Tuesday, December 8, 2009

It's Christmas! I've got a lot of catching up to do!




I knew there had to be something to pull me out of my blogging absence. Don't get me wrong, I love blogs. I love to read blogs and I do , daily. It's just that I've had trouble keeping up with my blog. I guess I just haven't figured out the balance of 3 kids, husband, house, school stuff, activities and how to blog consistently. So I haven't. That's me...all or nothing. But Christmas? That's something different entirely. I love Christmas. Love the decorating, love the shopping, love the wrapping of gifts, love the music and I love all the TV specials I get to sit back and watch with the kids. Ultimatly, that's what did it. I want to write about the season and our lives and that is what I plan to do. I guess I'm not sure how to capture the last 7 months into words, so I won't. I'll just pick up where we are today.


It's a List:

1. We got our tree on Thanksgiving day. I would have gotten it sooner, but it's south Texas and we do a real tree so that means waiting til there out. I don't want to brag but I think this is our best.tree.ever. Why? It's huge and fresh and from Oregon. What more could you ask for? The man who sold us this tree was the owner of the tree farm in Oregon. It took him 21 days to travel from Oregon to Texas and get settled and set up for the season. He was so kind and even though he technically wasn't opening until Black Friday he met our pleas of "Can we buy our tree today?" with a gentle smile.


2. Thursday night our kids have their Christmas program at school. I need to go out and finish getting the items needed for their costumes. Pete's preschool class is dressing up as theives. (I know...what kind of Xmas program involves theives? Ours I guess) He has to dress up in all black with a bandana across his face with holes cut out for eyes. Should be amusing. Ellie's class is Xmas trees. They're wearing green t's all decorated. Jack's class is presents and they're wearing big bags to look like presents.


3. I was in a craft store the other day, unfortunately, trying to find items I need for ornaments the kids want to make to give to their classes. (I'm sure I looked completely overwhelmed because I was...the bright lights, shelves overflowing with "stuff", etc!) I happened to see some stuff for scrapbooking and the thought that came to me was...if you take the s away from scrapbooking you're left with crapbooking and I started to giggle and it's all I could think about for the rest of the day! No offense intended for those of you who love to scrapbook. I don't.


4. I was at Target the other day and they have the cutest Christmas pillows. One pillow is red with the word "joy" across it and the other one was light green with mittens. They were even on sale. I love Target. Speaking of which, they are the only store I know that sells the seasonal collection of fresh vanilla trashbags by GLAD. Have you seen these? I picked up 4 boxes and may go get more. They smell so good. Check them out.


5. Strange things happen whenever I go away and leave the kids with John. A couple of weeks ago I went to San Antonio with a friend. We went shopping, got massages, ate great food and spent the night at La Cantera Resort. It was perfect, except for the fact that lightning, yes, lightning struck our yard and knocked out our power. What are the odds of that?


6. Next week I'm getting braces. I don't have a lot to say about it except that not very many 38year old women have braces. I'm ok with it though. I'll have them on for about 12-14 months. Maybe I'll post pictures next week. I'm using it as an excuse to revert back to jr. high behavior. Hence, my fascination with...
7. The Twilight Series. Yes, I am and I'm admitting it. I've read the first three books and saw the movie "Twilight" (I rented it on DVD) and I've seen "New Moon". Oh my word..."Eclipse" was great. I read it like a crazy woman just to see what would happen. I have "Breaking Dawn" and I can't wait to read it either. It's fun though. See, my older sister is into them as well so I'm sending her the books when I'm done and then we read and talk about them! Hopefully we'll be in Ohio when the movie comes out so we can go see it together just like all the other teenage girls!
8. On Sunday our pastor preached an incredible message from Isaiah 11:6-9 about Jesus our Prince of peace. His main points were that Christ brings peace to all creation, peace from the ancient curse and peace on earth. It was such a timely message and reminded me that even though terrible things may be going on around us, all is not lost. We have hope. And today? Jesus is my peace from my past...my words and actions that I regret but have been forgiven from. He's my peace in the present when I'm surrounded by crises and disturbances and He will be my peace for the unforseen future. It's a comfort I can't afford to be without.
That's it for now. I want to post about Christmas traditions, recipes and music later on! It feels great to be back writing!
Take care,
Julie

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