Babes In Toyland

When I was growing up, one of my favorite Christmastime movies (and let's face it, I probably watched it throughout the year) was the 1986 made-for-tv version of "Babes In Toyland."Do you know it? Keanu Reeves as the dashing protagonist, Drew Barrymore as the saccharinely sweet little heroine? Super cheesy plot and terrible cinematography? Yep. And absolutely perfect and adored by me. I'll admit it, I'd still watch it, and I'm sure I'd enjoy it, too! 

Fortunately, our Christmas this year was not in peril of being ruined by my Uncle Barnaby and his minions of foul-smelling monsters. The busyness of life and frenzied schedules, maybe, but not droning, glowing-eyed monsters.

Anyway.

The boys had a fantastic Christmas! Actually, I think they had around five. You read that right. Five. We're developing a tradition of spreading the unwrapping out over several days. I think this is more for the parents than the kids. Keeping up with five kids under the age of four tearing through presents faster than you can say, "Jiminy Cricket!" is a little overwhelming.

We began the morning as we have every year since we were married: sitting on the bed, reading through Luke 2:1-20 and praying together. Normally, we'd also open stockings, but we didn't do stocking gifts this year.

After we gathered as a family, and after breakfast, we got dressed and snapped a few pictures. Christmas Eve and afternoon had been so completely hectic that Kyler and I had decided to just keep the boys in their footsie pajamas instead of changing them into their dress clothes. Rehearsal had run way late, we hadn't eaten, and the service began in half an hour, so we just gave up on dressing them up that night and decided to do it on Christmas Day.

They all looked so handsome, if I do say so myself.

 

The tree and presents were something to behold this year. Gifts for seventeen, arranged beautifully in my in-laws' living room alcove was absolutely staggering. You can't see them, but the window seat and a handmade cradle contributed nicely to the dimension of it all.
 What a sight!

As you can imagine, there was lots of unwrapping to do. Cam was a fantastic delivery boy. (Truth be told, we had to keep him busy delivering the presents, lest he tear them all open himself!) He was just beside himself with joy, and it was fun to watch!

 

 

 

 

And of course, there were the presents themselves.

We had quite the array...

There were dishes and dinosaurs,

 

cars and cameras and clothing,

 

 

and books and blankies for the babes.

 

 

Packages revealed pillows and pelicans,

 

movies and moose pajamas.

 

more books and even a bicycle helmet!

 

 

Tool sets and taggies (MJ is thrilled, can you tell?)

 

 

And later, there were trucks!

 

And even more to open!

We found sheets, and snacks, and shirts.

 

 

Yes, they're shirts.

 

And finally, there were cookies, cousins, chillin' (and crying), and cow flashlights that mooed (hands-down the prize-winning present...way to go, Ogee!)

 

 

 

 

 

 Naturally, the aftermath was almost as fun as the unwrapping!

Who can resist boxes and bubble wrap? It's like getting two presents in one!

 

 

 

 

  

The Daddies enjoyed some marathon tickling with their boys, 

 

 

Ogee enjoyed some snuggle-time and napping with his only granddaughter,

 

 

and Kayden kicked back for a movie.

Who doesn't love a little Wonka on Christmas?

It was a beautiful day. A White Christmas - the first I can remember.

A perfect time to treasure all the things I have been given, and be thankful for so many blessings.

  

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome! Are you feeling embarrassed that in a rush to get to church, you wore your blouse inside out? Or maybe your mother-in-law found out that you routinely let your children jump on her extra-bouncy sofa when she's not around? Perhaps you just gave in and had cookies for dinner...twice...this week. No worries! "Not Me!" Monday was written just for you. It frees me up to admit my many imperfections and vent about the absolutely ridiculous things that are my everyday. Enjoy at my expense, and join in the fun by commenting below!

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So I finally got an afternoon off! Several weeks ago, our sweet friend Debbie came over to give me a break from the boys and a few hours to get some things done in preparation for Christmas. I didn't do anything terribly interesting, just went to the grocery store sans children (what a treat!!) Given this glorious respite, it certainly wasn't me who was completely out-of-it the entire time, unable to keep my mind off of my baby, who was doing perfectly fine without me at home. I did not wander aimlessly through the aisles, clueless as to what I needed, where I put my list and coupons, or even what time it was. Geez.

We had an awesome time romping around with the boys in the two feet of snow we got just before Christmas! We did not however, have to run quickly across the yard to retrieve our three-year-old, who was stomping happily and exclaiming, "Look Mommy! Daddy! Yellow snow!!!" Thank heavens he hadn't yet developed quite the obsession with eating snow that he did after the next snow. Thank goodness.

No, it was not an altogether wholesome and nutritious idea to gobble cookies for breakfast...twice...over the new year weekend. So I didn't. Nope. Wasn't me.

At a Christmas gathering just after the new year, it was not my three-year-old who, as we set the table and prepared for lunch, leaned out of his seat and licked the plate of ham sitting in front of him. Not my kid. My children have table manners and perfect etiquette, all the time.

It is not me who cannot even remember the last time I washed this pair of jeans. Nope. Not me. (The bright side? At least I can remember the last time I showered....)

Sometime Christmas day, we were all sitting around in a comatose-like stupor, discussing things of absolutely no consequence whatsoever. Kyler's mom mentioned something about their cat being stir-crazy from all of the snow and how they needed to get him some sort of interactive toy. It SO was not me who said, "Just get the cat a Playboy.....errr....a Gameboy! I meant to say Gameboy!" Nope. Not me.

And finally, last night in the car on the way home from our local wholesale club, Kyler and I did not have to intervene in a heated argument going on in the backseat between our two-year-old and three-year-old sons. And the yelling....errr...discussion in question was most certainly not over who had pooped.

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"Not Me!" Monday is an incredibly fun blogging carnival started by MckMama. In a nutshell, it's where we all can be open about the ridiculous things that happen in our everyday lives. Head on over to her blog, where you can read heaps of other great "Not Me!" stories. Or, join in the "Not Me!" fun and leave a comment about all of the things you didn't do this week!

White Elephants

We've all seen them. In fact, they're pretty common this time of year. (Well, this time of year a few weeks ago. I've been a little slow on the blogging-idea-to-published-blog lately.) Anyway, if they're done right, these type are one of Kyler's and my favorite.

What I'm speaking of, of course, are white elephants. White Elephant parties, that is. You know, a holiday party with a gift exchange. Not just any gift exchange, mind you. This is a gift exchange where re-gifting** is okay. In fact, it's not just acceptable, it's encouraged. Or at least in my opinion, it should be, if you want a fun party.

**Aside: Do you re-gift? We do...frequently. It's the only way we manage to have gifts for all the various events we attend, and when your kids have officially entered "birthday party age," as ours have, and your husband is a youth pastor, in addition to knowing everyone within a 90-mile radius... (Well, almost. For a fact we hardly ever go to Wal-Mart without stopping to chat with a dozen people Kyler knows.) Anyway, you get the idea. It's a lot of events.

So back to White Elephant gift exchanges. There are many variations. The gist of it is: you draw numbers for the gift-opening order. You open gifts, with each subsequent gift-opener having the option of "stealing" a previously opened gift. Chaos and laughter ensues. The gifts are - or should be - totally useless or just plain ridiculous.

Sadly, some folks just get it all wrong. Well, in my opinion anyway. Kyler and I once went to a work Christmas party that boasted a fantastic "White Elephant" gift exchange. Boy, were we in for a surprise! When it came time for the exchange, you should have seen the look on Kyler's and my face when the first present opened was a bottle of wine. I'm not kidding. The presents just got fancier. I was mortified.** I'd wrapped up one of those giant Hershey's kisses that a student gave me for Christmas earlier that day. HA!

**Aside: For the record, I am not terribly hopeless. There was NO indication that the presents were going to be so fancy! No monetary limit or anything, like some invites suggest. It only indicated that there would be a White Elephant gift exchange. Oh well. 

I happen to think that White Elephants are most enjoyable when the gifts in question are re-gifts. And the more ridiculously outrageous, the better. For example, some of my favorites have included:

-- an enormous, fake, flowered, lighted topiary. Who gives something that hideous to a college student?! The best part? The person who opened it - another college student - was incredulous that anyone would be giving something "so beautiful!" away. My roommate and I could hardly contain our laughter....

-- Another college campus ministry exchange yielded an "annual" gift. You know, the kind of gift worthy of re-gifting and passing around year after year in the same gathering. This gift was the perfect gag for a Christian campus ministry group: a small, green, foot-high Buddha statue. We took him home and kept him on our porch, dressing him up for all of the holidays throughout the year.

-- This year's moment of hilarity happened when our worship pastor's son decided to join in the exchange at a party and opened, much to his utter disbelief and adolescent horror, a very large, pink box full of nursing pads! Oh my, the laughter was deafening. So. Very. Funny. As one of only two nursing mothers in the room, I'm proud to say I swooped in and "took one for the team," rescuing the poor kid from his humiliation and "stealing" the gift away. Besides, it has great White Elephant re-gifting potential, don't you think?

Ahhh, so fun.

So I need some more ideas! I'm curious, what sorts of absurd gifts have you given or received at White Elephant parties? I could always use a few more great ideas!

Now, what to do with this year's gifts???
   

Suitcases

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe a young mother who lived out of a suitcase...

Whew. What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been! Exhausting. Overwhelming. Exceedingly frustrating. (Just to name a few more adjectives that come to mind...) The holidays passed far too quickly for me this year. Autumn is my favorite time of year: football, brisk weather, gorgeous colors, falling leaves, and it all culminates in Christmas, my favorite holiday. But this year was different. It was all just too...frantic.

And now, I feel like I'm in a tailspin, desperately trying to recover and regain some semblance of order out of all of this chaos. I haven't blogged in what seems like ages, and my head is spinning, dizzy from all of the unwritten pieces bouncing around in there.

So, I stayed up late to write. It's 1:23am. Do you know where your children are? I do. I can hear them, awake, playing with stuff in their rooms. Rooms, because we had to separate them again. It sounded like UFC in there. You know, if I watched UFC. They are totally wound up. We're at my in-laws...again. 

Don't get me wrong. I love my in-laws. Seriously. I almost always hear people referring to their in-laws with that tone in their voice. You know the one. The one that says, "I only put up with you because I have to." The tone you hear in my voice when I mention my in-laws is, "what on Earth would I do without these  people?!" Really. If you know them, you know they are just that fantastic. Gracious, hospitable, caring and giving, I am beyond blessed to call them family and have them nearby.

It's just...I feel like I have been living here lately, and I feel like we are in the way when we stay. I know we are welcome, but my mother-in-law works from home, and I feel terrible when the boys are running willy-nilly through her house, leaving a rather large swath of toys, sippy cups, and other debris in their wake. Three small boys are not quiet or tidy, no matter how you shake it. Boys just aren't wired that way, especially not our sons.

It's taking us awhile to adjust to having three kids. Longer than I thought it would, I'll admit. The first couple months were tough, with Callan's colic and undiagnosed reflux, and looking back, I'm fairly certain I had some pretty significant postpartum depression issues going on as I tried to juggle it all. Now it's not so much the everything-takes-fourteen-times-longer-than-I think-is-even-remotely-possible, or even the it's-amazing-how-my-kid-manages-to-have-a-massive-diaper-blowout-mere-seconds-before-we-walk-out-the-door. No, we've pretty much got those covered, surprisingly. It's more the not realizing just how much stress and chaos having an inconsolable baby creates, particularly when we have two other (relatively young) children to care for. And especially not realizing just how much of that stress I, in particular, hold on to, even when I get a short respite from it all while Kyler takes the boys or when Callan has a good day.

This all came to a head a few days ago. We were finally home after all of the craziness leading up to Christmas, and then the "holiday" itself, and then after only 1-1/2 days at home, heading back to his parents for the new year and several more days while his aunt, uncle, and cousins from out of state were here visiting. Home. Finally. And there is stuff everywhere. Seriously. I don't delude myself with aspirations of a spotless, beautiful home where laundry is always done and the floors are clean enough to eat off of....ummmm, well, I guess that happens anyway.

I know things will not be as ordered, organized, planned, or perfect as I wish. This I have come to accept. But the living out of suitcases is not helping matters. I need to be home, so I can begin to recover from all of the traveling. And yes, I know it's so much more than that, and it's so much more about me feeling in control than I'm willing to admit. Ministry is hard. Sometimes I feel like my family lives at church (heck, we could, what with the quilts, pull-out sofa and pack-n-play in my husband's office...) I suppose there are about a jillion other factors coming into play here too - trying to do college ministry when you live 25 minutes away from the college (and your in-laws live 5 minutes from the college), for one - all factors that affect why I feel all of the above, but many that I don't have the time or energy to share just now. And it's about time I wrapped this one up.

If you've made it this far, and you're not my mom, thanks for reading and sticking with me. I recognize this post has been a bunch of incoherent ramblings, none of them tied together or wrapped up. Guess that just mimics how I feel right about now, definitely not like a cute little package all wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow.

Well, I suppose living out of a suitcase isn't all that bad. It could be worse...

I could live in a shoe.

House Calls

     
Do you think Merlin makes house calls? I wish...

     

Frozen Skywater

About a week ago, it snowed here. A lot. Thanks to their new obsession, "The Land Before Time," and dino-mania, the boys began shrieking, "frozen skywater! yay! yay! yay!"

When it was all said and done, we had around 20 inches. Crazy! I love snow...guess that's a by-product of growing up in Texas, where we had no snow. (Until now, apparently. Some of my friends are bragging about having a "White Christmas!")

Anyway, we had a blast getting the boys out in the snow to play! Callan (very considerately) napped while we took them outside. We had so much fun! Enjoy the pics!

Right out the front door

 

 

Kyler just so happened to have his father's truck the evening of the snowstorm, and it made a great "snow box" for the boys to play in! I threw in a couple of sand box buckets, scoops, and shovels, and they were happy as little clams (and so cute, too!)

One of Cam's favorite parts about being out in the snow was the measuring. He carried around a (broken) yardstick nearly the entire time, testing the depth of the snow at every step.

 

 

 

 

Kayden enjoyed tasting the snow, which involved many deliberate face plants. Pretty hilarious to watch!

 

 

 

 

While we played, Daddy shoveled.

Cam wanted to help, too. He was adorable.

 

 

 

 

 

We can't wait for the next storm. Heads up!

 

       

Every Day Is Christmas

     
Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a day filled with joy, friends, and family! I am looking forward to some much-needed down-time with my family and my Lord. I literally can't wait to get by myself and spend some time dwelling on God's goodness and the miracle of Jesus' birth. I haven't yet had the opportunity to do one of my favorite Christmastime things: find a comfy spot to sit with a hot drink in the middle of the (quiet, still) night, gaze on a lit Christmas tree, and just be still before God. Tonight, after the craziness of this afternoon and our church Christmas Eve service tonight, I will do that. Oh, the magic and mystery of Christmas Eve!

Some pics from our Christmases past:

 

 

 

 

 

We were given a copy of this poem with a Christmas card this year. It's probably pretty common, but I had never read it before. I appreciated its words and message, and hope you will, too. (As far as I know (I googled it) the author is unknown.) Have a lovely Christmas! 

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Every day is Christmas
when you have the kind of mind,
That stores up all the goodness
and the sweetness it can find.
When you don't need an occasion,
to spread a bit of cheer,
But just keep on a-giving,
of yourself throughout the year.

Every day is Christmas,
with a gaily wrapped surprise,
When you to see the friendship,
in someone else's eyes.
When you try a little harder,
and complain a little less,
Holding fast to all the fervor
of the faith that you possess.

Every day is Christmas,
when you've found that you can be
More concerned with words like "you"
and less with "I" and "me".
When it's fun to do a favor,
and to lend a helping a hand,
When being understood means less,
than when you understand.

Every day is Christmas,
with a beauty deeply cast,
When you find it doesn't matter,
if you're first or if you're last.
When you can face your conscience,
and be glad of what you are,
Then every day is Christmas,
with a stable and a star.

~ Author Unknown