Christmas for a teacher, pastor's wife and musician begins the day after Thanksgiving. And this year was no exception. Add to it a 25th Anniversary bash/wedding and a funeral and you have one dog-tired Mommy!
Dec. 1 -- Wedding/Anniversary. I spent the entire week before that decorating nine Christmas trees, cleaning my house, and getting things ready at the church.
Dec. 4 -- Our friend Murel passes away. We rush home from our honeymoon.
Dec. 7 -- My husband is my friend's pastor so he had the funeral to prepare for, and I had to oversee getting the preparation details taken care of: making sure the sanctuary was ready, food for the family during visitation and a meal after the funeral.
Dec. 10 -- Ladies Fellowship (of which I'm president) has their Christmas Party. Yours truly decorates and prepares for it pretty much alone because the funeral threw off timing for asking for help.
Dec. 12 -- I take my cottage school to Amish Acres to see "White Christmas."
Dec. 14 -- I take my cottage school Christmas shopping all day. (Am I NUTS?)
Dec. 15 -- Christmas Program Rehearsal. Guess who is directing that? We kept it very simple this year. The kids played bells and we had some readings. I am so grateful to the Holy Spirit Who lead me not to do a play with costumes this year!
Dec. 16 -- SNOW STORM! Yee haw! God gives me two days at home! That gave me time to get some packages wrapped, packed and mailed! The Christmas Program gets postponed until next Sunday.
Dec. 17-21 -- Christmas activities at cottage school! We make presents for parents, do Christmas artwork, and play Christmas games. Regular school work is out of the question! We also cooked!
Dec. 18 -- We have our Christmas Reception on Wed. night because we normally have it after the Christmas program. Since the program will be in the morning service, we won't have the reception and the cookies and punch are already bought! So, after school, my son and I set up for that. After the party we set up for the school party the next day. I am beginning to get a Martha Stewart complex!
Dec. 20 -- Christmas Party at Cottage school. What fun! Lots of food, lots of presents, lots of love and excitement.
Dec. 21 -- 1/2 day of school. Our family goes to see a movie together (a very RARE event!). We catch a matinee and my thrifty husband has coupons so we are all able to get a popcorn and soda! After that we go to a lady's house who has adopted our kids as her grandkids. Our kids' grandparents live hundreds of miles away, and this lady has really blessed my children with attention and love. We exchange gifts and stuff ourselves on pizza!
Dec. 23 -- Christmas Program this morning! Everyone looks so nice in their Sunday Best. My boys wore the suits they wore for the wedding. We had a bell choir and they did a great job.
Just as we were ready to march in, I look at my son's feet. He is 12, has autism, and is doing a pretty good job of getting himself ready these days. I look at his feet and it is then that I realize I am not going to win "mother of the year" again this year.
My son is going to stand up on stage wearing two left shoes.
This morning I had made sure they all had socks that matched. I made sure they had no wrinkles in their shirts. I made sure they each had the right jacket and pair of pants. I found all their neckties.
I never dreamed I'd have to check the shoes!
My oldest son had worn a different pair of shoes this morning instead of the shoes that match his brothers. That's how that extra shoe came into play.
Then, as we are doing the play, two songs before the Jesus birthday cake is to be rolled in on a cart I realize I never took it out of the freezer and put it on the cart! Fortunately, my oldest son was on the front row taking pictures of my granddaughter. I motioned to him quickly, filled him in on the situation, and he saved the day!
Whew!
I am sooo looking forward to just spending some time cooking for my OWN family and spending time with them!
After all -- isn't that what Christmas is all about?
Tomorrow I will be baking homemade rolls requested by my oldest son. Tonight I'm going to put the turkey in the roaster and roast it ahead of time. (I will be serving both ham and turkey on Christmas -- I'm not much into pork.) I also have pies and salads and many other things to cook. I love to cook for the holidays!
Tomorrow we have the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at the church, but fortunately I don't have to do anything except play piano for the service and enjoy it. We love this tradition in our family. It gives us a good start and helps us teach our children the true meaning of the holiday. After that, we've been invited to some friends' house for some games and fun. We normally don't do that on Christmas Eve, but we are going to go because the lady who lost her husband (our friend) will be there, and she is looking forward to us going.
On Christmas day we will get up, share presents, and I will cook and cook and cook! I can hardly wait!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace"
Isaiah 9:6.
Isaiah 9:6.
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