december: a memoir

going through these photos and putting together the events of december just now was fun for me.  what a great month!  at the time it seemed so full and fast... I heartily recommend reconstructing months 2 months later.  :)

we attempted to observe advent at the house this year.  I have no memory of learning about advent growing up, but in recent years more and more people have used the word around me, as though I should know what it means/is.  I subscribe to a blog by a mom/former children's minister who wrote a pre-school advent curriculum called Truth in the Tinsel, so I paid the $7 to download the ebook and give it a whirl.  even though Maggie is probably a little young to 'get' some of it or do many of the crafts herself, it was a totally worthwhile undertaking and we'll definitely be doing it next year.  essentially, you get a clue every day, read from the bible, and then do a small ornament craft while talking about the story.

my grandma gave me this nativity scene years ago, and it lived beside our advent activity box.  I loved that Maggie liked to play with the figures that have come loose (the wise men and shepherd lost their glue some time ago):

the young artist at work, first time watercoloring and really liking it:

here's a gallery of some of the ornaments, beginning with Zechariah:

mary and jo-fus:

'Jesus is the light', and joseph's pillow:

a crown signifying that Jesus is the prince of peace (which made maggie declare that she was the princess peace) and the names of Jesus and our family:

mary and elizabeth:

a bejewelled cd for 'mary's song', and the angel gabriel:

jerusalem:

Jesus will be like 'the rising sun', said Zechariah...

see the sheep over there?  and there's the manger...

a choir of angels... these are mgb's creations:

this was the lesson on the census, which wasn't so easy to conceptualize to my 2 year old... you can't see them, but there are 2 white stones in there to symbolize mary and joseph in crowded bethlehem:

our homemade ornaments, along with a few special ones for the girls and a smattering of ones given to us by friends, were the extent of our tree decorations this year, and we really liked it.

maggie's friend E had a birthday party!  we're so thankful this family has moved to town and chosen to hang out with us at SWC:

our dear, dear friends got engaged!  this is at the surprise celebratory dinner following the surprise proposal:  

our cantada at church:

eli turned 1:

movie night!

an at-home photo shoot.  someday, I'll pay to have photos taken, I really will:

at work.  I preemptively took the month off from recording audio books, which just left regular other stuff.  it was a good choice - december wasn't too crazy and I gained more time with the girls at home.

waiting in line to see santa:

maggie's first exposure to jello:

carrying gerald around in a sling... and though I was proud of my felt christmas tree, maggie was just moderately interested in playing with it.  maybe it'll rock her next year.

 at the koffee kup in hico, riding yaya's wheels with momo... in general, I didn't get nearly enough photos while we were there:

cousins reading:

on the way home, we stopped to regroup.

maggie got sick while we were in hico and while she did pretty well, all things considered, she sacked out on the way home:

then it was round 2 at our house:

 ruby started getting sick, so this was her christmas afternoon:

our ancient gas stove finally gave up the ghost, so the m.v.p. of christmas 2013 is this guy... meet our new fancy oven! (courtesy of Sears scratch & dent):

 I just included this photo because it looks like I felt... content and tired.  

and I include this one because I remember this day very well.  mgb and I went to see the final twilight movie, then went for burgers at stanton's city bites, then went to the hospital to say goodbye to miss mary ann... which turned out to be a huge blessing and an experience/lesson I'm grateful to have had.

and here we are at the end of the month.

 thanks, 2012.  I'm way too day-to-day, week-to-week to consider in what ways I was changed by you, but right now I'll choose thankfulness for all of it.

happy new year!

 -m.y.