Our Christmas

I’m back on Facebook and blogging after taking an extended break this month, so I figured I should share about our Christmas.  We had 8 family gatherings again, but this year they were more spread out, so we were thankful for that.  We had 1 at the beginning of December, 1 in the middle of December, 4 the week of Christmas, and 2 in January.  We had our own family Christmas in the evening on December 23.  We ordered pizza for supper, which is everyone’s favorite meal and I didn’t have to cook, so that’s always nice!  We save 2 Christmas children’s books for this time of year (I put them away the rest of the year), so I read one and Jared read one.  The one I read is from Mary’s perspective and throughout the book she says, “Tomorrow you will be king, but tonight you are my baby,” and it makes me almost cry every time.

This was Kiera’s present

Blake got some puzzles.  These were probably their favorite, though!

We always have Christmas with Jared’s Dad and Step-Mom on Dec. 25 and it’s one of my favorite days of the year.  It starts with brunch, then a big gift exchange.  In the afternoon we usually play a game, have snacks, and then have supper. 

This is what he gave me when I said, “Big smile!”

Roger the Rooster was a gift somebody received during our $1 gift exchange in our Bible study group 3 years ago and has since been passed on to people in our church for their birthdays.  I received him for the first time in October and my sister-in-law’s birthday was in December, so I figured it would look great in their new house, ha ha!  As you can see, Steve was quite bewildered until I explained.

The kids each got these great umbrellas and you can see in the lower corner that I got Ticket To Ride Europe

They both got new pajamas as well

Amanda got a book that had the word sex in it

Blake got a TinkerToys set and Kiera got a really great stamp set that included some cards

TJ + Amanda were told to close their eyes while their gift was brought into the room.  No, they’re not making out.

Their expressions when they saw….

…the beautiful headboard that Jared’s Dad made them!

Holding our favorite gifts…Jared got a Keurig and I got an ice cream maker!

We made it through Christmas and to all of our gatherings before the 5 days of fevers hit me at New Year’s and Jared the following week, so we were and are very blessed! :)

What God Has Been Saying

On Friday evening, I ended up at the ER, as most of you probably read on Facebook.  After struggling with the runs for 10 days, cutting out all wheat, dairy and sugar, I ended up running to the bathroom 6 times in 25 min. after eating a chicken salad with homemade dressing for supper.  I was so scared and what kept running through my mind was the fact that my Mom, my Grandma and my uncle all used to have Ulcerative Colitis.  I don’t know why my mind just went to one of the worst extremes.  It was not helpful!  After I got there, I called my Mom and she was at her friend’s house.  Her + her friends prayed for me, as well as others as I asked for prayer on Facebook before I left for the hospital.  I felt those prayers and as I sat in the ER for hours, God’s peace settled over me.  He told me two things.  The first one was, “You know, there are no ER’s in heaven.”  I was SO encouraged by that, as it’s a terrible place to be.  There was an old, overweight man sitting beside me coughing up phlegm and spitting it into his cloth the whole time I was there.  It was disgusting!  We have A LOT to look forward to!  The 2nd thing He said was, “Your times are in my hands.”  Yes, I can completely trust Him!  I’m so thankful that it appears I just had a virus.  God is good all the time.

Every year, I ask God for His Word for me for the year and this past year was joy.  Even though I experienced a lot of emotional pain, I also experienced a lot of joy as I kept counting my blessings in my thankful journal every day and the times that I focused on Jesus instead of on what was going on in my life.  God already gave me his word for this year and it’s “surrender.”  I said to Him, “Can’t we just stick with joy?  I like that one better.”  Surrender is hard, but I’m already learning more about that.  No matter how hard I try to eat right, which is good and no matter how I try to control things, I am realizing that I’m so not in control.  I need to trust God with my health, because my health comes from Him.  My body comes from Him, my whole life is from Him.  His plans are way better than mine, so I need to surrender my will to His.  He told me He wants to make my faith like gold.  I know the refining process is not always a fun one, but it will be so worth it!  I don’t know what God has in store for this year, but I know it’s good and I need to surrender every day to Him.  I pray we all grow in the Lord this year.  Happy new year!