How many more days?

We need to buy one more gift. Find and wrap a gift that's gone missing. All the other gifts are wrapped and packed. Clothes need to be packed for the kiddos and I, J has his packed already. There are at least three laundry baskets of clothes in my room that need to be folded and put away. The car needs to be packed. I work tonight, tomorrow night and Friday at 11 am. Everything needs to be done before Friday morning because we will be leaving as soon as I get off work around 5. I'm thinking of getting some food from work before we head off so we won't need to stop again. 12 hour drive then we arrive in Michigan. It will be a white Christmas because there is already snow in MI and no sign of it melting. I love snow. I plan on taking the girls sledding for the first time. Oh how I hope our plans go more smoothly than hoped.

We Tumble

Oh Holy Night

 O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;

It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,

Here came the wise men from Orient land.

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,

In all our trials born to be our friend!

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Truly He taught us to love one another;

His law is love and His Gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother

And in His Name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise His holy Name!

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

O night, O holy night, O night divine!

My Growing Boy

I am officially declaring my baby boy a toddler boy.

Wednesday night J converted N's crib into a toddler bed. He has successfully slept two nights in it and has had successful nap times too. His crib was the last thing connecting him to babyhood. It is kind of sad but no one can delay growth and I am glad my little baby boy turned toddler is growing into a man.

And while we are on the topic of growing up. Terrible Twos have hit as well. Can you say "tantrum"? The other day I was telling him to leave our room.(we like to keep the children out of our bedroom as much as possible so it doesn't get littered with toys) At first he threw himself on the floor then inched himself forward every time I told him he needed to go. Then he got in a crawling position, still with his head on the ground, and crawled out of the room pushing his head out. DRAMATIC!

So heres to growth and waking up to a little boy staring into your face saying "cup, mama, cup"

Ten Days?

Seriously? Do we only have ten days left until Christmas?

That means I have ten days to finish shopping, wrap presents, pack our bags and the car and head up to Michigan. Ten days.

We are leaving the night before Christmas or Christmas morning.... we still haven't officially decided yet. I think it will depend on the weather. If it looks like the roads should be alright we will probably drive through the night and go to bed early Christmas night or take a nap after the festivities. The great thing about driving through the night is that the children should sleep the entire time. That equals less stops which means we should arrive in good time.

I hope ya'll have fun these last few days before the big day getting ready. No stressing, it should be fun. :-)

Library

The girls and I ventured to the library today to sign up for a library card and pick out some books. The trip was long over-due. I've just never been composed enough to take three kids to a place where talking in a normal voice is unacceptable. With three kids there is a greater chance of one being grumpy. Actually we are thankful when only two are upset/screaming their head off- at least it isn't all three? So the thought of the library- yes that would be awesome, with two kids, just one or can I go by myself?

J's semester is done so he is home and able to watch little N(the one that it most likely to run, scream, cry... all things that should be done somewhere other than the library). So I saw my opportunity and took it. The girls and I went to the library, signed up for a card and filled a basket full of books. We can check out 5o at a time, WOW.

More library trips will be in our future, maybe next time we will bring N with us.

Car Conversations

M "What is zero plus zero?"

L "Zero"

M "Yay! You win!"

M "What is cow plus cow?"

L "Two"

M "That's right! Two cows!"

M "What is gate plus gate?"

L"Two"

M "That's right! Two gates!"

M "What is donkey plus... ummm donkey?"

L "Two"

M "That's right! Two donkeys!"

Hope

Hope is here

Hope is found

Sometimes I wonder why things happen.

Then I realize that I will never know the why- at least not in this world.

I try to hang on to the hope- the hope that everything will be ok,

that everything will work out according to his plan.

Sometimes there is depression,

sometimes joy.

But sometimes hope creeps back into the picture.

A blessing, A life.

Tears of sadness and joy at the same time.

Of loss and a new beginning.

Last Night of Hanukkah, Number Eight

The Seventh Night

The Sixth Night

The Fifth Night

The Fourth Night

The Third Night

My favorite from the third night, L lighting the candles with the helper candle. I was home from work, I had taken off so we could go to a Christmas celebration. I ended up being sick... both girls were sick the night before and N had been sick the past week. We had some friends over, J usually has a anime watching night on Fridays. We made homemade applesauce and homemade latkes. The food was soooo good. I ate a lot of it even though my stomach was telling me not to. I could not help myself.

The Second Night

The First Night

Hanukkah

Hanukkah begins tonight and our home is filled with excitement and expectation.

Last night, after we had put the children in bed, we began to organize and wrap the gifts. We had them all laid out on our bed when the girls came knocking at our door screaming "N is throwing up! N is throwing up!" We quickly shut out the light in our room and closed the door so they couldn't see our gifts and got N out of his bed and into the tub. I took care of the mess in his crib while J washed N. I told L and M that they could go into the playroom because of the smell. A few minutes after that I noticed our bedroom door open and the lights on and the girls laughing quietly to themselves in the playroom. I asked J if he had gone into our room and quickly figured out that they girls must have. When questioned if they had seen any gifts they replied "No" So I threatened them. "If you do not tell me what you saw I will take all the presents back to the store" (thinking to myself.. please tell me so I don't have to take all the presents back to the store) They said they had seen the Pillow Pets, a Lady Bug and Unicorn. Man they were happy.

Good thing we were planning on having them be the first nights gift.

So the excitement of having Pillow Pets is in the air. We decided to forgo wrapping them since the girls know what they are getting. Maybe I will tie a ribbon around them. N is getting a tent tonight. Poor little sick boy! I hope he feels better soon.

I am excited. It is our first Hanukkah that we will spend the whole week at our home. Usually we have to travel during this time of year. I plan on cooking some great tasting food and spending some quality time with our beautiful children and my wonderful husband. I do work most of the nights of Hanukkah so we might improvise on the usual traditions and open gifts in the early afternoon before I leave for work. Then J will light the candles with the children after dusk.

FYI: We are not Jewish. We are just Christians who have decided to practice the feasts of Israel. It has been a learning experience and we are still in the process of learning the in and outs of celebrating these feasts and festivals. I'm sure we will still be adding and deleting here in there until we find a tradition that is traditional yet uniquely fits us.