Yeah. Christmas Spirit!

Yesterday, the day after Ethan stayed home from school feeling low (capping the day off just before midnight with vomit on his pillow), the Christmas Spirit settled on our home. Our chaos in the living room ended. A beautiful moment at our house. The ceiling looks wonderful. All projects (until we start the next one) are complete. We put up the Christmas tree on Saturday morning. It was a fun time, and we were so ready for a little cheer.


We baked sugar cookies in the shapes of angels and gingerbread men and reindeer. I think some of them seem to taste a little like cardboard. My Christmas baking this year has all been quite jinxed. I have made Christmas nuts each Christmas for several years. This year they are still good, but just not the same. I think I didn't bake them quite long enough. Then I took on one of my favorites (and usually very easy), frosted pretzels. How can you mess those up? Well, I did. We finally scrapped the whole project. Again, I make those every year. They are simple and delicious. I overheated my almond bark. It carmelized. It was ugly. And I got grumpy. Not good. Then the sugar cookies...that is a new project for me. In the past it's been gingerbread men, but my kids usually abandon me and I end up decorating way too many little men. And I might add that decorating isn't my forte. And then to top it off, nobody really seems to like to eat them. They just like the idea of making them. So this year we tried sugar cookies. I like them better. But I don't know if I didn't refrigerate the dough long enough or what, but I had to add so much flour to be able to roll the dough out that the cookies lost some flavor. A lot of flavor. Tonight I was going to make chex mix, but John stopped me. I wonder why?

But back to the Spirit...the stockings are hung, Gertie has been making fast friends with Baby Jesus from the nativity sets, and she likes Jofes (or Joseph, as some of us with more developed language skills refer to him) too. John and I finished up some shopping this afternoon. I am so excited for the kids to see their gifts. I think in the interest of packing less, we're going to let them open several gifts in the morning before we hit the road. It will be Christmas Eve (morning). That's close enough, right? We never do that, but I've always wanted to have a Christmas at home, the kids waking up in their own beds to their own tree. Maybe this is my year...sort of.

We were planning on leaving on Saturday until we heard the weather wasn't looking too good, so we thought we'd bump it up to Friday, but then Ethan stayed home from school, so that wasn't going to work out. Today was so windy that we were concerned about blowing snow making icy patches on the interstate. Ever since we flipped our van that one year, we are a little skittish about driving in poor conditions like that. So we'll try again tomorrow. The weather is supposed to cooperate.

I think it's been a blessing, the delay. We've had a good time together. Ethan felt fine yesterday and today. We got to go to our own church this morning, and it was a very nice service. I love my church.

Oh, and John wrote our Christmas letter this year. That is a first. I'm going to work on stuffing envelopes in the car tomorrow. Unfortunately, it isn't a first that we mail our Christmas cards on the late side. Oh, well. That doesn't bug me all too much.

On a sad note, my Aunt Darlia passed away on Thursday. She was far too young. It was cancer. She had married my Uncle Joe the same year that John and I married, fifteen years ago. They made each other very happy and she had a lot of spunk. My heart aches about that.

And my step dad has to have open heart surgery on the 27th. It is fairly routine, so they aren't too concerned that the surgery is life threatening, but he's been through the ringer the last few years. And it's hard on my Mama too. I'll try to get up there to spend some time as he recuperates.

So, as it gets later and later, and I get more sentimental and more sentimental, I feel a heart overflowing with gratitude at the blessings in my life. I love my husband and children. I married into a great family. My sisters are my best friends. Jesus Christ came to Earth as a baby with a plan to save me (well, okay, you too). I am healthy. And so many things that happen to me every single day make me smile. I have joy. And I can't wait to see my little sister's baby's face.

So, Merry Christmas, all. This may be it for me, as I am about to enter the internet free zone for a stretch. God bless you.