Christmas 2011

We really had such a nice day.  It started out with coffee.  STRONG COFFEE! :)  2 little girls woke us up at 5:00 a.m.! 
We pretended to be asleep, but it didn't work. :)  So we got up. Anna asked if it was for real that we were getting up in the dark.  Yes deary! :)
So after coffee, we watched squeals of delight and excitement. :)

We headed to Church for services and returned home to BBQ Brisket Tacos.  I tried to find time for a nap before everybody arrived, but I couldn't rest. I was too excited, because Joe, Becca, Sam and Truman were on their way from MD.

First, Marcus, Ivy, Will and Charlie arrived. :)

 Such precious moments.

 Ivy explaining to Will that the lawn man is NOT Santa Claus! LOL

  After a while, Tim, Em, Joey, Chris and Ilse arrived!

 Those little boys are so sweet. :)  Isn't Em's just beaming? :)

She and I headed out to the airport and left all the guys in charge.  We arrived right in time. Em's got out and I drove around the airport a couple of times and then just pulled up to the curb to load the MD crew. :)  Oh MY the babies have grown! :)

 We called Aunt Judy this a.m. and talked with her on the phone.

 And then Becca did Anna's Hair today.  She is going to do some more girl hair soon. :)

 Playing Backgammon... (I won)  :
Uncle Bob had to leave today.... we really enjoyed seeing him.  Joe and Becca left tonight to go and stay at Marcus and Ivy's.  We will see folks off and on for the next 9 days. So excited to have most of us together. 
Sure missed seeing Chuck, Jodie, Kate and Lillian, but SO THANKFUL we saw them at Thanksgiving time. :)
Now, off to bed to get some much needed rest. :)

To Be Continued......

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a special time. I am still up, stuffing stockings. :)  Uncle Bob is here. Everybody LOVES Uncle Bob. Tomorrow Joe, Becca, Sam and Truman arrive.  We will celebrate with Marcus, Ivy, Will, Charlie, Tim, Emily, Joseph, Christopher, Ilse.... (chuck and jodie, katie and lilly are snowed in in NM) 
So excited to see everybody!  Time for me to go to sleep.  Alli just got up to see if the Norad Santa tracker had hit Texas yet. :)   She knows that Santa is not real, but St. Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra was real. :)
But joining in on the fun is REAL too. :)
Merry Christmas to ALL! And to ALL, a good night!

Christmas Light Hunting

We like to go Christmas Light hunting.  We went tonight.  Most of my pictures turned out blurry.  But this one was really nice.

And then this one was rather obnoxious, but it was fun.  I'm just glad I wasn't a neighbor, I may have had permanent eye damage before Christmas was over. LOL   Sorry about the song, "Boogy Woogy Santa Claus, but the kids LOVED it. :)

My Lectric Leopard

I think this is my Birthday, Christmas and Anniversary present all rolled into one.  My little leopard was off the road all year, because my Mike was fixing it up for me.  He took out the old batteries and fashioned the inside to hold a different type so I can get more mileage. I think I can now get a 75 mile range and it has more power. :)
He had it painted my favorite colors and added the white roof to keep it cool in the summer.  He has a few more details to do, like putting on the grill, making the side mirrors flash when my turn signal comes on, and putting some lettering on.  (electricity only by the gas tank)  :)
Today, he let me drive it for the first time in a year! YEA!  I think it looks awesome!
Thank you Deary! :)

A Shaken Bottle of Soda

A shaken bottle of soda is about the description of a child who is anxious about the holidays.  This being Miss Alli's first Christmas with us, we have been trying to be very careful with her to keep her regulated and even keeled.

The closer we have gotten to Christmas, the more memories have poured in. Of COURSE they have, as she has no memories made for this holiday here. 
Some of her memories have been good, some not so good, but we listen and snuggle and work on making new ones.

I mentioned to Mike that she is like a shaken bottle of soda. We can take the lid off and watch the explosion, or we can let the pressure out a little at a time and see if we can keep the soda from overflowing. :)    We both decided for the latter, and so we broke tradition.  We allowed her to open a very special gift we knew would keep her busy all day, with delight.  

She knows Christmas isn't about getting, and she also has not begged to open anything. I am really proud of her for that.  But the intenseness of feelings and overwhelm of so many coming over, the unknown, and past memories have caused her to be so excited and nervous at the same time. 

I figured that if she had to go all day today with anticipation.... she'd explode. :) There was a gift that Anna and I purchased together. We had seen it for a while but it was very expensive.  Then, when we went to Tuesday Morning, there it was..... LESS than 1/2 the price we had seen it for elsewhere! We couldn't resist getting it for her.

She was so excited and  right now while I am typing this, is happily and peacefully playing with Sarah. :)


 And then, we will get that hair brushed. LOL

Little Women

We watched "Little Women" tonight, and both Mike and I shed tears. It is really a fabulous movie.
The girls really enjoyed it and LOVED trying to compare themselves with the actresses. :)
Of course Alli totally identified with Amy. And Erika identified with Meg. Anna and Sarah were both between Jo and Beth at different times..... :)   And of course, I was Marmie. :)   
If you haven't seen this version, it is  REALLY a must see!

I LOVE ALL my little Women! :)

Christmas Thoughts

I am baking those Christmas Cookies to once again hang on the tree this year.  I am putting plenty of them at the bottom so little hands that visit can have one and do just as their daddies did long ago.  (Hopefully not lick them all like one daddy I know) LOL

Christmas is such an interesting Holiday.  We ARE celebrating the birth of our savior, Jesus the Christ, but many of our traditions are not necessarily based upon Scripture.  Yule logs, Christmas Trees, etc. have Pagan links.
I know some people who will not celebrate it, because of those links to Paganism.  There are many who celebrate because it is fun, and they have no religious affiliation with the holiday.

The early Puritans who came to America, forbid the celebration of Christmas, and anybody caught celebrating was punished. I have always found that very interesting, especially in light of how we celebrate today! 

The Germans were the ones who brought trees into the house and hung fruit on them to celebrate Winter Solstice. This ritual was said to bring good luck for the following year. It is interesting that many antique ornaments are shaped in various kinds of fruit.  I wonder if this is where Fruitcake came from? :)

There was a time when I wondered about putting up a tree, and one of our sons at one point said he would not when he was older. I don't know what his tradition is now....I think I'll ask when they get here. :)
But frankly, I am not a pagan, and I don't know anybody personally who celebrates Winter Solstice. Celebrating the birth of our Lord seems an honorable thing to do, even though the Puritans didn't think so.
So, we celebrate it fully and happily and with great festivity.... Because Jesus IS God, come in the Flesh, the firstborn, incarnate son of God. 

Christmas  is a time of joy and reflection on the greatest gift of all.
May the Lord Greatly Bless you as you honor Him.

Wishing a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all of our readers and lurkers. :)
And a very NON SHAKING Christmas to our friends in Christchurch NZ!

Simeon's Lullaby

This is one of my favorite songs for Christmas. :)

Jesus Of Nazareth

One of the movies we watch during Christmas and Easter is Jesus Of Nazareth.  This is a fantastic movie. It is LONG.... over 4 hours, so we break it up over several days. I love how they interpreted the account of Luke.
I remember watching this with the boys when they were younger too.  It is so fun to keep the traditions we had with the boys, for the girls. :)

If you ever have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

A Little Bit of Respect!

I don't know what it is like in other parts of the country, but in Texas, it is common when a funeral procession goes by, no matter what side of the street you are on, you STOP.  It is a matter of respect.
There are 2 times where somebody should be honored no matter what; the day they are born, and the day they are buried.  Stopping, is a way of showing those who mourn, that you honor THEM too. 

Today, a funeral procession was going the opposite direction. (just like in this picture but a larger road) MOST people pulled over and stopped. But there were a couple of vehicles that honked and then sped through. It really made me angry that somebody could be so disrespectful to a funeral procession.  If we can't take 3 minutes of our time to give honor, what is WRONG with our society??  How SELFISH!

I don't know the person who died, but I do know the pain and sting of the death of a loved one.  Those few minutes that we wait can be spent in praying for the comfort of another person.  And giving their loved one, one last  honor.

For the fellow that honked his horn and sped by....I feel sad.  He must be foreign to Texas.  I pray that our next generation is not so rude!

Simple Pleasures

Simple pleasures make a happy heart.  The area that Alli came from in Russia spoke a different language than Russian.  I was reading about it, and it was close to a Bulgarian dialect, but not Bulgarian either.
I have purchased buttermilk for the girls before, and I forgot how much they loved it. 
So yesterday, I found Bulgarian Buttermilk at Sprouts and bought it. :)

This a.m. I served it and her eyes lit up with joy!  WOW! I remember that my mama used to make this!
I got a big hug out of that one. :)

And the other girls joined her with a glass.  That is, except me and Anna. We were not raised on buttermilk.  So, while I do cook with it at times, I don't think I could drink it. :)

This brought up a discussion about tasting new foods and foods that they have missed having from Eastern Europe.
Sounds like we need to make another trip to the Russian Deli. 

A Precious Sarah Funny

Last night during Family Worship, Sarah prayed that she wouldn't lie.  That perked mama's radar abit.  Then, this a.m. when we got up, she prayed again that she wouldn't lie....radar up.....
After prayer I took her aside and asked, "Sweetie, is there anything you need to tell me?" 
She looked puzzled.... "No mama." 
"Are you having trouble lying?"
again.... puzzled look.... "no mama"

Then why are you praying about lying?
"Oh, because I don't want to, so I pray that I won't and I don't!"

Gotta love that little girl of mine! :)

Do You Like Chex Mix?

Here is the official Chex Party Mix website. There are several interesting recipes!  ENJOY!

A Blast From The Past

This past week has been incredibly busy! I think we had something going on every night of the week or day last week and part of this week.  It culminated with the Christmas Program that all the girls participated in.  And then, when it was over, they all tanked up on sugar. :)  Me too! :)

Well, today was SUPPOSED to be a lovely, nice, quiet day of school for 1/2 day and play the rest of the day.
But what started out as quiet, turned into a "blast from the past".   I say "blast" because it was like a bomb went off.  It shocked me.   The funny thing is, I had a dream last night about a bomb going off near by and there were all these bombs going off around me. The one that fell in front of me, was a dud.... I moved it away from me and it just sat there... I need to stop reading the news late at night! :)

When it was time to start this a.m., Alli couldn't find her glasses.  So, we began to look for them when she couldn't find them. She started to get frustrated, so we stopped and prayed together. I assured her, we would find them, because we NEED them!  I wasn't paying too much attention, and suddenly, she perceived that I had not believed her that she didn't know where they were.  She then perceived somebody else was rude to her. They weren't.  And then.... the PTSD bomb went off.  She was out the door and up the tree.

I called her down, and asked her to come to a safe place to cool off, trees are not safe when you are angry.
She actually came down! :)
When we got into the house, she was more combative that cooperative, so we headed to my room.  After a few minutes of coaxing, she got on my bed and we sat and began to untangle what went wrong.

There was actually nothing that I could have done other than try to understand. I truly felt this was an episode of remembering the emotions of the past, and placing them into today and they didn't fit.

So I started with, "Sweetie, I'm sorry you are so upset. We will find your glasses, but I don't think this is about glasses."  I then asked her, "Have you ever lied?" Her answer was yes.  So I said, "So let me ask.... if you lie sometimes, why would you be offended if you weren't believed?"  She thought about it and said, "but I was telling the truth!"
I said, "I know. I thought you were." So why are you so upset?  Because it FEELS like you don't believe me!"
So then, I was able to tell her about MY issue.  A long time ago, I was struck in the face, on occasion. I developed a problem with having my face touched.  It would bring up an emotion that took me right back to having my face struck, even though in my heart, I knew that wasn't the case!
So I explained I had to work REALLY hard to get rid of those feelings by telling myself they were mistaken!
"It took a long time, but I got over it!!!!  And YOU CAN TOO!" (got over it, is not the best description...It is more like, learned to identify when my perception was ascew so I wouldn't react)

You are not going to be rejected for any reason. You are going to be believed when you tell the truth.  And if you make a HABIT of truth telling, you will EARN that total trust that you so desire. But that is definitely EARNED over time!  BUT so YOU KNOW FOR SURE.... Mama LOVES YOU, always!

So we had a little lesson in telling the emotions that were mixed up to STOP! GO AWAY! She said it a few times out loud and it was kinda fun!  She started to laugh at the idea and then before I knew it, we were totally resolved in about 15 minutes.  The rest of our day was really good!

And the awesome thing!!!! We had prayed earlier together about finding her glasses.  She looked really hard and so did I.  Tonight, I found her glasses under my bed. :)  She was playing under there yesterday while I took a rest. :)  Miss Alli is still very young in some areas, especially her play, and in some areas of responsibility.  So we had a really great lesson in putting our glasses in the glasses case when we take them off and making sure we put them in the same place every time. :)

I'm so glad she was able to regain her sense of safety so quickly. :) 

The Christmas Program

So Sarah and I sang together. She decided right before we left that she would sing with me! I was SO HAPPY! :)
We got a small part of our song, then the camera malfunctioned.... or the camera person.... not sure which. LOL