this week

This week has been:

— tray after tray of cookies from oven. Happy little ones licking beaters. Christmas carols playing while we laugh and talk and frost and sprinkle. Boys excitedly setting up our cookie tins, assembly-line style, and filling each one. Excitement over bringing them to grandparents and neighbors and post mistresses and anyone they can think of.

— children playing hockey in the basement, sledding and burrowing and frolicking for hours in frigid temps, Legos and duplos and even a movie, and books when Mama needed a bit less stimulus (ha!) Joyful, sparkling, anticipating. Three days of me baking, and they were only helpful.

— pauses. This season I love that speeds right by, it requires pausing. Reflecting. Praying as I pack the cookies, repenting as I light the candle, receiving as I sing the Good News. Remembering the treasure and responding with my gift of all.

a week of tree pics.

(Fiona enjoys the tree from her favorite seat: my arms.)

(Friday evening, they slept under the tree! Beatrice didn’t make it the whole night, or even ten minutes! But the boys loved it.)

light.

I snapped at my son.

I do that, you know.

I sin.

Between me, you, and this curse-laden world, we’ve got a world of hurt.

That’s why this is so amazing.

Redemption: He bought us from the tyranny of sin. He paid in blood; He paid in full.

How glad I am to light this candle tonight.

Arise, shine. Your light has come.

first week of december doings.

Ryan took the boys out one afternoon, and they strung pretty white lights around the lone tree in our yard. When it shines at night, so solitary in a snow-white, moonlit field, it’s just so pretty.

In this picture, Jameson appears to be sweeping the snow away. He’s got a long way to go:

*****

Cookies are what it’s all about, right? Rum logs are happily consumed at every moment that seems at all appropriate.

Beatrice longs for a cookie:

*****

There are pre-dawn book-reading moments that happen quite regularly. The basket of Christmas books gets heftier every year.

*****

The boys had their CFA Christmas Concert this past Friday evening. William was bursting with excitement over his “very first concert ever in his whole life!!!!!” I will be honest: I was not feeling the Christmas “magic” last week, but did my best to remember how exciting that Friday evening concert always was to me as a child. With that in mind, I made sure to carve out plenty of time to iron clothes, straighten ties, wrap scarves, and say in as many ways as I could, “Hey! This is a big deal!” And they had the best night. (Seeing life through someone else’s eyes sure helps a lot, doesn’t it?)

the rest of May:

They all wore shades of green, and desperately wanted to take pictures before church:

Evenings like this are too good to be true. It’s when Ryan and I look at each other and say with our eyes, “These are the best days, aren’t they?”

Sometimes my wild gardening “techniques” — you know, buying a package of seeds at the grocery store, scattering them, and forgetting about it until two years later — ends up working out. I have columbine in such pretty colors this year.

Also, my itty-bitty baby purchases from two years ago are all starting to actually flower. I don’t have to raid Mom’s garden [as much] this year!

Memorial Day is honestly one of my boys’ favorite days of the year. Rain was forecasted, and I cringed. Do you know how long they’ve been waiting to play baseball with Papa and the uncles??, I prayed silently. And it didn’t rain. It was another most beautiful, poignant, fun, easy holidays ever.

May ended with some really hot temperatures. So we bought a “pool”, and the kids had the best weekend of their lives. Pretty much.

And now it’s June. And I’m determined to photograph, blog, or otherwise capture every single day of this family-of-five until we become family-of-six.

Christmas

Our Christmas Eve was so fun. We had a very early dinner down the road at my sister’s house, got dressed in our holiday best (which the boys just love to do — Jameson even managed to find a bowtie to up the ante this year!), and attended the Candlelight Service. We get to sing carols accompanied by a small orchestra, listen to a choir and soloists, hear the Christmas Story read by young children, and hold a candle as we sing Silent Night and let the weight of His gift amaze us again.

We drank eggnog (which the boys also love), ate cookies, and listened to Daddy read the Christmas Story. Excited children exchange gifts purchased for each other. They opened new pj’s and got dressed. We tucked them into bed in spite of their confident assertions that they just would not be able to sleep.

And then we worked on our very first large, assembly-required gift for the kids. It was a late night, but we were so excited to be able to bless these kids in this way. (Every year is different.) A father loves to give good gifts — we’ve learned that from the Very Best.

Sure enough, when excited kids woke us early Christmas morning, there was pure joy. And they got right to work preparing cups of coffee for Daddy and me. I love, love, love these kids.