christmas bits

merry christmas friends!

we can surely still say this, since christmas isn't quite over yet.

in fact the 12th day of christmas isn't until monday - the day of epiphany.

so while wes and the big kids brave the freezing temperatures sledding and baby girl naps i'm going to snuggle up in my new infinity scarf and slippers, put love actually on in the background

and look back at all the bits from this most joyous season.

a season that was most certainly filled to the brim of sweet things.

 here's a wee look...

it started back in the late fall with my new adventure in photo shoots here at the barn.

so much fun - learned a ton - now pondering where to take it next!

first snowstorms, sledding and snowman fun here at home...

oh and ella wearing her santa hat everywhere!

first christmas in our new home

 

ornament making...

melting crayon bits with the hair dryer to create colorful swirls

 cookie decorating...

jane fit right in this year as our official taste tester.

mailbox full of christmas greetings from friends & family...

and feeling so very honored to have been a part of capturing several of these beautiful families

 planning and hosting events that celebrated the season with colleagues & clients in 

new york, boston, philadelphia and greenwich that looked a bit like this...

gingerbread house making...
we bought the kit but swapped out most of the decoration based on some ideas found in a library book.  shredded wheat and life cereal are our new go-to giving our roofs a very real look!

 

christmas sing at little lambs for this happy boy,

who apparently stands a full head taller than his friends!

 more christmas creating...

our family of five as yarn wrapped christmas trees

christmas eve rejoicing

 

celebrating with family christmas eve, christmas day, 

uncle cory's stay and at grandma & papa's

 new gifts and treasures to
enjoy, read and learn

a merry christmas it is!

from our family to yours may the joy of christmas 

live in your hearts throughout the year!

thankful tuesday, 12/17

• a few dozen of those guys up there calling my name to do some christmas baking
• that little women is on in the background while i online shop and make christmas lists and thankful lists
• christmas in new york and christmas in our little town just days apart
• rockefeller tree sparkle and boyscout pancake breakfast with santa - each as sweet as can be
• the first snow storm
• our snow covered backyard under the full moon
• baby girl's first steps
• living room sleepovers 
• peeking behind tiny advent calendar doors 
• opening the mailbox filled with beautiful faces and christmas greetings 
• warm coats, boots and mittens
• that we get to celebrate this joyous season

okay a wee hard to type through little women induced tears, time to curl up ... xo!

thankFULL tuesday, 12/3

bits & bobs from our few days celebrating...

baby girl's first birthday

thanksgiving
tree cutting

christmas trimming

movie watching

book reading
cookie decorating

barn feast primping

thanksgiving / first birthday celebrating

advent reflecting

heart rejoicing

thankFULL

 a most special happythanksfirstbirthdaygivingadvent weekend indeed!

advent calendar...updated

it's the first day of advent so wanted to pop in for a quick look at this year's family advent calendar.  some of you may remember my homemade mitten one we've used the past few years.  well, after last year i knew we needed a new one...mine had some flaws.  

problem one - when i made the mittens that first year, i wrote in pen the verse and fun activities for each day of the season.

problem two - this design meant that  a "saturday" activity (i.e. sleepover in the living room under the christmas tree) had been bumped to a monday.  i love my kids and all, but not quite enough to have a fun living room sleepover on a school night!  similarly, going out for donuts before school wasn't as exciting when the activity fell on a weekend.

problem three - my kids can read.  meaning i couldn't just make-up the activity to be something else.  

it was time for a new one.  one that was most importantly about the bible message, but that also allowed for some flexibility to have the activities land on days when we could enjoy them.  

i loved these calendar cards by the talented melissa beaver at the lovely words.  each card includes a bible referenced designed in a way that is just so beautiful.  so, i ordered a set and have clipped my own little activity cards to the back.  

now all season long we'll look forward to flipping to see, read and reflect on what will become a wall full of beautiful messages.  this version also allows some flexibility if mama elf needs to change things up a bit by switching the activity cards around based on changing schedules.  on that note, i also remembered to plug the activities into my calendar this year... again, lesson learned from last year's surprise & scramble to have gingerbread house kits ready on the right day.

i wanted to share, not because i think you need to have one exactly like this, but because this is one of our most favorite family traditions.  preparing our hearts, serving others and enjoying the best parts of this season...the best!

in case any of you are planning activities of your own  - i thought i'd share the verse & defoyd plans in case you want to join us! 

merry christmas friends!

day 1: isaiah 41:5 /decorate gingerbread cookies

day 2: isaiah 52: 7-10 / mail letters to santa

day 3: isaiah 40: 9-11 / watch the grinch who stole christmas

day 4: genesis 3:15-18 / decorate bedroom doors for christmas

day 5: genesis 15: 1-6 / have hot chocolate with breakfast

day 6: deuteronomy 18: 15-19 / buy toys for kids in need

day 7: psalm 89: 1-4 / christmas craft

day 8: isiah 11: 1-10 / sign silent night by candle light

day 9: zechariah 6: 12-13 / listen to christmas music really loud

day 10: michah 5: 2-4 / go out for donuts before school

day 11: malachi 3: 1-6 / go for a flashlight walk after dinner to see the lights around the circle

day 12: john 1: 1-8 / put money in the salvation army bucket

day 13: john 1: 9-18 / go out to the movies to see frozen

day 14: mark 1: 1-3 / have a sleepover in the living room under the tree

day 15: luke 1: 5-13 / write & illustrate the christmas story

day 16: luke 1: 14-17 / wear pajamas and go for a drive to see the christmas lights

day 17: luke 1: 18-25 / watch charlie brown christmas

day 18: luke 1: 39-45 / make cards for teachers

day 19: luke 1: 46-56 / donate item for collections at karate & gymnastics

day 20: luke 1: 57-66 / go to bennett's christmas concert

day 21: luke 1: 67-80 / make treats & deliver to neighbors

day 22: luke 7: 10-14 / donate blankets for project just because @ church

day 23: luke 1: 26-45 / deliver gifts to teachers

day 24: isaiah 9: 2-7 / open one present

day 25: matthew 1: 18-25 / have birthday pancakes for jesus

be brave

yours truly is a puddle of tears today.  the good kind of tears.  but also the ugly sob kind of tears.  the kind where your heart and every bit of your soul just pours out of you until you feel like you have nothing left ... but yet you have everything and can see and feel and smell and love in a way that words cannot express.  and even if you can't express it with perfect words, you try, because these are the moments that you want to remember.  these are the moments that matter.  so...dear readers a bit of my heart as i remember and reflect on what those words up there have meant to me this past year.   



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a year ago today thanksgiving had come and gone and i was still very very pregnant.  i was a wreck.  i didn't think the little person growing inside me would ever come. i was petrified of having to have another c-section.  petrified.  every bit of me was anxious and exhausted.  i remember getting home from a morning doctor appointment where she told me if the baby didn't come by thursday then i'd be scheduled for a c-section.   i came home and fell apart...completely to pieces...the ugly, sobbing, weeping puddle of tears that seemed to take over every piece of my being.

goodness i was afraid.  oh so very afraid.  and though on that day a year ago i obsessed over the fear of a c-section, deep down i was afraid of so much more. really afraid. really really afraid.

afraid about what life would be like with a little baby. afraid what a new baby would mean to our family, the kids, our marriage.  we had been out of the baby phase for a few years, and now we  were about to go back.  and though we were excited, i was afraid, what was that going to do to us? 

afraid that my kids would be jealous, resentful, angry.  afraid that wes and i would become off, distant, lost.

afraid of the crying and exhaustion.

afraid of our lack of space at home and our plans to stay there for another year or two in the little blue house on mansion street.  we weren't planning to move.  we were planning to stick it out, make it work.  i was afraid that wasn't going to work.

afraid of the holidays.  that i wouldn't be able to do it.  that my kids would notice.  that this would scar them.

afraid of the years to come.  that a holiday season meant to be filled with joy - would be really hard for our family.  with now 2 birthdays, thanksgiving, christmas and all kinds of year-end excitement that it would be a blurr...and not the good kind.

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a year ago today...goodness i remember that meltdown like it was yesterday. i remember the urgent email i sent to girlfriends asking for prayer.  i remember crying so so hard. i remember praying with every bit i had left that the lord would make me...brave.  

brave because i knew it was going to be hard.  brave because i knew it was going to throw us for a crazy loop.  brave because with him by my side i should be...i could be...i needed to be.

and i can remember the very moment a year ago when peace washed over me... and the the lord made me that... he made me brave.  just like that he wiped it out.  just like that he took my fear away.

i went to sleep that night with such peace. i slept so very sound.  i woke the very next morning, my water broke, i went into labor, i delivered (without c-section)...i met my baby girl.  he made me brave.  and he has been doing it around every bend this past year.

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he made me brave during labor and delivery ...one without c-section.  he made me brave when that scary car accident happened to wes and the kids after jane was born.   he made me brave when we were devastated by the tragedy in newtown...at a time when i was trying to figure out this mama to three kids thing and needing to know that nothing is more important than loving these precious children.  he made me brave to embrace our defoyd family thanksgiving, christmas and birthday season in an even more special way ... to feel blessed by it, not overwhelmed, but blessed.  then he made me brave when my emergency appendectomy happened 3 days before christmas and bennett's birthday.  he made me brave to hold tight, to trust him.

then he made me brave when we decided to buy the new house.  he made me brave to trust it was the right time, the right decision, the right house for us.  he made me brave when we packed and moved in just 30 days.  he made me brave when in the midst of all that i accepted a new role and went back to work.

and he's made me brave to process and reflect on all the change that happened in those first 6 months and this past year.  he made me brave to look to him to help figure out where  to go when i often didn't know which way to turn.  he made me brave to see and know that even when things are really scary that dreams do come true.  he made me brave to see and know and love and do in new ways...at home, with my kids, in my marriage, at work, in my community.  that being brave is when he works.

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a year.  what a year it was. a year that changed me. a year that changed us.  a year to be brave.  a year to celebrate and remember.  be brave dear friends, be brave.