Goodbye 2007

This year started out a little rough, but steadily got better. Because I started blogging about halfway through the year, I can remember the second half much better than the first half. However I do remember that in January, bad things happened to both of my kids and when things happen to my kids, it is so much worse for me than if it had happened to myself. First, Aaron's band got stranded in a snow storm and then on the same weekend, their money box was stolen. It had every bit of money they had made. It really broke my heart for them. The second bad thing that happened was that a guy that Leah had previously dated left some threatening messages on her voicemail. It was really frightening so she had to go to the police about it. Thank God for her friends who stayed with her for support during that time!

Things started getting better after that and I'll just briefly mention some of the highlights of my year....we got a new look in our kitchen - new stove, countertops, floor, sink, painted walls instead of wallpaper; we went to two different CD release parties in Nashville; the band got signed to a record label; I went to Tampa with my sister to visit her son; went to a "hip-hop church" in Tampa; Eddie and I went to Helen, Georgia; went to Rush of Fools concert at my church; Leah and I went to the beach with my youngest sister and her three kids; went to the beach with Eddie and Leah; had Eddie's 50th birthday celebration; went to several Plea concerts in several different locations; housed and fed numerous bands several times; a wonderful Christmas season with loved ones.

Now, the nest is empty again and while I miss everyone, it's not really bad. I've been so busy the last month having so many different ones at our house and constantly providing food and hospitality, it's nice to have some down time before having to return to my job. I think the thing I've learned the most over the past year is to be flexible. I've learned that with only a moments notice I might suddenly have to feed a bunch of people. But it's okay if I haven't had a week to plan and buy groceries and clean house. Being flexible is so much better than having to stick to a strict schedule and try to make sure that everything goes exactly as planned. Being flexible also includes what I mentioned before about not setting my expectations too high, only to be disappointed. This lesson learned is one that I plan to keep in my life because it makes me and everyone around me much happier.

I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I love my family and friends, and I love all my new friends I've made this year through blogging. I wish for each of you a very happy new year. God bless you!

I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Psalm 145:1

The Simple Things in Life

As I mentioned already, my son and daughter have both been home for the holidays, but my daughter left late Saturday night. Tonight my son and his girlfriend will be leaving because the band he's in starts up another tour tomorrow. For anyone who might be new to this blog, he's a musician (the drummer) for a band that tours full time, so his life is made up of traveling on a daily basis. He's been doing this since May 2006, so some of the simplest things in life are things that he doesn't get to take advantage of anymore. Just to mention a few of those things....sleeping in a bed, going to church every Sunday, taking Sunday afternoon naps.....these are things he no longer gets to do. So this afternoon when we came home after church and going out to lunch, it was raining outside; one of those afternoons you just want to stay inside and read or watch TV. I thought this was so cute -- my son got so excited and ran to his room to put on some comfortable clothes because he said it had been such a long time since he'd been able to take a Sunday afternoon nap. It made me so happy to see him so excited over the most simple thing. I'm so glad he got to live a sort of normal life, if only for a week.

Aaron and Meghan

Expectations

It seems so long since I've actually written a blog post! One reason for that is because I've been off work for the past week, so I'm away from my normal routine life. However, I have been reading my friends' blogs and I have sure enjoyed hearing about your Christmas holidays. I only posted pictures of mine, but I have to say that I could not have asked for my Christmas to be any better than it was. The best part was to have my son and my daughter home with us and everything after that was just extra icing on the cake. This year I decided not to set my expectations too high, because I was afraid that if my expectations were too high about having a great Christmas, something might happen to disappoint me. We had plans, but I decided to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and if everything didn't turn out exactly the way we planned, it wouldn't be the end of the world. But everything went just as I wanted it. I got all the cooking done that I wanted to do; my son arrived home from up north in plenty of time to spend all our family get-togethers with us; the weather was cold for Christmas; we spent time with my husband's family and with mine. It was wonderful!

My daughter's boyfriend came to join us on Christmas Day, so it's always nice to get to know the guy she's dating a little better. I like him a lot and I really appreciate that he treats her like a lady. My son's girlfriend flew in from Pennsylvania the day after Christmas and has been spending a few days with us. Again, I'm glad to have the opportunity to get to know her and I'm also very pleased with his choice for a girlfriend. She's very sweet and beautiful, and is a committed Christian. I pray that both of my kids will follow the Lord's guidance with their relationships.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. Psalm 25:1-2

Our Christmas in Pictures

We went to my parents house on Christmas Day. The first picture is when I gave my mom the special gift I made for her.

Dear Mom,
I hope that you will like this gift I made for you. I think sometimes we buy gifts for people at Christmas without much thought behind it, but we do it just to have something to give. But I want you to know that there was a lot of thought and a lot of time put into making this particular gift. Since you are missing the hymns being sung at church, I wanted to give you a CD with your favorite hymns on it. I spent many hours recording your favorites as well as my sisters’ and my favorites, and then adding other instrumental sounds using my synthesizer. There is no singing, just music, but hopefully they are played simply enough straight out of the hymnal so that you can sing along as you listen. It is far from perfect (like me) and there’s not a lot of fancy piano playing, but there is a lot of love behind it and a lot of thankfulness to you and Daddy for giving me the gift of music. I don’t know what I’d do without it. I love you and Daddy so much!

My husband was so proud of his "A Plea for Purging" hoodie that Aaron gave him!

Alex, my nephew, opening a gift. Seated on sofa is my son, Aaron, my brother-in-law, Robert, and my sister, Angie.

Chaos in the kitchen at my parents house.

My daughter, Leah, and her boyfriend, Thomas, by my mother's Christmas tree.



Thomas gave Leah some hunting clothes!

At our house on Christmas Eve, all six cousins on my husband's side of the family together for the first time in many years. We have a picture from every Christmas of all the boys holding up Leah, the only girl cousin.

At our house on Christmas Eve, Eddie's brother Frank always plays his accordian -- these are his two sons with him. I thought this picture was funny.

Christmas Traditions

What are some of your Christmas traditions that make Christmas special in your home? We don't really have a lot of things that we've done intentionally for the purpose of becoming a tradition, but I believe there are a few things that have become tradition simply because we do it every year. One is that we always get together on Christmas Eve night with my husband's family and eat, exchange gifts and listen to some Christmas music. Then on Christmas morning, just our little family gets up and we wait until all of us are up before anyone goes to the room with the Christmas tree. Then we open the gifts we got for each other and I make sausage balls for our breakfast. Later in the day, we go to my parents' house to have the family get-together with them and my sisters and whoever is able to be there from our families. My mom will sometimes get someone to read the Christmas story from the Bible before we start opening gifts. We usually do the gift swap called "Dirty Santa". Sometimes after that we will play a game together. The last couple of years we played this electronic game called Catchphrase. It's a lot of fun when you have several people to play. And then we go home exhausted and just rest and hang out together that night. All during the Christmas season I like to burn scented candles that make the house smell Christmasy.

Please share some of your Christmas traditions or things your family does that make Christmas special at your house.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:13-14

Friday Favorites - Christmas Edition

Today, for Friday favorites, I'd like for you to read an article that I thought was really great. This one is not by one of my blogger friends, but I thought it really captured the spirit of Christmas. I hope you will take five minutes to read "Jesus is Christmas".

If you just feel like reading the Christmas story from the Bible, click on Luke 2.

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Amel tagged me for this about a week ago and I'm just now getting around to it.

Here are the instructions for this meme:

1. Make a paragraph next to the last paragraph in the tag that is passed to you “What is Christmas to you” and put your name at the end of it linking back to your site, or the page that answered this tag.
2. You can use a title that will suit your Christmas idea.
3. Then tag as many as you can.

For me, Christmas means HOPE. Always has been, always will be. The fallen world has received the greatest hope of all: the birth of Jesus Christ. And since hope is all around, then it's only normal to see so many acts of kindness around Christmastime. In Indo, we never exchanged Christmas gifts, but now I live in Finland and I start to buy gifts for my loved ones. Christmas also means family gathering for me and candlelight service at church. Plus I get to sing Christmas songs and enjoying a Christmas play and dance. Other than that, for me Christmas also means SERENITY. I can feel a different kind of peace in my heart whenever Christmas comes along. And since Christmas is near New Year, it's also time for reflection for me: reflecting all the blessings that the Lord has given me and then thanking God for everything. - Amel

Christmas, to me, is a day that is set aside to celebrate the birth of God's only son, the Savior and Messiah. We celebrate this special birth by spending time with the people we love the most and giving gifts to each other because God gave to us the greatest gift of all. And it's not only on Christmas Day that we celebrate; we celebrate during the weeks leading up to December 25 by giving gifts to others around us who are in need of basic necessities that we are already blessed to have. We celebrate by listening to and singing Christmas carols that tell about the birth of Jesus. We also celebrate this day by eating special foods that we only have at Christmas time. I love Christmas and meditating on the story in Luke 2 about how it all actually happened. I love spending time with family and friends and the warmth of love that I feel at this time of year. -Kathy

I am tagging everyone who visits my blog from now until Christmas!

Merry Christmas!