Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

...let your heart be glad.

Today my family celebrated its last Christmas as a family of four.  I am going to highlight some of my favorite parts of the last few days here.  In random order:


1.  Sitting on the hearth in front of the fire this morning, with a daughter on each side.  Matt read the Christmas story while the girls and I listened and held hands.  I was appreciating the tenderness of the moment when Matt read, "and Mary treasured these things in her heart." And I felt just the tiniest possible fraction of what Mary must have known.  That she had someone special in her care that wasn't really hers to keep forever.  And that her child belonged to God.  And that God was in charge of her child's future.  And the moment was bitter and ugly and as sweet as could be all at the same time.

And that is where my similarity to Mary and Waverley's similarity to Jesus start and stop!!


2.  At one point today the girls were playing nicely with their toys, Matt and I were sitting in the living room with them drinking coffee, and the dogs were laying in front of the fire.  We were all home, and calm, and happy.

3.  I had two little girls this Christmas.  They both called us Mommy and Daddy.


4.  Poor Matt.  He had been saying his eye felt weird for a couple of days.  He had also mentioned food didn't taste right.  On Christmas Eve he woke up and told me he couldn't move half of his mouth, his eyes weren't blinking at the same time, one wouldn't close right.  We went to the emergency room to find out he has Bell's Palsy which is a viral infection in the nerves that control your face that can cause temporary facial paralysis.  He is a little miserable with one eye that won't close and slurred speech, but will start to get better in about three weeks.  He has had a great attitude about the whole thing.  This is all building up to one of my favorite moments of the day -- I was trying to get Wavy dressed and she kept running off from me.  Matt walked by and told her she needed to obey her mom and gave her a small swat.  Wave watched him walk away then looked at me gravely and said, "That pirate just spanked me."  Matt has been wearing an eye patch that she hadn't commented on before or since.  It was awesome.


5.  My husband looks a little bit like this guy right now.

6.  We had wonderful times with Matt's family, my family, and together just the four of us.  After thinking so hard about what to get the girls it was fun to see their favorite things.  Harper is obsessed with her new scooter (a skateboard with a tall handle).  For some reason she is calling it a motor bike.   Wavybel loves two baby dolls and a little stuffed dog the most.  She named her pup Parsley although it looks nothing like our real dog.  Right now she is in her crib telling her new friends stories and singing to them.  I am grateful to hear her sweet voice.  

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.