Christmas Update and End of the 2011

Whew!!  December was a blast, but it is kind of a blur.  It came in with a bang and left with a bang.  So long 2011!  I just got used to writing 2011 a month ago!  With Christmas being on a Sunday we are kind of limited with our ability to travel.  Thank goodness we have understanding families.  Our Christmas celebrations started the week before Christmas with a celebration at Fred's grandparents house in Jackson.  We did an up and back that Saturday.  The big boys didn't get out of school until Wednesday, but once they were out of school the party began!!  Mimi, Tee, Mun and Janice all came here Saturday to spend the night.  We had a delicious steak dinner, opened some presents and then called it a night. 

Remember Jack asking for Doritos for Christmas??  Well, my Aunt Leeta gave him three bags.  Upon opening the present with the three bags Jack abandoned all present opening and commenced eating Doritos.  I have not laughed that long in a while!!


My mom takes the boys shopping every Christmas so they can buy presents for us and for each other.  Good idea, right?!?  Jack gave Fred Duct tape and he gave me Chap Stick.  He could not have been more excited to see us open our presents!!  It was priceless!!

Clayton got me kitchen shears because he told my mom I am ALWAYS in the kitchen.  Imagine that!!
 

Breakfast preparation Christmas morning

The whole crew...





Sunday morning (Christmas!) the boys got up (at 2 am, 4 am and ) at 6:00 a.m.  We opened presents, ate a wonderful breakfast, and headed to church.  After church we ate lunch and Janice had the wonderful idea to help put up our Christmas decorations while they were all here.  What a great idea!! 


Monday morning we loaded up for the beach to meet up with these people:

 Yes, that is the entire Shackelford crew...including 2 week old Eli and Grandma Beulah and Papa Ray!  We stayed in a beach house in Fort Morgan, Alabama for a week and it was delightful!!  We shopped, ate, visited the fort, ate, played on the beach, ate, went to the Track and ate!  (We won't discuss weight gains over the week!)  Sunday (New Year's Day) when we rolled out to head home we stopped in Fairhope, Alabama to go to church.  When we got there I thought I smelled a funny smell, but we just figured it was something in the area.  Well, about 30 minutes down the road we realized something was terribly wrong with our car.  I won't go into all the details, but God took care of us every step of the way!  We ended up spending the night in Saraland, Alabama and got back to Jackson Monday night (with the car not totally fixed, but good enough to make it home).  We stayed in Jackson since I had to teach Tuesday and someone was scheduled to fix our car.
Lucky for us Elizabeth went on the trip so we got a few priceless pictures!!

 How much fun is this picture below?!?  I love everything about it!  I think it will make me smile for years to come!

For the new year I typically don't make resolutions.  While this is not a resolution I am doing two things:  keeping up with how many loads of laundry I do in a year and counting to see how many solicitations I receive from Charter Communications.  (I currently have Dish Network and AT&T.  I am also not remotely interested in switching, but they must think I am.)
When I told Fred what I was doing he replied by saying, "Well, in 2012 I'm planning to tell people about the Lord."  Snarf.  Snarf.  There's one in every crowd!  Praise be to the Lord for giving us another year to serve him!  We look forward to 2012 and all it holds!

Five on Friday

1.  I just wanted to post video proof of Fred's confession after St. Jude.  He said his confession of being done with marathons was not fair since it came right after the run.  I say the proof is in the video!  hehehe!  We will still run for St. Jude every chance we get...just maybe not 26.2 miles!!

2.  I haven't had time to work on the blog today because I've been getting ready to host 30ish people for dinner and then 15ish more for dessert.  I am currently between the two groups so I thought I'd sit down and take care of the blog. 

3.  Clayton had a strings program this week.  It was delightful...and six minutes long.  Yes, six minutes.  Did I mention it was delightful?!?

4.  This week Jack ripped the curtain in the living room off the wall.  Not really the curtain, but the wooden bracket that holds the rod.  He snapped the wooden bracket in two pieces.  How did he do it?  I don't know, but he broke it.  Broken.  Goodness.
5.  Last Saturday we lost Andrew's pappap.  Seriously, we lost it.  Two adults searched on their hands and knees for thirty minutes for pappap Saturday night.  Monday afternoon I found it in the living room.  I did not give it back to him.  I have it in my drawer and I'm going to keep it.  Forever, possibly.

Five on Friday

1.  Fred's sister had her baby this week.  Everyone is healthy and doing well.  We can't wait to meet him. (Fred's brother took the picture below.)  Isn't Eli Samuel Wiggs precious?!?

2. With Baby Eli being born I thought I might be able to convince Andrew to give the baby his pappap.  I asked him if he wanted to give Baby Eli his pappap, since babies need pappaps and big boys don't.  He looked at my like I was crazy and said without hesitation..."No!"  I guess we'll keep trying. 
3.  Clayton is still picking his spelling words.  One of the words he picked this week was daguerreotype.  I don't know what that is, nor do I know how to pronounce it.  (It really made calling his word list difficult).  He got it correct on his test though and knows what it means.  I'll have to google it soon to figure it out.
4.  I worked at Jack's school Friday.  I had to run an errand, but I told Jack I'd eat lunch with him at 12:15.  The problem that I soon figured out is that Jack eats at 11:50.  I walked in with 10 minutes left in lunch.  He grinned really big and I told him how sorry I was.  Tears were stinging my eyes because I felt so bad about letting him down.  He never quit smiling though.  Thankfully, his teacher understood and let me keep him a little longer.  Talk about Mom of the Year!!  I took the title Friday.
5.  Andrew loves the moon.  When it's dark outside and he sees the moon it goes something like this, "The moon!  Mom, the moon!  Dad, do you see it??  The moon!  The moon!"  This week the moon was a crescent moon.  After proclaiming that the moon was in the sky he calmed down and then said, "Hey, da moon is broken." 

Five on Friday

1.  Fred has been training for the St. Jude marathon for months.  He will run it tomorrow.  His ankle has been bothering him lately.  If you have a chance I know he would appreciate your prayers as he runs on Saturday.  Hopefully, I'll be done with my half and can cheer him on at the finish line!  If you have not had a chance to donate it is not too late, just click here.2.  I have bought a few Christmas presents.  A few.  There was a time in my life where I would have had everything bought and wrapped by Thanksgiving.  Bought and wrapped.  That day is no longer here.  I'm having trouble "getting in the mood" to get anything done.  Bummer since today is December 1st and the count down is on. 
3.  Clayton had a landform project to complete this week.  He actually got the assignment before Thanksgiving, but since we made a giant rice crispy treat we had to make it at the last minute.  This is not how I roll typically.  I wanted to get his picture with the final product, but since we waited until the last minute I was too stressed out to get a picture.
4.  Because of a series of events Fred and I will get to spend the weekend with just Jack.   This N.E.V.E.R. happens!  I am pretty excited about getting in to his world.  Perhaps I should pack Doritos for the trip--the blue and red bags!?!
5.  Any time something doesn't work at our house or someone else's house Andrew brings it to us and proclaims, "It need baddaries." (Translation: batteries)  It is too funny.

Christmas Hope

The other day, when the ads came out for the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy that takes place every year, Jennifer had our boys look them over and circle items they felt they might want for Christmas. They circled things like toys, video games, DVDs and books. Jack circled an advertisement for bags of Cheetos and Doritos (When Jennifer laughingly asked him what kind of Doritos he wanted, the kind in the blue bag or the kind in the red bag, he responded enthusiastically, "Both!"). We carefully explained to our boys that they shouldn't expect to receive everything they circled. "Family members will choose from your lists and give as they are able, but it's unlikely that you'll get everything you're asking for."

You could tell, though, they were hopeful.

Hope, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, is "the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life." It's expecting the best, sometimes in spite of reality, in spite of the obvious.

Biblical hope is kind of like that. It's hope against all odds, against all possibilities, against anything that make sense in our world today. There's no question that, because of sin, our world is broken. It's twisted beyond repair. But biblical hope argues that, no matter how broken and twisted this world gets, it will one day be recreated. No matter how empty and lifeless a body is, it can one day be raised. And no matter how hardened and calloused a soul is, it can one day be redeemed.

That's biblical hope.

The difference, though, between biblical hope and the kind of hope my guys had when it came to their Christmas lists, is that biblical hope carries with it a guarantee. Biblical hope is more than wishful thinking; it's more than an arbitrary emotional state. Biblical hope is assurance. It's something to look forward to. It's anticipation.

And it's all of these things because of Christmas.

Because Christmas was that down payment. John 1:14 tells us, "The Word (God) became flesh and dwelt among us…." God entered this broken and twisted world and went about fixing it. He preached love, He healed sickness and disease, He raised the dead, He gave Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of this world, and then He conquered death through His own Resurrection. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16)."

And because God did these things, we now have hope. Not arbitrary hope. Not wishful thinking, but real, tangible, life-giving hope. Because God did these things, we now have something to look forward to. We now know that this life is not all there is. There is something, Someone, to live for.

My prayer is that, this Christmas, you are walking in that hope. I pray that your life is not empty and pointless. I pray that you have a reason for waking up in the morning, and I pray that that reason is not in something that can easily be lost. Hope cannot be lost, because real hope is not founded on anything that can be lost. It's founded on the Almighty God who provides it and who will not let you down or abandon you. It's founded on Jesus, who gives us reason to wish one another this time of year, as I wish you today... 

Merry Christmas.

Five on Friday

1.  November 22nd marked 15 years since Fred and I went on our first date.  It was a fraternity formal.  It was a good time.  It is not a big secret that Fred does not have mad dancing skills.  That night he told me (although he denies it now), "What I lack on the dance floor I make up with my personality."  It made me laugh then and it still makes me laugh now.  The only difference now is that I'll laugh out loud about it!!
2.  Next Saturday I will run a half marathon (13.1 miles) in Memphis for St. Jude.  My running partner and I have been together for over 3 years and we have remained injury free.  Well, last week her knee started hurting. We may end up walking most of it, but it doesn't matter since it's for a great cause.
3.  Sunday mornings are a traditional run day for me.  My running partner (b/c of reasons mentioned above) was not with me.  Clayton decided to join me.  We ran three miles together in the rain.  I could hear his two steps for every one of mine, but he kept going.  We had the best time together!
4.  Thursday morning I asked the big boys to look through the ads with me to see if I could get any ideas for Christmas.  Jack was looking through and circled Doritos and cheese balls.  When I asked him if he wanted the blue or red bag of Doritos he quickly replied, "Both!"
5.  We took pictures today as a family.  The big boys were not thrilled.  Andrew was an angel...not! Ha!