Holiday Mish-Mash

I am sitting with Blogger open, fingers on the keys, waiting for inspiration to strike. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about....I have too much to blog about. It has been so long and it has been such a busy month. Christmas and New Years, the birthdays of both of my parents and my Aunt, and the engagement of my little brother to his girlfriend, Kayla. So instead of trying to remember all that's happened, and making this the longest post in the history of blogging, I'm going to try and nutshell everything.

Christmas was great. I am still, at the age of 32, unable to sleep on Christmas Eve. I turn back into a 9-year-old and toss and turn, waiting for the clock to turn to an acceptable time to rise and wake everyone else. The difference between now and when I actually was a nine year old, is that I am now more excited about what I am giving, as opposed to what I am getting. This year we bought my parents a fireplace, something my mom has wanted forever. After they went to sleep, Mark and I stayed up and put it together (I'm sure something we should probably get used to, having two kids), and I made sure to have it lit for them before they walked into the living room on Christmas morning. The look on my mom's face was priceless. My kids had loads of gifts to open and once Kevin and Kayla got there, we sat around the tree, fire blazing, and opened gifts one-by-one.

Christmas Eve was all about starting new traditions for my own little family. In an effort to make sure that the focus of our holiday was Christ, I made (and will make in future years) a birthday cake for Jesus. For those who are unfamiliar with this tradition, it includes a red layer, representing Christ's blood, a green layer, representing the everlasting (ever "green") life He purchased for us with that blood and white icing, representing the purity of the life He lived, making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins. After the kids went to bed, we watched the movie "The Nativity Story" and were really impressed by it. Even though the kids were to young to watch it this year, this movie will become a Christmas Eve tradition in our family for future years, as well. I was amazed to realize that I learned a lot from watching this movie. While all the events depicted in the film were familiar, they took on a freshness for me as I watched them being executed with such detail (and surprising accuracy). For example, the wise men's gifts had always been just that to me, gifts. I had only ever seen them as these men's acts of worship as they came to see the newborn King. Watching the movie, though, I was struck by this event as being God's provision for this young couple who were to raise His Son here on this earth. They were poor, and ostracized for her condition. They not only had to travel to Bethlehem for the census, but then had to flee to Egypt to survive Herod's cowardly slaughter of infants. God knew all of these things and provided them with gold, frankincense and myrrh, precious items that would sustain this couple and their new child for quite some time. It was no accident that these men brought these gifts. God provided these gifts.

New Year's Eve was the same as it has been for the last several years. A group of about 10 of us got together and played games, ate yummy food and laughed our heads off. It was awesome. (The kids were at my parents house)

So the BIG news of the holiday season in our family was that my brother (finally) proposed to his girlfriend, Kayla. Friends know that I accidentally refer to her as my sister-in-law all the time because I already feel like she is. Kevin genuinely surprised her with the ring after asking her father for her hand. It looks like September 12th or 19th will be the day (as I type this post, they are waiting to hear back from their venue of choice which day is available), with the two cutest ring bearers ever in the history of weddings (guess who I'm talking about). They have asked me to read some scripture at their wedding (they heard somewhere that I like the Bible), so that leads to the next update on my life.....

I'm on Weight Watchers again. I've done it before and been very successful. As I type this, I am exactly one week in, and so far, so good. I haven't cheated once. I figure having to stand in front of a huge group of people is motivation enough to keep me on track, but having your prayers, when you think about it, would always be appreciated.

So you're about caught up with me. Everything else is about the same. Monday night small group, finishing up "The Jesus I Never Knew" by Philip Yancey (I can't recommend this book enough), Thursday morning women's Bible study, starting "Jesus, the One and Only" by Beth Moore. I'm sure I'll be telling you guys all about it as I am changed, once again, by a Beth Moore study. I'm sorry if this post seems disjointed, I just wanted to get you all caught up so I could move on from here and hopefully become a faithful blogger again. I will leave you all with a picture of Kevin and Kayla, the new fiances, with my Mom and Micah. Aren't they the cutest couple?