Search Results for “for a while”

Search Results for – "for a while"

I’m coming back, I promise

March 18, 2012

Maybe I shouldn’t promise. But I really want to try to make (another) blogging comeback. I love documenting our lives here. And I love getting share with some of you that I rarely see. In fact, I even have one friend that I already LOVE that I only really know because of this blog (insert Kathy shout-out). So, all of that said….

I don’t know why I haven’t been a better blogger this year. I mean, in the last two months I’ve basically just been sitting around eating junk food. Well, that and…

Birthday celebrations for Cbug
Christmas celebrations with RRL’s family (in January)
Training for and completing a half marathon
Keeping my nephews and niece for three weeks
Then helping those sweet kiddos move to their new home
Spending 3 days at the children’s hospital with our “middlest” boy
Volunteering at the JBF cconsignment sale
Two visits from my parents
Celebrating RRL’s birthday
Packing RRL and KJ off on an international trip
Making a spur of the moment decision to put our house on the market
Attempting to completely clean-out every square inch of said house (in a matter of days)
And still working 25 hours a week.
All while hanging out in my third trimester with three other small children at home.

You know, just sitting around. Sheesh. As one facebook friend politely put it, we might be “in need of an intervention”. We’ve been anything but “sitting” for the last few months.
But the part about the junk food actually is 100% accurate.

I’m cutting myself a little slack, all of the above considered. But today I’m starting the comeback. I’d say the above list gives me a few topics to write about. One at a time, one at a time. BREATHE. Breathe. breathe.

ABL

Celebrating my Favorite

March 11, 2012

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No matter how you punctuate the title of this post, it would be true…

CELEBRATING! My favorite!!
OR
Celebrating my favorite!

I love celebrating just about anything, but I especially love when we get to celebrate RRL. For his birthday, he CHOSE to do something our whole family would enjoy. BOWLING. The boys, especially, have been begging to go so they were THRILLED that this was his choice. I love that this was his idea of a celebration.

Between the bowling and the bowling ally food (GAG) a fun time was had by all while we celebrated.

There was a lot to celebrate, too, when you are playing with bumpers. LOTS of strikes. CBUG cracked us up with his crossed-arm-strike-celebratory-pose and KJ would stand at the end of the lane pleading his ball toward the center. Love it. Oh, and the princess, true to usual, needed all 3 of her men to help her out.

I didn’t do much bowling, but the humor of the size comparison did not escape us.

Happy Birthday, Babe.

You are my favorite.

And one of my favorite reasons to

Celebrate!

ABL

Sweet Cbug is FOUR!

January 4, 2012

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Colter was so excited when he woke up this morning. I do not think he quit grinning all day, he was just that excited about it being his birthday. He was excited, that is, until he was falling asleep tonight and remembered that he had declared his fourth birthday to be the end of sucking his thumb. He gripped my hand and snuggled close while he fell asleep. Every once in a while he would just say “Oh, I REALLY want to suck my thumb” but he didn’t. He never does anything half way and I have no doubt that in that same spirit this end-of-thumb-sucking will be difficult yet manageable for him. I love that resolve about him.

Cbug-

Your Daddy and I are so thankful for you, our “middlest” son. We love that you never do anything half-way and that you are passionate about so many things. You go at high-speed ALL.THE.TIME and often we can not even keep up with you. We have already seen that the same passion can quickly lead to heart-ache for you when you dive in head first and things do not go the way you desire. We pray and pray that we will be able to parent that passion in a way that molds and shapes and encourages it so you are never afraid to be excited about the good things that the Lord has in store for you.

You are passionate about your siblings. You love love love your “Korbs” and would always prefer to pick him as your only playmate in a crowded room of children. You protect and include your baby sister and just recently the two of you have really enjoyed playing together. In fact, when you got to choose a Christmas present for her you chose a pony because then she would have two and the you guys could play with them together. And indeed you already love your tiniest brother, too. You rarely let us forget to pray for him and you are always quick to be thankful for him. I love that, to you, family is one of the most important things.

I’ve never much met a little boy who loves snuggles quite as much as you do. I can always count on you for some big hugs and kisses…and so can your teachers, your friends and really just about anyone else you meet. You dish out a very sincere “GUESS WHAT? I love you” more times a day than I can count. And somehow seem to know just who needs to hear it most. This is, no doubt, because of your very apparent passion for people and genuine concern for others. You love to LOVE. This summer when your nearly-twin-cousin was heading home, I asked you to choose a few toys to let him take to his house. You brought me to tears when you chose to give him all of your wooden train track. Your trains are another thing that you are very passionate about so I was very tempted to talk you out of it, but you were insistent that he needed them because they were “his favorite”. They were your favorite, too, but the choice did not even seem difficult for you because of how much you loved him. I learned a LOT from you that day, just like I do so often by watching how fiercely you love others. Sometimes we have to remind you to love a little more gently (to keep you from tackling someone to the ground), but I hope that never takes away from your passion for people.

Another thing you have been very passionate about lately is Heaven. You ask me all the time when we get to go there, and WHY we can’t go right NOW. You are always wanting to know more about it. To be honest, I often want to reply, “But CBUG, I want to keep you HERE with ME forever!” But instead, as I snuggle you close and talk about your passion for Heaven, I love that your questions make me too long for that amazing place. Together we’ve come up with an answer “I guess God just wants us to tell more people about Jesus first”. So we wait together, and hopefully DO get to share about His great love with others before we go.

C-bug, on your birthday I hope you know just how very much you are loved. You bring such joy and energy to our lives. In fact, if we could bottle and sell your unending energy supply or your deep hearty laugh that comes to you so easily we’d be some VERY rich parents.

Then again, I’d say we already are.

I love you more than you can imagine, Buddy!

Love,

Momma

December- "That could have been bad"

January 2, 2012

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I’ve learned a lot from my parents. One very important tidbit that my Momma taught me is that it is often beneficial to start a story with “Everything/Everyone is fine, but…”. Taking away the tension of wondering whether anyone is hurt, significant damage is done, etc, eases the blow a bit. Unfortunately I got to practice that line a couple of times last month.

Everyone is fine, but…
We were in a wreck.
The kids and I were on our way back from across town, in stop-and-go rush hour traffic when the cars in front of us stopped suddenly. The car in front of me came to a stop, I came to a stop…unfortunately the person behind us did not. And hit us hard enough to push us into the truck in front of us. It really wasn’t that bad, the only reason there was serious damage to the front of my minivan is because the truck in front of me was adorned with a rather large trailer hitch decoration that lodged itself into my front bumper…and pulled the whole bumper off. Sounds bad, but really, we were smack dab in the middle of one of the busiest interstates in our city at 5pm. This could have been so much worse.

When impact first occurred, there was a split second when all I could hear was my boys screaming from the back-seat and my heart lodged in my throat. I turned around to check on them not sure what I would find. There are not many scarier feelings. But really the only reason they were so upset was because the toys they had been playing with had scattered and they couldn’t reach them. SERIOUSLY? I mean, I know they were a little scared, too, but you better believe there was a serious pep-talk at that point about the fact that we need to be so THANKFUL that the Lord kept us safe. It was just an accident and we are ok. The little pep-talk may or may not have ended with “and who CARES about the toys…it probably isn’t even safe to have those toys in here anyway.” And you better believe that when I got home I cleaned every single piece of anything I could find OUT of the van.

The ride home after was hilarious. Kinda. I mean besides the fact that I was driving a minivan missing its entire front end, the kids’ recap was so funny. KJ was in a constant broken-record-cycle of “Mom, we left our bumper back there on the side of the road. Mom, we don’t have a bumper on the front of our van. Mom, where can we get a new bumper? (insert my response of “Mechanics” and his thoughtful “hum, ‘mechanic’ is an interesting word”) Mom, Are you sure it is safe to drive without a bumper. Mom, does Dad know we left our bumper under a bridge?” ALL THE WAY HOME. And there was Lou (aka the other Mommy) chiming in with “Guys, it was just an accident. Accidents happen. The policeman checked on us and we are fine. We don’t need to cry. It was just an accident”. Cbug, just wanted to know when he could have his toys back. And I was just glad we were driving home.

After a vicious two weeks of fighting the insurance cycle, perseverance paid off. With a combination of pictures, good insight from the truck in front of us and just being plain nice to the adjuster, he FINALLY believed my story that I was in fact STOPPED before the car behind me hit and therefore in no way responsible for paying for the damage to my vehicle or the vehicle in front of me. That was a huge relief.

No, this is not a picture of our new vehicle. This is the rental car that my husband came home with. He “innocently” said, upon return “They offered me a free upgrade”. I was sort-of thinking that might mean a mini-van. Not this HUGE truck that I got to drive instead. Oh, Boys.

So, the van is fixed. Yes, KJ, the mechanic could in fact replace our bumper (that was stolen from the spot I had to leave it on the side of the highway…good thing I thought to remove the license plate). And in the end we were just thankful that everyone was fine.

Everything is fine, but…

I lost my engagement ring diamond.

Oh i was just sick. RRL and I were headed to pick up our kids after being at the youth Christmas play at church when I noticed that the diamond in my engagement ring was GONE. Because of the way my ring is set, I play with the setting pretty frequently, so I knew it had to have happened recently. But recently could have been in the parking lot, in the bathroom, in the youth center. Ugh, I was sick thinking about crawling around on my hands and knees all night with a flashlight to find it (totally willing to do it, just dreading that it might not yield the result I hoped for).

We drove to pick up the kids and I carefully combed over my clothing to be sure it wasn’t stuck there. Then when we stopped I fumbled through the papers on the floorboard while praying that it would just PLEASE BE THERE. And sure enough, I felt something hard and pointy and there it was. RRL had it reset the next day and it looks even more sparkly than before in the new setting. It wasn’t so much the idea of the financial burden to replace the diamond that killed me as much as thinking about it being the diamond that he CHOSE just for me more than 10 years before. To me that was irreplaceable. And I was thankful it was restored and everything was fine.

ABL

Christmas in Music City

January 1, 2012

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How can it possibly be too late to blog about Christmas when there are picture treasures like these that have yet to make a blog appearance?

(I still can’t figure out why anyone might think these boys are twins)

Before Christmas we celebrated in Music City with my family.
My WHOLE family.

By a real Christmas miracle we all managed to be in one place at one time for several days. It has been years since we were all home for Christmas together and it was a true gift. Our family has grown considerably since the last time we gathered. Ricky and I have added children and my brothers have added wives (or nearly added) so I finally get to have sisters when we are together! That said, some of my very favorite memories of the whole season were those when the 12 (including RRL’s sister) gathered around the table together laughing about memories and sharing about more recent life experiences.

Another favorite memory is one that gets recreated each year, but always makes my list.

The trip to Lynchburg and Mrs Bobos is always awesome. Especially when celebrated with this fun crew.

Well, there was that one year…but we won’t talk about that.

I love the fellowship of cousins (old and young)

The fun to be had with Aunts and Uncles.

And of course, anywhere you go with Nonna and Papa J is a TREAT.

Actually, its a treat to be with Nonna and Papa J, even when you aren’t going anywhere at all. In fact, some of the trio’s favorite things happen at Nonna and Papa J’s house, without going anywhere at all.
Like making biscuits.

And celebrating Christmas.

I love this picture of all of us waiting upstairs before we got to go open presents. The Aunts and Uncles were great sports about being woken up to head downstairs. Which is quite amusing to this momma because two of those uncles used to always be the ones to wake ME up to enjoy the morning.

A Christmas highlight this year was going to sing at the nursing home my mom worked for. The kids LOVE performing for a room full of “grandparents”. Seriously, my kids are naturally not very shy, but this was bold even for them. They sang, said memory verses, told Christmas poems and just generally entertained. Must have been the microphone.

And just in case anyone was worried that the trio found some fun to be had while their Daddy and I were off celebrating our anniversary, let me just put those fears to rest. They had an awesome time being entertained by Nonna, Papa J and Aunt B with everything from adventures outside to going to the zoo to getting to make a special visit to the children’s place I loathe most on the planet…CHUCK E CHEESE. Yep, they were spoiled indeed.

But my two very favorite memories from the whole week are wrapped up the next two pictures. They really aren’t anything that significant to anyone except their momma, but when I remember Christmas from 2011 these are the two memories I can picture myself thinking back on with a smile.

First of all, around Christmas time, Lou started LOVING to help in the kitchen. Whether setting the table, helping cook, you name she is right there. So, when Nonna asked her to wipe the counters after making biscuits she was ON IT. And even if she didn’t quite know how to finish the job, she is smart enough to figure it out…She didn’t know that Nonna and I were watching as she meticulously gathered all of the crumbs into a little pile, looked both ways then casually pulled the baking sheet that was on the counter over the little pile. ALL CLEAN. Oh, this girl is something else I tell ya.

My other favorite memory of the rascals was getting to sit just far enough away from them at Christmas dinner to hear their conversation. They were at their own little table, just behind my chair. Its the first time I can really remember that they just sat and ate and talked and laughed and entertained themselves through the whole meal. Their conversation ranged all over the map. I had to restrain my giggles at the things they intently discussed. It was such a special glimpse for me into the amazing relationship these three are forming.

There ya have it! Christmas in Music City 2011. So.much.fun!

ABL

REWIND: More than a Movie

December 31, 2011

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FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, folks…RRL makes an appearance as a guest blogger on DRRF. It only makes sense. The idea was all his, and the women of the house were sound asleep while this fun was taking place so I could not possibly do the details justice.

So, without further ado… the grand debut.

This past summer was one of the biggest highlights in our little 5 & 3-year-olds’ lives. KJ and Cbug had both been waiting forever for their new favorite movie to come out…Cars 2. They were so excited to get to go see it in Nashville with Nonna and Papa J as well as aunts and uncles but that wasn’t enough. They had to take their cousin to see it too. BUT that was just the precursor to the biggest highlight for the fall.

On November 1, 2011 Cars 2 came out on DVD which meant the boys could watch it anytime they wanted. So to make it a memorable experience I decided the best thing to do would be to get the boys up at midnight and take a trip to Walmart in search of this important movie release.

So at about 11:30, I woke the boys up. They had no idea what was going on. This is the first time we have done anything like this (the next closest is getting up at like 4 AM to go to Nonna’s house). As they struggled to open their eyes I repeated 3 or 4 times that we needed to get up to go get the Cars 2 DVD as soon as it came out. Once their ears started working they both got very excited and could hardly get up fast enough.

We loaded in the van and headed down the road to Super Walmart. Now on the way I wanted to make sure they didn’t get any wild ideas in their head that we were going to watch the movie when we got back so I started planting the seed early so I had plenty of time to repeat it just to make sure it sunk in. “Now boys, we are just going to get the DVD tonight. We won’t be watching it when we get home. Since it’s the middle of the night we need to go right back to bed when we get back.” and some variation of this as many times as I could slip it in.

As we arrived at SWM I realized that I had become one of “those parents” that I often looked down on for having their kids out that late walking around Walmart and I got a few looks that I assume were pretty good reflections of ones I’ve given. I realized rather quickly it didn’t stop me from continuing on and in turn my future idea of what people were doing with their kids out that late would very much be clouded by the thought that I have NO clue why they are there and the circumstances that led to that. Maybe, just maybe, it is a dad (or mom) just trying to create memories for their kids.

Moving quickly to the back of the store the boys were on the hunt. They knew exactly what to look for, or so they thought, but after a few minutes we literally couldn’t find the movie anywhere. Then I noticed a lady unpacking movies from boxes. I hadn’t thought about the fact that they would start unpacking them at midnight and we might have gotten there a little early. However, she noticed us wandering around and asked what movie we were trying to find. Once the boys excitedly told her, she was more than happy to search the boxes to find just what we needed.

With our movie in hand, we checked out and headed back home. In the car on the way home I was just about to give my little reminder when KJ spoke up and said “Dad, when we get home we are going back to bed right?” and Cbug agreed. I smiled and said yes but that we would for sure watch the movie the next day. “Good” KJ said “I’m tired”. I’m so glad both our boys like their sleep.

If you’ve made it to this point in the post you will be happy to know this is about way more than a movie. It’s about making memories and spending time and sacrificing sleep to make sure that these brothers know without a doubt how much they are loved and, I pray, learn how much they can rely on each other on the journey they will share.

RRL

Isn’t he amazing? Best part- he was quite willing to make this memory with the boys WHILE I stayed in bed. Thanks, Babe, for being so intentional about making sweet memories for us all!

ABL

So much to Celebrate!

December 28, 2011

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Today we celebrate something amazing!

10 years of marriage.

Today we celebrate each one of them.

Its not so much the number of years that amazes me, but all that the years have held.

Today we celebrate that there was an evening, ten years ago, when we committed to walk the adventure of life together. Not just two people walking side-by-side but two people walking as one. It was one of the very best nights of my life. We were surrounded by friends and family, my parents and others had worked to create a magical evening, and the whole affair was covered in the sweet presence of the Lord. My heart still races just looking at pictures of the day that my best friend became my husband.

And today we celebrate that to that union of two the Lord has added four more.

On our tenth anniversary we celebrate this little team. So perfectly designed. We are so blessed.

Today we celebrate ten years of “richer or poorer and in sickness and health”. We have weathered some of each in ten years, but we stand today celebrating a time of miraculously good health, and riches beyond measure- including great financial contentment and the ability to share with others.

We made a promise, ten years ago, to work to grow closer to the Lord together. While that journey has been full of ups and downs, we celebrate today that HIS love never failed. Our sweet Lord sought us and continues to redeem the rough days. When we faced a challenge this year in our marriage that we could not face alone, the Lord was sweet to draw us close to himself, to provide long before we could ask and to surround us with community that displayed His abundant love. We celebrate that today our relationship has an even deeper appreciation of its reliance on the Lord than ever before.

Ten years ago, we made a promise to have fun growing old together. So TODAY WE CELEBRATE!!

RRL, I love you more than I can say. Standing at the end of this 10th year, one neither of us could have imagined, and one harder than any other- I’m so incredibly thankful to have walked through it with you. This 10th year, and each of the 9 before it have only increased that amazing feeling I have each time I look back at pictures from that first evening as your wife. I have no idea what the road ahead of us holds, but I know that it will be sweeter walked with you!

ABL

Part 3 of 4: Christmas Countdown

December 27, 2011

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Of course the last of the packages has long since been opened, and much of our Christmas hub-ub is over.

But we need to finish what we started.

I’ve started documenting our Christmas countdown:

Check out Days 1-7 for a pink playdough baby Jesus

and Days 8-14, including our sweet Cbug as the star of the nativity scene.

AND NOW…

Days 15-19

Day 15 (10 Sleeps until Christmas)
Make a handprint Santa
This is one of the ideas I found online. Here is the link to the original project. I adapted a couple of things slightly so that I would not have to do any prep ahead of time and we could just use what we had on hand.
The steps (left to right, top then bottom) were 1st: make a white handprint, 2nd: use thumbprints and fingerprints for the nose and rosey cheeks, 3rd: Glue on some eyes cut out of paper, 4th: Cut out Santa’s red hat and attach, 5th: add cotton balls to the hat and 6th: draw a black nose.

And then TAH-DAH Santas…

Day 16 (9 sleeps until Christmas)
Mail a Christmas card to someone
While there were some days that we waited until the next afternoon to finish our projects, this was the only day that never got completed at all. I personally mailed our Christmas cards to friends and family, but the kids never actually mailed a card to anyone. No excuse either because I intentionally made the Santa handprints (Day 15) on a folded piece of paper so we could use those as the cards. We just never mailed them.
Hey, one out of 24 ain’t too bad…and I feel better after that confession of imperfection.

Day 17 (8 sleeps until Christmas)
Buy a Christmas present for someone in our family
This was such a fun way to let the kids buy and give Christmas presents to each other. We drew names, all went to the store together, let the kids take turns shopping, then came home and let them trade their purchases.
KJ drew Cbug

Cbug drew Lou

and Lou drew KJ

Day 18 (7 sleeps until Christmas)

Make Fudge. Keep some. Give some.

Lou missed much of this one because we were doing it in the afternoon and my idea to let her skip her nap ended up being a terrible idea…she went to bed while we finished. This recipe is super duper easy and delicious. So easy, kids can help and it is done before their attention was lost (no small feat). There may or not have been some taste testing along the way, though…I’ll let you examine the evidence and decide for yourself.

Then the next day (because this fudge is much easier to cut if you let it cool in the fridge for 24 hours) we packaged it in a few small Christmas tins and made some fun deliveries.

Day 19 (6 more sleeps until Christmas)

Go Christmas caroling.

I mean, I’m not one to brag…but this memory was born from pure-parenting-genius. That spark of incredible intelligence may or may not have been born from sheer laziness, but that doesn’t diminish the result. So, I realize that I am the one that came up with the list of activities. I knew well ahead of time what they all were. But for some reason when the kids picked the ornament that said “Go Christmas caroling” I had a moment of “WHAT WAS I THINKING???”. My original notion that it would be adorable for our three angels to sing on the doorstep of a few friends was quickly replaced by the reality that it would be incredibly awkward when they likely chickened-out and left RRL and I standing there squawking out some Christmas tunes (I squawk, he can actually sing…but still). PLUS it was cold. And rainy. So no, I didn’t want to go Christmas caroling. Bah-Humbug. But the ornament was chosen, and read aloud…and then in a moment of good fortune, KJ asked “What is caroling?” This is where my amazing-mom-reflexes kicked in and in flash of quick thinking I hurried through an explanation about singing with your friends for other people, but since it was cold…WOULDN’T IT BE FUN to sing to our stuffed animals instead. Even RRL, who sometimes laughs at these sorts of silly ideas, agreed that singing to stuffed animals in our warm living room was quite possibly my best idea ever. It SAVED us. and actually ended up being a lot of fun. Yes, I have video. No, it will not be posted here.

We let each child create a “house” of their animals.

And then we traveled around the “neighborhood” hand-in-hand, knocking on doors and singing their favorite Christmas songs. It was so much fun. And warm.

One more post coming, don’t miss Days 20-24.

ABL

The words of Christmas Eve

December 25, 2011

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Anticipation

Tonight as we tucked our three angels in bed, their squirms and giggles made their anticipation evident. They were filled with questions about what morning would hold, some they asked aloud, some they kept to themselves, maybe because they feared speaking it aloud would break the magic of the moment.

Can’t you just picture the anticipation of the first Christmas eve. The angels must have been full of eager energy, maybe they even had questions about what was about to happen. No doubt they sat on the edge of their seats waiting to see how this miracle of miracles would play out. A baby was about to be born, and they knew he would be The CHRIST, the SAVIOR. Can you IMAGINE knowing that was about to happen? Oh, the anticipation.

Wonder

I sat during the candlelight service tonight… wrestling children, reminding them to sit quietly during prayers, and squirming trying to get my bump of a belly comfortable in the pew. Then in an instant, the candles were lit and everyone was still. The song was one of their favorites, Silent Night, so they were all three singing along while mesmerized by the flame in front of them. And for just a moment, as I looked at their sweet faces, as I was surrounded by my little family, my parents and brothers, I was filled with WONDER. What wonder that the Lord would bless me so richly and then create moments like this one to increase my appreciation and amazement at it all.

Can’t you just imagine moments like that for Mary? She struggled through the pain of labor IN A BARN, after long hours of travel ON A DONKEY, and then finally got her crying newborn baby boy settled in a manger. AND THEN. oh, then…I can just picture a moment, a brief break in the chaos of it all, when she would have been filled with wonder. She might have sat just staring at her sleeping child. On top of just being overwhelmed that the Lord would bless her with a gift of a baby, she knew that He would save THE WORLD. Oh, what WONDER that must have been.

Joy

I watched tonight as my kids continued traditions that I remember from childhood. Reading the Night Before Christmas with their Nonna before bed, hearing the story of Christ’s birth and being reminded of the reason we celebrate, and leaving cookies and milk for Santa. They are traditions that I hope my children will one day continue with their own families. I was filled with great joy in those moments.

Can’t you just imagine God’s great Joy at knowing His Son was beginning a journey that would save His people? He knew it would come at great cost, but even before Jesus was born, God was so aware that His son would continue on what He had started. His Son was carrying a legacy that would be continued for thousands of years. What great Joy there is in that!

As you go to sleep tonight (hopefully many of you are are long since there), may you be filled with the anticipation, wonder and joy of the night. And as you remember the WONDER of that first Christmas Eve, may you be filled with GREAT JOY as you ANTICIPATE what is to come through the sweet gift of a Savior that was given.

Goodnight!!
ABL

A new tradition: Christmas Countdown

December 22, 2011

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When I was little we had the coolest advent calendars. There were two that we used every year. One was Santa’s workshop to which someone got to add a (paper) toy each night until the 24th night when you added a Christmas tree to the very top. And the other was the Nativity story, in which you opened a flap to reveal an additional piece of the story each night…”Long ago in the city of Nazareth/there lived a young woman named Mary/One day an angel appeared to Mary…” (yeah, pretty much still have the whole thing memorized.) We did these same two advent calendars for as long as I can remember. (Technically, I believe at some point there were three, but one was very forgettable…a consolation prize so that each child in our family could have something to do each night.)

So, when RRL and I had children, I was anxious to start some sort of every-night tradition with them as well during the Christmas holiday season. In similar fashion to our two calendars growing up, I wanted it to be meaningful and fun, creative and different, simple yet memorable. Not much pressure, right? I scoured the Internet and DIY books. I asked others about their traditions. I found lots of things I like and some things I did not like at all…but definitely nothing I loved. I liked something we could do as a family. I did not like things that required getting a present/food each night. I liked something that reminded us about the meaning of the season. I did not like things that were above my children’s learning levels.

And I’m sorry to all of you “Elf-on-a-Shelf” lovers…but that thing is CREEPY. WATCHING US? WHAT???? I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, I am just saying he/she/it creeps me out personally. Yes, I know it is not real…no, I did not say that my creeped-out-ness was reasonable. But regardless…sorry, kids, Mom is out on that one.

SO…In the end, this year I finally decided to make my own “Count-down to Christmas”. We put up a big paper Christmas tree and each night we add an ornament to the tree. Each ornament has an activity for our family to do together. They range in difficulty from easy to super-easy. Most require little to no preparation ahead of time, all require complete family participation. Very few required spending much money, and most of the time when they did require spending money it was spending on someone else. Each night the kids take turns being the one to choose an ornament and add it to the tree, so for the most part the order of the activities was completely random (I’ll admit to cheating a couple of times).

Let me just say I AM NOT CREATIVE. I think I’ve mentioned that once (or a thousand times) before. But what I can do is RESEARCH. So this idea is really the combination of many people’s ideas smushed together in a way that worked for our family. And woked it has indeed. This has been SO.MUCH.FUN.

There have been moments, like anything you do for TWENTY-FOUR-NIGHTS-IN-A-ROW that were not so fun. But those moments have been quickly forgotten.

I’m going to try to just share the highlights. I’ll break it up into a few posts since there are a lot of days to share. I think I’ve managed to get at least one picture from almost every night so far, maybe missing 3 or 4.

Without further ado…

Count down with us…”24 Sleeps Until Christmas” style.

(EVERYSINGLENIGHT KJ says, “including this one”. Our mini-accountant has to be sure we remember that 24 sleeps includes the sleep we are about to enjoy. Important clarification, Bud, but I think we got it after about 5 nights…we are now on 20 and still being reminded)

First, we had to make our count-down tree (aka “the green Taj Mahal”) and color the ornaments that we would use for the countdown.

Then we got busy counting down. Here are “ornaments” 1 through 7….

Day 1 (24 sleeps until Christmas):

Watch a Christmas movie or show
Our kids chose “Rudolph”…claymation style of course.

Day 2 (23 sleeps until Christmas)
Color or create a Christmas picture
RRL and I were at a wedding this night so the kids got to do this activity with Grammy and I only got an “after” picture.

Day 3 (22 Sleeps until Christmas)
Choose a Christmas book to read before bed

Day 4 (21 Sleeps until Christmas)
Make Christmas things out of play dough
Ok, this one might qualify us for this website of worst nativity scenes. A yellow manger, filled with orange-snake-hay atop which lay the pink peanut of a baby Jesus, surrounded by snowmen, angels, candy cane, reindeer…and a ZIPPER. Yeah, we are working on the story. I didn’t really give the kids any direction, just got out the play-dough some Christmas cookie cutters and said “Lets make Christmas things”. We all 5 participated. RRL made the amazing reindeer. I made a manger. And Cbug added the orange snakes/hay. We were all busy working away and Lou reached out her hand with a little wad of peanut-shaped pink play dough. “And he-uh” she said “Is da baby Jesus”. I was torn between thinking it was so sweet in the midst of all of us laughing and playing that she had been working away at making sure we had Jesus. AND trying not to crack up at how serious she was about her little peanut shaped Baby. Love her heart and her creativity.

Day 5 (20 Sleeps until Christmas)

Bake Christmas cookies

In another post will have to share some “before and after” pictures of this process. Making cookies with all three of them was a bit I-N-S-A-N-E. We employed my favorite short-cut of making sugar cookies from pre-packaged dough.

Day 6

(19 Sleeps until Christmas)

Deliver Christmas sticker and treats to a friend

This was one of of the kids very favorite activities. We took them to the store, let them choose a small basket full of goodies and then pick a friend to deliver them to. They loved running to the door, putting the package on the doorstep and sneaking away. Turns out the sneaking was so necessary because the recipients were not home…but they loved it anyway. Sure wish I had taken pictures of their sweet faces getting to surprise someone else.

Day 7

(18 Sleeps until Christmas)

Go look at Christmas lights

This was kind of a bust. I thought it would be fun, but the fun faded fast and everyone wanted to go home. I think because we do this all the time when we are driving along, it was not really something special. Or maybe it was just the night. Who knows. But definitely did not take pictures of the five of us driving along, kids asking if we could go home and Mom and Dad repeating “no, we can’t go home yet. We.Are.Having.Fun” Nope, no pictures of that.

Can’t wait to share Days 8-15. and 16-20. Stay tuned. The images of Cbug dressed as baby Jesus and our whole family Christmas caroling to stuffed animals will be totally worth your while. Promise.

ABL

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