In Retrospect, It's Kinda Funny!

Decorating the Christmas tree has been quite the adventure this year. It all started just before Halloween.

You see, I had this grandiose idea that we could make all of our ornaments this year and have an old-fashioned (except for the lights and the lighted angel on top) Christmas tree. We were going to string popcorn and make all of these wonderful, homemade ornaments. So before Halloween, I started collecting ideas. My mom gave me some really great ones, too. But, I only implemented one of them. She told me how to make these really wonderful string ornaments using crochet thread, balloons, and liquid starch. First of all, I thought crochet thread was yarn. Mom crochets and was a little put-off by my ignorance. Once she set me straight, I went to the store to get the thread, balloons, and starch.

I came home with the thread (not yarn), balloons, and liquid starch, and Ben and I blew up an entire bag of balloons.Thirty balloons. Because I'm overambitious like that. And because I way overestimated my children's ability to do and to remain focused on these ornaments. I think Hayden might have done part of one. Abby might have done an entire one and started a few others, which I finished. I did the rest. All 13 of them.

Once they dried and it was time to pop the balloons and remove them from the thread, I discovered that I didn't effectively communicate to the kids. I told them to hold the balloon near the knot and wrap the thread around the balloon. What I didn't tell them was not to wrap the thread around the knot. Over and over and over. You see, once the balloon is popped, it should just easily come out of the ornament. Only it doesn't work that way if the thread, which was fully soaked in liquid starch and has now dried quite hard, is wrapped tightly around the balloon knot. So I had to cut several ornaments. This left a gaping hole in the ornament. So, those ornaments got thrown away. We were left with a few ornaments.

I just realized that I haven't told you WHY I had this wonderful idea for making ornaments this year. Last year, we celebrated our first Christmas in our house. Previously, we lived in a two-bedroom townhouse. With carpet in every room. Our house has hardwood flooring in the living room and the hallway. The only carpet is in the bedrooms. Why is this a problem, you ask? Because 99% of our ornaments were glass ornaments. That wasn't a problem when we lived in a fuly-carpeted apartment. Even with two kids and a dog. However, when we went to decorate our tree last year, I had just a little bit of foresight and said to Ben, "Don't you think we should go buy some shatter-proof ornaments? Almost all of ours are breakable." Ben said, "No, they'll be fine. The kids just need to learn to leave the tree alone." (The dog didn't make the move to the new house; he lives with my in-laws now due to Hayden's allergies.) From the day that we decorated the Christmas tree until the day we took it down, I swept up at least one broken ornament a day. Thus the need for new ornaments.

Back to this year: We finally got our Christmas tree this past Saturday. We usually get our tree Thanksgiving weekend, but we were a week late this year. There was a tree at the tree farm that we all fell in love with. It was this beautiful blue spruce that had the perfect Christmas tree shape and, according to Abby, "lots of room for loot!" (Guess we need to really hammer home the true reason we celebrate Christmas and that it's better to give than to receive.) When we found out the price of the beautiful blue spruce, we decided that we'd better choose another tree! So we found a wonderful Norway spruce that is just as beautifully shaped as the blue spruce and has "lots of room for loot" because of Ben's trimming job once we got the tree home. Some of the lower branches had to be trimmed so that the tree would actually get into the tree stand; he just got a little carried away. It kind of reminded me of that "I Love Lucy" episode where Lucy kept telling Ricky to trim a little here and a little there... and eventually there was nothing left to the tree! (Okay, so it wasn't quite that bad, but I do think that Ben actually thought for a minute that he would have to go buy another tree.)

Once we had the tree in the stand, it was time to put the lights on the tree. Only we had to go buy lights because ours from last year were no longer safe; Ben had to splice them together to make them work. The tree had been decorated for a couple of weeks when about half of them decided to work intermittently, and there was no way that we were going to take everything off of the tree so we could put new lights on. So the old lights went out with last year's Christmas tree. Saturday afternoon, I went to Walmart to buy lights because we had none. So I bought this box of 400 lights, took them home, and we tested them. They all worked. Got them on the tree, and half of one string (there were two strings total) quit working. Ben found out that it was a connector issue, not a bulb issue, so he took the lights back to Walmart and got some new ones. He had to get four boxes of 100 lights each because they had no more boxes of 400 lights. He tested each string, and only three strings worked. (Figures.) We were optimistic that three strings would be enough to cover the tree. Um, wrong! There was about 18 inches of tree that didn't have any lights. By this time the kids were tired and really, really wanted to decorate the tree, so we let them put a couple of ornaments each on the tree and told them that we'd get one more string of lights after church on Sunday and we'd finish decorating the tree.

Sunday, we went straight to Walmart after church let out (thankfully, we went to the early service) and got our string of lights. We came home, had a quick lunch, and set to decorating the tree. We discovered once we opened up the boxes of ornaments and Christmas decorations that we had this nice, unopened box of FOUR HUNDRED LIGHTS in with our Christmas decorations! It was then that Ben and I remembered that we had gone to Kmart after Christmas last year and bought lights on sale. Because we knew we would need them this year. And because we were saving ourselves some money by doing this.

After getting over the initial disgust of this finding, we started decorating the tree. We found out that we had quite a few unbreakable ornaments after all, and there were a bunch of applesauce ornaments that Abby and I made a few years ago, and then the few string ornaments that survived to be decorated with, and then the two boxes of candy canes. All in all, the decorations on the tree look really pretty this year. I think this is one of my favorite trees in our 11 years of marriage.

Then came Hayden's favorite part: putting the angel on the tree and lighting it. Once we finally got the angel on the tree, we discovered that she didn't work. Talk about frustrating! So Ben and Hayden went off to Walmart to buy another angel for the tree while the girls and I stayed here. Ruth was napping, Abby got on the phone with my mom, and I swept pine needles from the floors. The boys came back with a beautiful angel, and it works! :)

While in the moment, everything seemed to go wrong, I can look back and see the humor in it all. It is definitely a Christmas we won't soon forget!

Next on the agenda is to spend time during the next few weeks teaching and reiterating the whole reason we celebrate Christmas...

The Best Birthday Ever

On September19, I celebrated 34 years of being alive! Everyone always asks, "What do you want for your birthday? Do you have a list?" The older I get, there are fewer "things" on the list. In the last several years, it's actually been a rather difficult thing to come up with a list--for birthday or Christmas--because the biggest thing that I have wanted has been time spent with my family. Well, this year, that is exactly what my family gave me!

We had been in West Virginia spending a few days with my parents and sister because Ben had work that took him to Charleston. So on my birthday, Ben, the kids, and I all woke up early, had a quick breakfast, and left my parents' house and headed toward Cass, WV. If you're not from West Virginia, you may not know that Cass Scenic Railroad even exists. The town of Cass was built to be a logging town, and the railroad was constructed to transport logs down the mountain to the paper mill in Cass. Today, you can go to Cass to ride one of the original Shay steam locomotives up the mountain.

We told the kids the night before that we were all getting up early so that we could go ride a train. Both of them were excited, but I think Hayden was probably the most excited of everyone in our family! That boy sure does love trains! When we arrived at Cass, the kids and I waited by the train depot while Ben purchased our tickets and boxed lunches. We chose the 4-1/2 hour trip up to Bald Knob, the third highest point in West Virginia. (Spruce Knob is the highest.) The train whistle is quite loud, as you may imagine, and Abby would cover her ears and Hayden would cling on to me. It was actually quite cute! They heard the first blast of the whistle as the train pulled into the depot, and I thought Hayden was going to climb up my leg! After we boarded the train and the train pulled out of the station, we spent a lot of time standing up in the train car, looking at the passing scenery and waving to the few people that we saw along the way.


We stopped at Whitaker Station for a quick lunch and to let the kids stretch their legs a little bit. They were having so much fun on the train ride that it was hard to get them to eat much of their lunches. After getting back on the train and continuing heading up to Bald Knob, Hayden decided that it was nap time and fell asleep in my arms. He was so tired that the train whistle didn't even make him flinch in his sleep! Abby really enjoyed being held by Ben so that she could see the scenery. She's taken an interest in birds recently and tried to spot some birds along the way. She really enjoyed seeing all of the different fall colors that were starting to appear.

Abby and Hayden when the train whistle blew.

Once we arrived at Bald Knob, we went to the lookout point and were all amazed by the breath-taking view! To stand there and take in the majestic view of the mountains and valley below, I couldn't help but be amazed by the beauty of God's craftmanship. This wasn't my first trip to Bald Knob on the train, but I appreciated the beauty of the surroundings so much more this time. As a child, it was easy to get caught up in the fun of the train ride; now that I'm grown, it was nice to spend the time away from cell phones, computers, televisions and other distractions and just enjoy uninterrupted family time with my husband and our two kids. Of course, I loved the train ride; I've always enjoyed going to Cass! But it was even more special this time because it was their first time to go, and we got to experience the beauty of God's creation together.

One of many views from Bald Knob.

As far as I'm concerned, my 34th birthday has been the best one to date! I couldn't have asked for a better gift than time spent with my family.

Richmond, here I come!

A few weeks ago I wrote about entering a 10K race. Well, I did it! I am officially entered in the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K in Richmond, VA. The race is on March 28. I am certainly not doing this for time... I just want to complete the race. And believe it or not, I am already looking forward to the next race that I can participate in. I don't know yet if it will be later this year or maybe the same race next year. Regardless, I am very excited to participate in this race and am happy that my family will go with me.

It's funny... I have never been a runner. Now, at the age of 33, I have taken up something that I hated to do--and I like it! God has really changed my heart where running is concerned, and it has truly become a time that has been set apart for Him. I grab my iPod and hit the gym, and I listen to music that leads back to the Father while I run. I've got Toby Mac, Chris Tomlin, Natalie Grant, and Hillsong in my workout playlist, just to name a few. I'm on a mission now to add more music to my workout playlist... enough to get me through the race.

Brother Lawrence truly said it best when he said:

Lord of all pots and pans and things...
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up the plates!

If Brother Lawrence could worship God and spend time in His presence while doing something as mundane as the dishes--do I hear an "Amen!" from all of the mommies?--one can certainly worship God while running!

It's been a while...

I know that it's been a while since I've posted a new blog. Quite a while, actually. I got caught up in all of the holiday planning-baking-shopping-family stuff and am just now starting to settle back into a routine of things. It has helped that Abby has been back in preschool this week. That has helped get us all back on schedule.

That being said, I've got a few things rolling around in my head that I really want to put down here. One of my goals for this year is to blog at least twice a week. (Come back to see my post on goals!) But I also need to keep priorities in check and make sure other things are done first before sitting down at the computer.

Check back later for a real post... it should be up no later than tomorrow night!