Gingerbread

Merry Christmas everyone! I know this post is kinda late, but here it is! I've uploaded some pictures from our Christmas together. I will be creating an album on kodak gallery with a lot more pictures, so if you're not on the list that receives that and you want to, let me know. That is my usual means of sharing pictures.

Anyway, for our Christmas we went to Jenny and Joel's house for Christmas Eve. Had chilli, sang carols. It was lovely. Christmas morning we woke early and did stockings, then Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) came over and had breakfast with us and watched us open our presents. I got some good loot--a pretty dress, Guitar Hero world tour. Later we went to my parents house and opened yet MORE presents, this time with my mom and dad and Jenny and Joel. I got more great loot! Then we had a ham dinner and general merriment all around. It was great! So here are the pics...

Us opening some presents together

Juliet's new go-go boots

Lydia with her big wheel and new hat, scarf, and mittens

Juliet loved her new ikea toy!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and that you didn't suffer too much from the complete lack of cold.

Next up, New Years! Hopefully I'll have another post for you then.

Lessons

I've been thinking a lot recently about how lucky, how blessed I am. I have two healthy, beautiful, sweet kids. I have a husband who is kind, responsible, loving, and fit as a fiddle. I have a great relationship with every member of my family. Really no disfunction to speak of. I've been successful at most of the things I've tried to do. I've really never experienced any great tragedy in my life. The closest thing has been my grandmother's death, of cancer, which was heartbreaking and painful. But (and I'm not trying to minimize the experience or my loss for her) she was old, and we knew to expect it sometime.

But recently I've heard the stories of a few friends of mine that are so so devastating, things that I can't even imagine going through, and I just marvel at what I HAVE. I thank the Lord for all my blessings. How could I ask for anything more? How can I complain about all the many little things I complain about, when I have so much? How can I ignore God as much as I do, barely giving Him a thought, when my friends who have so much loss are focusing so much on Him and have such amazing faith? Why is it that I'm afraid to even write this post--afraid of what some people reading it might think?

Well, (deep breath) I'm writing it anyway, because this past week I have been so aware of what God has given me, and that it IS from God, that I need to talk about it. I feel excited for Christmas this year in a way that I don't think I've felt so much in the past. Like I'm really excited to welcome Jesus into this world. To remember his birth. Maybe its because I'm so aware now of childbirth and babies and it has a new meaning for me, and maybe Kris's sermons about preparing for the Lord this advent are really sinking in. So thank you, Lord, for coming to Earth. Thank you for giving me everything I need and more, including some new perspective.

Checkpoint

I'm not really sure what to do with my blog. I keep waiting for inspiration to hit me with some very clever thing to write about, but as it does not seem to be hitting very often, I wonder if I should just give up on that notion and write about my day (or week or whatever). Would you be interested in that, even if it wasn't full of hilarious anecdotes or witty analyses?

Assuming you are, (and if you aren't then I welcome you to quit reading now) I shall now tell you about my past week. I think I'll go backwards, because its easier to remember the most recent things first. Today I baked two chicken-ham-&-leek pies and some almond-orange shortbread for a couple of moms from my church who just had babies. I got to meet Shepherd Avery Gordon, which I was very happy about. We got home and put the girls to bed, and now I'm in my pj's waiting for Jamie to get home with Prince Caspian and some soup for me. Tonight feels like it needs to be a cozy, soup-eating, wine-drinking, curl-up-on-the-couch-with-hubby-and-a-movie sort of night. Yesterday I went on a first date. Playdate, that is! We went over to my friend Kacie's house and the girls ran (and crawled) around with each other while we got to know each other better. I am so glad a did--Kacie, you are a girl worth knowing! I hope we keep playdating! Last night we went to a birthday party for a good friend of ours (skipping Friday Night Dinner--but we were with an Emily so does it still count?). The rest of the week was filled with other various playdates (sorry Kacie, I'm seeing other people too), some babysitting, and a doula interview for me, which I'm hoping leads to a new client.

Anyway, thats most of my week in a nutshell. Well the second half anyway. Who can remember what they did at the beginning of the week anyway? Psht. So let me know if this is the type of thing you want to hear from me on a regular basis.

Angel

In October I did a photo shoot for Earth Mama Angel Baby. I got to do a whole shoot with this pretty famous photographer, and he took AMAZING pictures. I just got back the ones I ordered and wanted to share. Forgive the quality--I took pictures of the framed pictures.

Here is Lydia:

And me and Juliet:

I, Robot... You, Jane

Yesterday I received 4 or 5 "robocalls" reminding me to vote today for Jim Martin. One was from Barack Obama himself. I tried to ask him how his Thanksgiving went, but he just wanted to get through what he had to say...lots of calls to make, no time to chat, you know how it is. Oh well.

So I went out with the girls and voted today. Lydia was pretty into it. She got two "I'm a Georgia Voter" stickers, and when we got back into the car she said "Mommy I want to rock the vote now". I'm so proud. It took me 26 years to become politically aware, she's starting at two.

In other news, we are now in the Christmas season, which I just love. We have our Christmas tree up with pretty lights and ornaments. Its a fake tree, but I figure we will work our way up to the real thing one day. Juliet is fascinated by the tree and keeps trying to pull the lights off. Did I mention she's crawling now? I'm particularly excited this year because my parents now live down here, and we can start a new world of family traditions. Will it be like it was when I grew up, where our immediate family will do presents in the morning and then go be with the extended family later that day? Will the grandparents come over first thing in the morning to watch us open our presents? Will Lydia and Juliet sneak into our bedroom and jump on our bed early in the morning with the stockings while we pretend to be asleep? Well, maybe not that last one yet. Or will there be brand new traditions that we've never done before, like skinny Jewish Santa? Its fun either way and I can't wait to see what unfolds for the new generation of the Belk Family Christmas.

If only you could be here too, Amy!