A Christmas Reflection ~or~ The Ties That Bind

Picture of Megs and Max taken last year
during a romp in the snow.

While trying to peel apart the filters to make coffee, Max, our dog, went into a seizure while eating his breakfast. I'd just given him his morning pill with a dish of kibbles to chase it down - suddenly water and dog food are flying everywhere. 

So, upside? 

That mopping I didn't get to while prepping for Christmas dinner - is now done.  The snow we didn't get for Christmas is cheerfully falling now and Max is licking himself like a cat to clean up - even though we've rubbed him down with snow and cleaned him up.  Well, Megan did while I was mopping.  She tells me they had a snowball-catch game while they were at it.  My only wish is that I had pictures of the happy chaos outside.  (Picture above was from last Feb.)

My epilepsy-worry over the puppy is eclipsed a bit by the now clean dog, clean floor and snowball flight of the morning, and I sit down in my chair with a cup of fresh coffee to spend some of my morning with you. 

Christmas day was spent with Mom, Dad and Nate.  It was really nice having them over, though we missed Stacey and Stew - who just got engaged a few days ago.  (Congrats to them!).  They are planning on getting married some time this coming year.

It was a themed sort of Christmas this year.  Most of the kids were given gifts that let them explore their creative side.  We have a model car, rug hooking, and yarn with crochet hooks, needles and looms.  Now we all know how to cast on and do one-stitch in knitting, (it sort of went viral) Jessica has made several hats (amazingly good ones with a built-in cuff) and I foresee many pot holders and scarves in our future.

All good. 

It's the sort of thing you do side by side with someone while you talk or watch movies together.  There's one project going around that I've seen at least three people pick up and work on for a while and set down where it waits for the next person to put a few more rows on.  Even Bill learned how, so he could teach Jess.  She was getting frustrated and he wanted to decode the directions and help her learn by watching.  For him it was like a puzzle to solve.

He looked at me and said how he couldn't believe he was doing it.  It's not something he'd ever had an interest in learning how to do.  Ever.  And I smiled back at him and told him that his interest wasn't in knitting, it was in his daughter.  That man LOVES.  He's got the knack of it.  When they all were in a play one year, he did tech work behind the curtain, just so he could be near them.  That's the kind of man he is.  I've never known anyone like him.

We celebrated Christmas a day later with Mark and Robin.  Rebekah was with us for the day too (her car was getting fixed nearby and we were a happy landing place since we've been trying to make our schedules work to get together anyhow, love that lady!).  So when it was time to go over there, we dragged her along with us. 

We went to their new apartment and had pizza and a movie and exchanged gifts.  Robin has the place feeling like home with pictures hung everywhere, and Mark's got his movie posters mingled in with all the Christmas lights.  My favorite is the "Marvel Wall" of all the block-buster movies based on comics that have come out in the last few years.  Mina has had another hair cut since I saw her last, and the chickie feather, fly-away, hair that she used to have is gone.  It's coming in thicker and has body and a bit of swing to it.  Combine that with her legs getting longer and her vocabulary growing... *sigh*  She's growing out of that toddler phase and into a bright and inquisitive little girl.  Time is passing too quickly!  I'm so caught up in the active business that is happening in my own house and I miss seeing the changes in my granddaughter. 

It was a really wonderful Christmas, and I am blessed. 

Sometimes life is hard, sometimes it's easier to focus on the negative things.  The first-thing-in-the-morning-mess to clean up.  The nagging worry of a sick puppy that you can't fix.   Time speeding faster than you'd like.  The snow or rain that falls every time the roofers are supposed to come, and how you are going to pay to keep a roof over your kids heads.  The hundred other worries and expectations that dangle in my vision but aren't mentioned here...

I don't know where you are at, reader.  I don't know what kinds of joys and stresses orbit you, but I do know that how we approach them changes everything.  Do you come at life with a closed fist?  Are you so weighed down with worries and bitterness and resentment that your hands are too full to accept the joy and peace and love that are in front of you? 

We cling to what we know.  Those things we cling to, define us, because we mold our lives around them.

My Christmas wish for you, is that you would know Jesus.  That you would cling to Him and let Him exchange the things that are weighing you down for the good gifts that he offers. 

Thank you for spending part of your day with me, hearing about mine.  I am blessed to have some of you in my life, to know you on a personal level.  For others who have stumbled here from a wider net, thanks for taking the time to read through this long post.  It's time for me to step out of my devotion and journal portion of my day and go on to the next thing.