 

I think it is safe to say that the kids were theilled to have him back home. 

Saturday was a special day for Lauren because her Daddy had decided to take her to see the Nutcrackerin Williamsport. We got her all dresed up, did her nails ans curled her hair for the occasion. It was precious. 

And just because we didn't have enough going on, we had a mattress delivered for Mara on Saturday to move her into a big girl bed. She was so excited. 

It was a full weekend, no doubt about it.