Busy Week & Best Wishes

This week amidst the teacher gifts, school Christmas programs, last minute goodies to be made and all that life in December with a family of six entails, we also celebrated Big J’s 7th birthday and our 8th wedding anniversary. Poor girl is very confused why we were married the day AFTER she was born… and we’re hoping she catches on to the year difference before any more rumors start!

Big J is so easy to please, and she is so dramatic in her gratitude… it’s quite overwhelming for both Mr. Man and I… but ultimately we are convinced that she did “have the absolute best birthday ever” – as she said over and over again. Highlights of her day included her “big” gift – a doll house that we are going to build and she will be able to design and decorate, a half-day at school (and bringing in a treat to share), Pizza Hut for lunch (gift certificate!), Build-a-bear workshop, Coldstone Creamery (birthday club gift certificate), picking out all of her meals and the multitude of telephone calls and well-wishers.

I am officially an “old” mom, now that I have a 7 year old. Geez. The annoying thing is that I remember being 7 easily, so now everything I do, all the parenting dilemmas that I face will be noticed and remembered by my oldest child. At least when she’s around I’ll have to pretend I know what I’m doing.

(love the chocolate frosting on her lips!)

For our anniversary we had a babysitter for the afternoon and left Baby J for the first time (not with family). We had lunch at a wonderful Thai restaurant that I always smell as we walk to the library and have wanted to taste for a couple of years now. I thought eating there would quench my desire each time I walk by, but now I think it will only encourage the craving. Delish. And so nice to be alone. This was our second lunch date together this month (and probably in several years) and I could easily get the hang of this. Then we roamed the Art Museum, picking out pieces we’d love to adorn our huge (imaginary) home with, and discussing periods and painters – I love when we have the time to do this – brings back our undergrad days when Mr. Man finally took a Humanities class and had his eyes opened to the beauties of the arts. After this we searched a few furniture stores as we are definitely in the market for at least one more piece so that more than half our family can sit on a surface other than the floor at the same time. No luck there, but we ruled out a few places without having to drag in a van-full of kids. So I suppose we were lucky. Later we did the annual dress-up in our wedding attire – Mr. Man in his tux and me in my wedding dress. Lets just say they were both a little snug this year – and our picture omits our bodies for a good reason! To be honest, I could hardly breathe and that membership at Curves that is on my Christmas list is calling my name! Still it’s a fun tradition and the kids (especially Big J) take great delight in seeing us all dressed up – and can feel a part of our special day.

So it may be busy, but we are enjoying most of the minutes. I still shake my head when I think back to the year we had all these events, my Opa’s rapid decline, and we moved on the 27th.
Another “secret” gift arrived yesterday that is a bit homemade and I can’t wait to share our two big surprises this year with you… three more days!

Last year we didn’t send out our annual Christmas letter until Valentines Day so that we could announce that we were expecting. I’m going to continue with that tradition (not announcing that we’re expecting, just the February timing for the letter) at least for this year. But I do want to post our family picture and wish you all a very merry Christmas from our family to yours.

May you feel the love of our Savior as we celebrate His birth.