The Week Before Christmas

It's the week before Christmas and I have all my littles here with me, I couldn't be happier.  This is where I would like to slow time down if I had the power.  I try really really hard to have everything done by the time they get out of school for Christmas break so it can just be us.  No more running around like crazy, no more presents to buy or wrap just a slower pace with time to spend watching movies, drinking hot chocolate, sitting by the fire and spending time with family and friends.  Oh and a morning or two to sleep in would be awesome. Also, after the craziness of last week, I have confined myself to within a 2 mile radius of my home between now and Christmas...the traffic and the stores were nuts and shopping is just not my thing.

We awoke one morning to find our elves making snow angels.

They brought some Legos for the boys when they came to stay with us this year and brought Sophie Kate her very own kitty.

She's been so sweet with SK and very low maintenance, ha ha.  When Sophie Kate pets her she snuggles with her.  

Those precious hands, those long beautiful fingers and those tiny fingernails...I hold her hand and stretch out her fingers and watch as she starts to close them around mine in a effort to ball them into fists (her preferred position for them).  There is so much I want for those hands...to grasp a toy, to hold a spoon or a cup and feed herself (if she were able to swallow correctly) and maybe even one day to play the piano with those long fingers of hers.  


Christmas shopping is certainly a mixed bag of emotions for me.  I look forward to the boys opening their presents on Christmas morning, but I struggle in the stores to find a 0-6 month toy that we don't have yet. The one toy that followed me to every store I went to this year was the Disney Princess Dream House.  Have you seen it?  I don't know if that's really what it's called but it's like the Barbie Dream House only it's for the Disney Princesses.  I want it real bad for her, but more than that I want her to want it.  


It sounds silly when I see it written in "black and white" to be stressing over presents, that's not what Christmas is all about anyway.  However, I find myself longing for her to bring me a baby doll that needs their clothes changed or see her strolling her baby dolls in their little doll stroller or whatever else little four year old girls do.  She has more baby dolls and stuffed animals and baby toys than she will ever need or play with.


Here's where she makes things real simple, here's where she teaches me...she's happiest when we're all together. She smiles when she knows her brothers are near.  She lights up when her daddy talks to her.  She loves to be around people.  All she needs is to be loved, held and touched...so simple.  We make it complicated with our wants and expectations.


The ultimate gift of love was sent to us from the Father in the form of a baby...born to die for us, for our sin.  This Christmas let's not make it so complicated that we miss the true blessing and the gift that was given to all of us that night in Bethlehem.


John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."