Looking back at Christmas 2015

I am finally getting around to sharing a slideshow of this past Christmas.

Here's what the slide show is NOT -- a complete picture of our Christmas. It does not show our attempts at advent readings and activities to still our pace and center our hearts, or how the kids picked out and sent gifts to impoverished families around the world through World Vision. It doesn't reflect our desire to make Christmas about Christ, though that was the focus.

It does show lots of presents which could appear to be all about consumerism. These were not ordinary presents, however; they were thoughtful gifts from so many family members near and far, biological and adoptive. Gifts from people who, in some cases, suffered a lot this past year, and they still made time to think of our kids. To send something from Ohio or New York or Florida to bless the kids.

This year there was much loss in our families -- our extended families, our kids' biological families -- deaths, financial struggles, cancer, dissolving marriages. The opening of these presents represents the giving hearts that continued despite all the grief.

I chose this somewhat odd song to accompany the slide show because there is always room for forgiveness, new starts, and ultimately the redemptive and transforming power found in Jesus -- God become man to connect with us, heal us, and change the trajectory of this fallen world and our broken lives.

The past two years (since Oli and Bella joined the family) have been so hard for us, but we are finally on the other side of the transition. This Christmas finally felt like that. Finally felt as if I had breath in my lungs again. (I am working on a couple of posts to let y'all into that part of the journey. Coming soon...) When the lyrics say, "So it's been a long year, every new day brings one more tear..." my heart sighs with the knowledge of that feeling. And yet the good news is what Christmas represents. God with us. Emmanuel.

Christmas Quack-Along

This week I visited my grandma, and she tried to convince my sister and I to haul off and use all her old Christmas decorations. I am not much into red velvet bows, baskets of fake poinsettias, and bears wearing red plaid scarves, but the singing goose? Now that was a find.

When I unloaded all the stuff (most of which we will pass on to someone else), I set the goose on the stairs and turned it on. Then I stood behind a doorway to spy on the reactions. Of all the kids it was Sadie who arrived on the scene, eyes gleaming like she came upon a treasure. She looked around the room hesitantly, then picked it up and examined it - its moving beak, its floppy "wings." None of the other kids were into it (in fact Benjamin spent the afternoon attempting to avoid it).

So here we share a poorly lighted playtime from this evening when the goose brought some Christmas cheer. And, yes, I need to do something about that burned out strand of lights on the tree. I have already attempted to replace the fuse AND many of the individual lights. Poop.

Boots!

Grandma Doro got us rain boots for Christmas.

And Mama is so cool that she let us open them early - right after the first rain of the season.

We don't usually get much rain, but someone said it's going to be an El Nino year, so having rain boots is awesome.

We get a lot of puddles in our backyard, and we love to stomp in them.

We also like to act like a pack of yahoos, especially when Mama has the camera out.

Merry Christmas!  Thank you Grandma Doro and Grandpa Candy!

Catching Up - Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations begin with a Christmas Eve party with one side of my family. This is when we actually dress up.

Tried to get nice photos of ourselves, but...wow...we need a prettier backdrop than a tan wall.

Still trying to get the kiddos to both smile sweetly at the same time.

Here they are with the cousins on that side of the family.  The crazy shot...and the one with nice smiles.

Benj was so into the Transformer he received (it came with a comic book!). In fact, at some point during this year's festivities he declared, "Every present I got is what I always wanted!!!"

Christmas day is spent with my immediate family. I didn't get a lot of good photos, but here are a couple.  Brent with his purple shirt and pink tie from Sadie Lou.

Sadie and Uncle Justin, who I believe is firmly wound around her little finger. This is my favorite shot of the season. It makes me smile every time.

A Merry Christmas Gift

Merry Christmas from The P-Pod! It is high time I post something holiday-related - I have been deep in the making and celebrating (and I misplaced my camera a few days ago and STILL can't find it!) 

Here's my little gift to y'all: I will actually post something new EVERY DAY THIS WEEK.  Imagine that!

So let's start with a few scenes leading up to the big day.  First, we decorated the house a bit. (This post is going to have a lot of crappy photos because I was trying not to use my flash, indoors, at night. Bear with me.)

Then, there was much interpretive dancing to Christmas carols played by a Renaissance band.

Please ignore the paint swatch in the background - I am actually planning to paint in the very near future (but first we must finish constructing the backyard fort, which was supposed to be a Christmas present...)

And no routine is complete without a little floor work:

We did some stamping on pages from old books and turned this into ornaments.

A very happy stamper:

We had tea with the ladies in the neighborhood. Daphne is British and does such a wonderful job making us feel Christmassy with her extensive china tea collections.  She also makes shortbread that is almost to die for.

We made ornaments out of that stuff that melts in the oven and turns glassy. (Thanks, Grandma Vinch!)

And we hung them on the tree:

I sewed girly superhero capes and masks for the cousins and packaged them up like so:

And, of course, Christmas is a season of messes, so baths were taken...

...with good company.

Christmas Cookies, Part I

Remember how, way back during the holidays, I wrote about practicing Advent this year? One of the elements of making Jesus' birth real is that of giving graciously, abundantly, with abandon...for this is how God has given to us. It is also giving sacrificially, that is, we don't give because we have so much that we wouldn't even notice the loss; no, we give UNTIL we see our lives being lived differently because we have given so much.

I need to practice this as much as my now three-year-old, but in the spirit of teaching said three-year-old in ways that are meaningful to him, we gave generously...sugar cookies. And that tale will be told in full in Part II.

For now let us discuss the making of the cookies. Of course, Benjamin helped to the best of his abilities. Because I got the hare-brained idea of making this a communal event involving other three-year-olds and their siblings, we had to make something like five batches. Of sugar cookies. This takes some time, as you can imagine, time during which the chief stirrer pooped out and needed to be put to bed.

On a bright and lovely Wednesday, we hosted ten or so cookies decorators. A few forgot that the purpose of the exercise was to make things to share with others and ate more than were planned for consumption. (Namely, Benjamin...I kept turning around to find a cookie in his mouth. And he would act all sincere in asking for one - "Are you going to decorate this one?" "Yes, Mama!" Uh-huh.)

This is Eli. He's my cousin's youngest. Every time I see him, I am tempted to snatch him up and hide him in the closet in order to keep him a bit longer. I mean look at him!

This is Max. He's the oldest of the little people and takes great pride in his work. While other munchkins are slathering icing on with wild abandon, Max is deliberately and carefully decorating his cookies. And while the others may have lost interest only three cookies in, Max completed a beautiful selection of confections.

Felicity looks older than the others because she IS much older! She patiently handled the bags and tubes sticky from the little people, and produced some very artistic versions of the cookies. She's Eli's older sister. I would probably have to fight her if I tried to keep him.

As you can see, we had some real chefs in the group. Amare came well prepared for any photo opportunities that would arise.

And, dear me! Matteo is every bit as huggable as Eli! I might have to hide him in the closet next time...

Stay tuned for Part II.

Christmas and Gifts

I am not brave enough to go giftless on Christmas - mostly because I really love giving gifts. I also love receiving gifts when someone has been so thoughtful as to make or find something that I will cherish (that's actually pretty easy to do...). This is part of my tradition. It's a warm and comforting element of the holidays.

But if Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birthday, then I am quite challenged by the Voskamp family's approach - they give each other no gifts...instead they give gifts to Jesus in the form of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, educating the uneducated, giving the poor an opportunity to start a business.  We will be including this in our tradition - choosing gifts for Jesus by caring for his people - but I don't know that I'm ready to give up gifts to one another here.

For now we will focus our gift-giving on finding abundance in less, offering time and handmade things, and reminding ourselves that all of it has been made possible by the One whose provision has brought us here. I think that's a start.

And for more ideas on what to do on Christmas morning, I will refer to this post from Ann Voskamp.

How we're approaching Christmas

I know that in the history of holy days, a number of those claimed by Christianity were once owned by pagans.  It's a human irony...that something once belonged to the goddess of fertility, or to the witches, or to the worship of some lunar mystery, only to be co-opted by religious zealots.  We do this all the time, we humans...conquer somebody else's something:  land, name, resources, language, culture, infrastructure, banking system, business.  We buy out and change. Or wage war on and change.

It's all a bit sad and funny at the same time.  But whatever.  In the current era, some of us use the occasion of Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ. It's symbolic all the way, but that's OK.  This is the time that we do it.

In honor of that, I will be starting an advent tradition in our home. We have not done this before, though I have always wished for more peace, more focus on the One who should matter most, the One who gets shoved behind the tree or lodged under piles of wrapping paper only to be rediscovered as I am vacuuming up pine needles and wondering how I missed Him this year, yet again, despite my best intentions.

We will not be forgetting Him this December. He is too precious. I want my son to know how precious the Christ is, and he'll never know if I do not first lay aside my holiday idols and bring my gifts to His feet. For my son, as all children do, learns most powerfully from my example.

So we will start with a daily observance of Advent - the time of waiting, of expecting, of hoping for the God of the universe to meet us humans where we're at...wrapped in limited, meager bodies, wracked with ailments and fears and the annoying ability to mess everything up even when we're trying our darndest to do everything right.

We are using an advent resource from Ann Voskamp, writer and blogger. If you would like to get this free booklet for yourself, you can go to this page. You will need to subscribe to her blog and wait one day for the next feed (the link is included at the end of the feeds).

We will include in our readings The Jesus Storybook Bible, which is one of the best tellings of the story of God that I know. It also has some beautiful art in it; I'm a sucker for pretty illustrations. If you wish to teach your young ones about God, and not just a bunch of apparently disconnected stories in a musty old book, get this.  Now.  It has helped me see the Bible in a whole new light; it's that good.

Finally, I can't help but share with you a bit of writing by Ann Voskamp. She has written out what we believe in the most beautiful language. For the original context, or to read more of her, visit her web site: A Holy Experience.


I believe in Jehovah God who created the whirling galaxies, the birds soaring in the sky overhead, the endless crashing waves and all that dances within them. I believe in Father of all who knits together life, made in His very own image, in the secret quiet of our beings.

I believe in Jesus Christ, the One with no earthly Father, with the dust of this earth between His toes, and with our names etched onto the palm of His hands, right beneath the nail scars…Who now sits at the Father’s right hand making endless intercession on our behalf. I believe in the stone rolled away, in the Body being raised, in the first fruits of the dead…and us all following soon, very soon.

I believe in the Cross as our only Hope, our only Claim, and our only Foundation. I believe that in the pounding surf of life we have only one thing to cling to: the feet of our Lord, hanging on that tree, His lifeblood flowing down, washing us whiter than snow.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, moving, whispering, indwelling our very skin. I believe in living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, and producing fruit in the Spirit…in the Spirit who helps us in our weakness with groanings that can’t be expressed in words.

I believe in the infallibility of the Bible, God’s Word – a sure Word, a pure Word, the only secure Word. I believe the words on those pages are breathed from the very throne room of heaven, are the love letter penned from the heart of the Lover of our souls; a beacon of light for stumbling feet to find sure footing on a dark path.

I believe there is more than believing. There is living what I believe.