At home on Christmas morning.
Later that day at Babi and Grandpa’s.
All dressed up!
Hairdo:
Even later at a party for friends of my husband’s family.
Dec. 26, Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa.
With Uncle:
Christmas Dinner:
Family:
Nice kids pic by the tree:
With Uncle John:
Having kids means re-discovering your own childhood at times. One of the many things we have “re-tried” with our kids this years has been roller skating. Ella was hooked. Miles was pretty happy about it too. But Ella was so smitten, she was sure she wanted her next birthday to be a roller skating party.
Here she is with her schoolmate buddy: (yes they are the same age)
Cupcakes? No problem, we can fit 7 candles on a cupcake! And look, theirs plenty of room left.
The girl of honor.
The opening of the presents.
Ella’s Uncle John and “Almost” Aunt Kris surprised Ella by showing up to skate. (Sorry no pictures of that here).
Next up was the family party at home. Lots of family, pizza, gifts and fun!
Great “action” shot of Ella and Miles with Grandma and Grandpa Whiteaker.
Goofing around with Uncle John and Kris.
Mom gets a little time with the birthday girl!
And her brother. (I’m giving him a shoulder rub)
Ella and my dad.
Miles and his Babi.
Kids with Uncle Scott and Jen.
Miles, again goofing around with Grandpa and Grandma.
This weekend was quite full of tasks around the house. Much of it was preparation for many things.
First, we have carpet installers coming today, so we had to remove breakables as well as small things scattered on the floor in all the bedrooms. Now that so much is out of the kids rooms, I feel I can breathe better. All those boxes of their stuff in the dining room and living room… I’m not sure I want to put it back after the carpet is in. I just feel like we have too much STUFF! And it feels a bit suffocating.
Jason also painted our bedroom ceiling. We had some drywall repaired and it need to be painted. We figured why not now, while it doesn’t matter if drips get on the carpet! I will be SO glad to replace that carpet. It is mauve (PINK!). It has been that way since we moved in 7 1/2 year ago. I can’t want to get replace it with a neutral.
Jason also put up out outdoor Christmas lights and we went out and bought our Christmas tree. On Sunday evening we decorated it. I had been hoping to wait on the tree, but well, now it is done! This is the fullest tree we’ve ever had and takes up quite a bit of the family room.
We are also getting carpet ripped out of half of our basement. See, we had a little problem with our dear little Paris Kitty. She had some medical (and I think emotional) problems for a while and did a number on that side… With that, another project presents itself. We will be installing vinyl “wood” on that entire side of the floor and then putting up quarter round around the trim.
Finally, I spent a few hours studying for my final exam which is this week. In reality, I don’t have to take this test. Our professor said that he will only count our top 3 tests and I did rather well on those. But I am taking this class to learn and I don’t want to just flake out on the last three chapters. They were the most interesting anyway.
Sometimes in the thick of “it”, we want out. We want change, we think our circumstance is a mistake and it should be “fixed”.
This brings me to an excerpt from one of my favorite, life changing book authors.
"Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see." Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place
Sometimes we have to have faith that we do not have ultimate control and the One who has plans for us knows better for us than we do. It is up to us to trust and to listen in order to find out what we are meant to do. We can look to uncomfortable circumstances as an opportunity to build our character or we can turn our backs and grumble through them.
If you haven’t read The Hiding Place, I highly recommend it. When Corrie and her family were placed in concentrations camps for harboring Jews from the Nazis in their home in Holland, God was preparing Corrie’s heart for to reach out to help even more people. He used her sister to help build up her faith in the midst of a horrifying experience. Her release from the camp was a “mistake”, she was supposed to be killed that day, but He had other plans…
With that, what would you have done in this circumstance?
Have a little faith, and make a big impact!
"It is not so much what happens, but how we take it that is important. All our times are in God's hands, even the difficult ones." Corrie Ten Boom
