festive leftovers

 this feels weird.  posting pics from Christmas when it's nearly the end of January.  still, it must be done.  i want to remember the highlights most, after all!  seasons come and go in a blur so this will be  100% priceless to me, and hopefully my kids, one day...here are a few favourites.  

 

missing a few for the tree cutting this year.  another beauty tree though!

we actually went out.  dressed up.  to Jeff's Christmas party with Archway.  a lonnngggg time coming.  hasn't happened since, i'm afraid, but we loved that night!

a Christmas Eve walk through the lights.  another beautiful night, even though there was not a snowflake to be found.

a boy in suspenders.  who can resist?!

Christmas Day, a different year, missing lots of family members on both sides.  again, making the best of it, so thankful mom and dad joined in to put a dent in the turkey...it was pretty delicious, if i do say so myself! :)  that's a lot coming from me.  i have big, big shoes to fill.  i've been blessed with two awesome cooks in my life.

love these cute kids. missing one who's far west.  nice to see the others together in a picture because they are harder to capture these days.

 

well, that's it for today's photo drop. be well and take good care! 

longer days are coming!

new year

 i'm back...it's high time i get back at it, don't ya think?! it's been a necessary break and the holiday season has come and gone.  Christmas was so blessed, yet still there were twists and turns...the big one~ Joelle couldn't fly home due to covid exposure at her job.  that was hard for me, our first year ever where we weren't all together.  we did make the best of it though.  then, a few days after Christmas a few of us got covid here.  mild, thankfully.  so grateful for the vaccine, and having Hannah and Jeff home to tag team care of the sweet toddler while some were banished to bedrooms (me!).  then there was some delicious soup from my lovely mom, and a fun meal from a dear friend...,so yes, a few curve balls thrown, but evidence of God's goodness all over the place still. 

so, with the new year here and hopes that lighter and brighter days lie ahead, i'm going to drop a few November and December pics in the next few weeks to get things caught up before i move into 2022.  i'm type A, remember?! :)

soooo, way back before Omicron ruined everything, we were watching Hannah's long awaited return to the mats.  it was pure bliss!  it felt so amazing to be back in that environment and cheering my girl on.  really fun.  sweet baby C. got to attend his first wrestling tournament, and he was so happy to see Hannah again too..

these two~ so happy to be reunited!  precious thing they have going.

Happy New Year, dear ones...good to be back! 

blog break

 i'm going to take a few weeks break over Christmas holidays, to soak up the season and the extra people who are home.  

before i break, i had to share these words from my favourite author, Ann Voskamp,  so timely.

"Someone told me that this Advent has felt more like a Lent—a grieving.

You don’t have to close your eyes to see how the news has been screaming for months & we are all exhausted & bruised.

How in the world does a weary world rejoice?

We may not know why God doesn’t stop all the different kinds of suffering—but we definitely know it’s not because He’s indifferent.

God is so moved by our being entangled in suffering—that He moved Himself into our world & entangled Himself in the suffering with us. God with us.

God knows suffering.

He chose to be born in the middle of a genocide.

God knows suffering.

He chose to be born as a minority, a refugee.

God knows suffering.

He chose to come from a place where people said no good thing could come from.

God knows suffering.

He chose to be poor. He chose to absorb pain. He chose to be powerless.

God penetrates the ache of our world through the willing yes of a poor, unwed teen. In both the Incarnation & the Resurrection, God reveals Himself first to the dismissed & disregarded & dissed.

God chose the first witnesses to both His nativity, & to His nailed hands, to be the very people who suffered because they were regarded as suspect, small, sketchy.

Because the point is:

Christmas is the beginning of the end of all suffering.

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.

The road’s been weary, but we can rest beside the road, beside the boarding gate, beside each other, & listen to how the angels sing.

Christmas says that everyone needed Christ to come down from heaven & carry every single one of us, every single step of the way back to heaven. Christmas says that we all need rescuing, we all need a Savior.

This is what His glory does—like a river, His glory in the highest runs down to meet us who are at our lowest, those left out in the field, those who’ve lost our flock, lost our way, lost our hope, His glory in the highest always runs down to meet us who are at our lowest.

This is what lets us sing like the angels do... even now."

so good, right?! (you know when people ask the question, "if you could have lunch with anyone in the world, who would it be?" my answer- always- "Ann Voskamp") 

and who doesn't love an amazing version of O Holy Night?!  this one by Carrie Underwood.  

Merry Christmas!

Christmas...it's here

 a small collection of a few of my Christmas favourites this year...

not sure about you, but the heaviness of a long pandemic (yep, still going) is real.  add to that hard diagnoses for many, lost loved ones, addiction, brokenness all around- parents, kids, families, and overall a misguided and deeply hurting world.  a world distracted by self-advancement, status, noise and temporary material gain. 

Christmas is here at the perfect time, isn't it?  December 2021 finds us desperate for Christmas!  Christ in Christmas, precisely...if only we all, myself included, caught more of the true message of this season.

just imagine...there, in the stillness of night, God escorted His only Son into the humblest of beginnings.  to capture a world in utter lostness, then and now, needing to rest weary eyes on the face of a Saviour.  no one would have orchestrated the arrival of a baby King as God had, that much is sure.  yet God knew exactly what He was doing.  He knew that rustic Bethlehem stable, surrounded by unassuming livestock as guests of honour, would be divinely perfect.  yes, that understated and underwhelming entrance made Jesus so much more relatable, approachable, and exactly what our heavy hearts longed to behold.  the Messiah, baby Jesus was finally here and accessible in the flesh, in a way our eyes and hearts could embrace.  

(chalkboard art by my talented Layla...)

Emmanuel. God with us.  Emmanuel. God still with us. 

God With Us by We Are Messengers

and another...

He Shall Reign Forevermore by Chris Tomlin

and one more

Noel by Lauren Daigle

Luke 2:8-20

tired boys

 

after a long day there's not much better than a warm snuggle and a snooze on the couch with a few videos that baby C. loves so much.  a cute pair.

i hate it when i post things out of order

 but some moments are worth returning to.  somehow i missed a blog post about this little lion and all his Halloween cuteness.  had it post it late, for history's sake!

i'm quite certain he was the sweetest, most affectionate lion there ever was!

him

 sweet baby C has the most kissable toes.  he also has the cutest curls on the back of his head.  he's pure sweetness and when he grabs my leg and looks up at me with his hazel eyes, well, i can't help myself.  he's not a small baby anymore at all though, he's a busy, chatty toddler learning to navigate language and emotions and little legs that run.

we all know the cliché phrase about foster care and child welfare cases.  we hear it often, "the system is broken".  well, it actually is.  and this little fella is directly impacted by a system that is currently failing him, in my opinion at least.  prayers always welcomed for movement and action in his case so he can inch closer to forever, wherever and however that looks.  praying decision makers have wisdom and that God's very best plan for him rises to the top and that his heart is prepared for the days to come.  

in the meantime, we love you like crazy, little man. ❤

photo credits to Studio In The Attic