Baby Boom

So what I documented a couple weeks ago as two different friends getting ready to give birth was really much bigger than that. Both Sunshine and Brenna gave birth before the end of the month, but I also forgot to list the Amy, Nicole, Katie, and probably still others that I can't bring to mind at this very moment! Wow, what a good showing for Dec 09!!! Just for the record, I appreciate you keeping those bdays close together. I have a hard enough time remembering how old my friends' kids are anyway... :)

Congrats to all who got Christmas babies, tax-break babies, or whatever you are dubbing your little December bundle of joy. I hope to meet each of these newly-birthed babies in the coming year. (is that possible? will I see you all in 2010?? I may have to attempt it...)

Wishing all you new- (or again-) mothers (and fathers) plenty of rest and fun time with your families this year. They grow up so fast.

-JLR

ps... if Dec is tax-break baby or Christmas baby, do other months also have "titles"??? anybody want to chime in with some ideas on this one???

I'm dreaming of a...

So the song says "white Christmas," but as we all know that isn't possible in certain parts of the world. When we were in Tanzania we substituted "wet Christmas." Just yesterday I was thinking that neither of those really work for BC. I mean, it rarely snows, so it would truly be a dream to have a white Christmas, and it's raining all the time anyway (much like Seattle), so who wants a wet Christmas... still I felt there should be a substitution. So as we were skyping with family and noticed the glare on the computer, I found it-- "bright Christmas!!!" I'm dreaming of a bright Christmas... hahaha.

We had an awesome Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we lounged around, went for an afternoon walk to the local playground, and enjoyed a standing-room-only service at our church. Then we came back and enjoyed a dinner of Cranberry Cider Pork Chops that were amazingly delicious (thanks for the recipe Mary McCarty!!!). Then we opened our one Christmas Eve present, which was new jammies for the family, snuggled up in our new jammies, and read our advent readings. The new pajama thing is something I'm hoping to make a tradition-- it's so fun that all of our Christmas morning pictures are in our new clothes! Anyway. We also enjoyed hearing Tim's parents read us The Night Before Christmas story on this cool recordable book they sent to Micaiah. I grew up reading that story, and while Micaiah knows that Santa isn't real (he's just a pretend character that's fun to pretend about), it was still fun to hear the story as I used to as a kid.

Christmas Day was similarly relaxed. Micaiah didn't wake up until about 8am and even then was more into snuggling with us in bed than jumping around and opening presents! Talk about a blessing! Tim read us the Christmas story in bed, then we headed out to open stockings and gifts. After presents, we had a big breakfast of eggs and sausage. Around mid-day we had lots of time to skype with family (both mine and Tim's) and Micaiah tried out all her new toys. in the afternoon we had a big lego-building party, which was oddly one of my favorite parts of the day! I made a turkey for dinner, which we barely put a dent in. But the upside is that now we have loads of turkey meat in the fridge and freezer!

It was sad to not be around family during the holidays this year, but at the same time it was very enjoyable to have some time to ourselves. Tim is gearing up for a big spring semester and will need all the energy he can muster. Plus, we're also celebrating the new Christmas story that has been published in the Mara cluster (9 languages!) in the past month or so. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to think of our friends there and how the Gospel may be impacting their lives. God is so good.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too!

-JLR

Baby Fever

I am so excited I could burst! As we speak, Sunshine and Brenna (two of my dear friends-- in different states) are at some point in the baby-laboring process. I probably won't even know until after the fact, but I am just so excited for both families!

I always wondered what it would be like to be having a baby during the Christmas season. I'm always envisioning what Mary would have gone through this time of year, and to think about having that story at the forefront of your mind while going through it yourself... I can't even imagine! Of course, then another part of me thinks how awful it would be to be the baby and always have your birthday together with Christmas. I guess that's my December birthday speaking. :)

JLR

Christmas Decor

The day after our Thanksgiving party (which was actually a Saturday since most of our guests had classes on Thursday and Friday), we removed all the autumn decor and began to put up Christmas decor. I always used to dread the process itself, but I realize that in order to get the beautiful end-result and ambiance that I so LOVE this time of year, it is a necessary evil. :) So we made an event of it. We put on some Handel's Messiah and began to sort through boxes of evergreen garland, lights, a tree, and some bows (all that were made available to us by our landlord and/or previous renters who left stuff behind!), and got to work.
I love the feel of Christmas!

-JLR

American Thanksgiving

So much for "stay tuned for a bunch of posts"...

Three days after the turkey-toe fiasco, we celebrated American Thanksgiving. I hate having to specify which Thanksgiving, actually, since I used to only ever think there was one. :) But where was I... oh yes, the Thanksgiving get together. So much fun! We had I think nine people at our get-together. Food was the classic menu with a few special (though not exotic) dishes... turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, noodles (in a gravy for on top of the mpotatoes-- a kirksville thing), gravy, green bean casserole, garden corn, sweet potato casserole, cranberry jello salad (Tim's grandma's recipe), rolls, apple pie, pumpkin bars, peanut butter (and chocolate) pie, and ice cream. It was all so yummy!
We also had our Gratitude Garland displayed. It is a tradition we're hoping to make annual... you write things you're thankful for on autumn-colored paper leaves. Then you string them together and hang it as decor! We have so much to be thankful for, so it is a very good exercise to remember all the blessings God has given us over the past year.

-JLR