Post Category → Jameson

Christmas bits

Christmas Eve morning was calm, blue, serene:

…and then the sun broke through.

It continued to shine all through Christmas Day. Crazy cold, crisp and clear. The best of winter in the North Country.

We all gathered under one roof for an early dinner. We dressed into our holiday best and went to church for a lovely hour of choral music, hymn-singing, story reading, and candles. Jameson read beautifully.

Then home. We lit all the candles, ate cookies and homemade eggnog, and let the holiday music ring. Ryan read Luke’s account of Christmas, and then we opened a gift or two. Including, of course, new pj’s. These growing kids were in desperate need this year!

Then Christmas morning: the biggest boy crawling into my bed before the sun was up, me telling him we’ll at least wait until the 6 o’clock hour, and him asking me every 3 minutes for the next 45 if it was time yet? Please??

Stockings, presents, jumping and joy. Cinnamon rolls and clementines. Then over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house! Or just down the road to Nana and Papa’s. Either way, we sang as we went.


in the van; she couldn’t leave the house without purse and hat, of course!

The celebrating was merry, the food delicious, and being almost all together the best of all. We gathered again the next evening and ate pizza and sang more songs:

No celebration of this marvelous event could ever be too big, Dad said, and he is so right. A Savior came to deliver us. To walk among us. To reconcile and redeem. That’s worth a bit of celebrating!

And so we do.

But eventually we must find our coats and mittens, run out into the cold, starlit night, and turn towards home and bed.

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?)

toddler toes and thanks

Beatrice is not supposed to touch my phone. But sometimes she does. And sometimes I find her photography, and it is ridiculously cute:

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Other cute things in my day have included a baby, drifting to sleep…

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…a toddler, beyond excited about watching Mother Goose…

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…an oldest son writing a worship song…

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…and a baby who burst into smiles the minute I glanced her way.

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And all that before noon! Not to mention the breath taking beauty of autumn’s brilliance-and-shadows interplay out my windows.

There’s nothing adorable about my laundry pile (which I just conquered! And it’s back again!), or the frustrating mole hills in our yard, or so many other things. There are children to train and my own attitude to rule, wars in the spirit to wage, and hardships to endure.

But there is a “Rejoice always” that I so long to learn. I want to leave the fragrance of joy and thanksgiving wherever I go.

And taking a minute to enjoy those little toddler feet? That certainly helps.

interruptions and rest.

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
Ev’ry hour I need Thee…

So true. And some hours, the needing is extra-strong.

There have been a few of those the last few days. Thursday evening, as I was putting dinner on the table, I realized that a part of me was still just waiting to get the day started. I had been “catching up” on the stuff of life all day, just waiting to get things caught up enough to begin our day’s routine. And it never happened.

Huh.

Good thing we get to try again every 24 hours!

But the really, really good thing?

That those days that never get “started” because they’re so “interrupted” — those days can still count. Interruptions and unexpected happenings are only interrupting and unexpected to us. God knows our days. Our times are in His hands. And His beautiful, good, profound work in our hearts and in the lives we touch — that doesn’t get interrupted by any curve balls life throws our way.

And when our cranky response to those curve balls does threaten to stall His work? We don’t have to wait 24 hours to try again. Repentance, grace, and help are always right there. Wide open. Just waiting.

*****

Some goodness:


Stop. Are you kidding? Those perfect fingers, plump cheeks, sweet lips? Beautiful.


Jameson left our second freezer wide open, and I discovered it 24 hours later. Yup, that was my Thursday. London broil for dinner, chicken baked and stashed in the freezer for another day, roasted turkey and lamb for the work crew down the road at my Mom’s. And interruption that worked out to be a blessing.


Me, feeling badly about not getting the school books out while cleaning the mess of a thawing freezer and cooking meat like a madwoman — look over and realize Jameson has created a football field from paper, duplos, and Lego men, and he and William played all day. That was way more creative than any lesson plan I had.


Two handsome boys. Two. Ready for the first day of Friday School. So big.


And so cute.


Beautiful CSA bounty. It feels like the best gift, every single week.


Cooking. I like to be in my kitchen.


And this? No matter how busy the day, no matter how little I get to just sit with my baby, I know that this will eventually happen. I love my Fiona-girl.


Her aunties love her, too. Her sweet face popped up in my feed last night. I said to myself, Yes. Yes, she is beautiful.


This morning, she woke up and celebrated her 6th week with us. It’s raining and cold and very October-ish. So she wears the sweater knit just for Dunphey #4 by my friend, Carol. It’s just the thing for a sweet babe.


And while Daddy and Jameson showered and dressed and headed off to church, the rest of us got wool socks and sweatshirts to layer on our pj’s. Vitamin C, chicken broth, afghans, and rest.

Rest.

Even on the busy days. The interrupted days. The I-can’t-quite-catch-up-days. There is an invitation to just rest.