christmas 2010

 

My family is so blessed! In 2009,we prayed and prayed for a new baby. We found out were were expecting right after Christmas last year. Fast forward (which my life seems to have permantely stuck in) to this year, we have another little boy to celebrate with. Drew is such a beautiful sweet little bundle. He is not feeling very well, he has a case of the sniffles. His big brother John, on the other hand, has the flu. He is being such a trooper, but he is the "worst sick you can get." Even sick, he has to compete. Sam and Jack are feeling o.k, praise the Lord.
This Christmas is kicking me in the teeth, though. I truly do not like leaving my house anymore, the whole day is gone by the time I get back. My ability to nurse discreetly in public has diminished, so I really don't want to go anywhere. By the by, if you are male and you happen to "accidently" see a woman trying to console a screaming infant in the confines of a dark resturant booth by nursing it, avert your eyes. Its the polite thing to do, especially if they are trying valiantly to cover themselves.
Back to the Christmas teeth kicking I am experiencing... I am really feeling super stressed, this is not from God! It should be such a joyous time celebrating the birth of our Saviour. I have a new favorite song to help remind me, its 'How Many Kings'by Down Here. I am brought to tears almost every time I hear it. Thank you God for sending your Son to die for my sins.
My husband shared an amazing parable that he heard on the radio.
A man and his family attended church regularly. As they were getting ready to attend the Christmas service, he couldn't bring himself to go,so he told his wife to take the kids without him. He was just going through the motions and he felt like a hypocrite. He had heard the story of Jesus's birth plenty of times and he just did not get it. So as he sat at home all alone, looking out the window at the freezing cold day, he noticed some birds. The birds were trying to find shelter from the weather and they kept flying into his plate glass window. After hitting the window, they would wander around aimlessly and disoriented. He knew if he didn't do something they would freeze to death trying to make their way. He rushed outside to try to help the birds. He tried several different ways to direct them into his nice warm barn, to no avail. For all his efforts, he could't make them go to where they needed to go. Finally, he thought if only I could only become a bird and show them the way. At that moment, he understood. God sent his Son to be a man. Human like one of us. To lead us and to show us the way. So simple and so true. We struggle and struggle trying to make our own way, we get hurt doing so and we just can't seem to get it right. Praise God for his gift to us, Jesus.
I am including some shots of our festive Christmas decorations. I was on a plaid kick this year, very traditional. Plain old christmas green and red. I normally try to go outside of the box with my colors, but shuga lime green and red have become a "fad". Of course, I had succumbed to the fad years back and have tons of lime and green for my kid tree. Next year, I am going to go smaller on my "adult" tree and bigger on the kiddy one. So I am going to hit the sales after Christmas and try to get a bigger fake one. This year I attempted to flock the kid's tree myself. My flocking took forever to dry and has since been leaving a lovely bit of dandruff on the tree skirt. My reasoning in flocking it was so it would look less fake, yes, I even typed this thought. Artificial tree, artificial snow, indoors... Probably should've kept that one to myself.
Any old way, ta da... Christmas at the Malone House. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!