Christmas, West Virginia Style

We traded in our swimsuits and shorts for our winter duds! (Actually I had to go out and buy winter clothes for our kiddos!) We're here in West Virgina enjoying time with Andy's family. The kids are pretty much loving all the attention from their aunts and uncles. And they love all of their pets. Collectively there are 4 dogs and 1 cat while everyone is home. It's rowdy and our kids are loving it.
I am pretty sure Jack and EG will have great memories of playing with their Aunts and Uncles. They really enjoyed helping pick out gifts for them this year and EG did lots of wrapping for me!
They also felt like they should help with the unwrapping part...

What fun!

Christmas, Florida Style

We had a really low key and fun Christmas. We spent most of Christmas day with our friends, the Fitts. We lived beside them last year and grew to love this dear family. There were yummy soups, manicures, the movie White Christmas, and one other activity not typical to Christmas.....Read on to see for yourself!




YEP our kiddos when swimming on Christmas. The water was cold, but they didn't seem to mind. This was a Christmas first for us!



We spent Christmas Eve with some really fun Chinese friends. There was yummy soup, despite the hot weather, lots of Wii bowling and playing outside. Again, not typical for Christmas, but we really enjoyed all the time outside!


Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

My Christmas Reflections

Last year's Christmas was a wash. We were so very overwhelmed with our transition home that Christmas was not very Christmasy for us. It honestly felt like a burden. Who wants a list a mile long of to do's and to buy's when you're barely keeping your head above water as it is? Though we really enjoyed being with our families, we left so early in December for our pilgrimage north that we didn't bother with a real tree. The thought of dragging out all 200 + ornaments and all the Christmas garb we own just seemed too much when we would only be around for two weeks to enjoy it. So we put up a tiny fake Christmas tree in an apartment that did not feel like home. I cried when it was completed, then stuck it on top of a box, my measly attempt to give lift to both the tree and my Christmas spirit. It didn't work. And that's OK. Really it's OK if some of our Christmases aren't the way we want them to be. Oh sweet grace it is when we get our to do lists done without killing someone along the way, we do our daily Christmas devotions each day and in our hearts we truly have room for this Savior born in a stable. But some years we just don't. That's the reality of living in this broken world. There's often not enough time, or energy, or our hearts aren't the right place.

This year, we're doing better. IN SOME WAYS. I love our 8 foot tree. Andy and I love going big with the tree. He even commented that it needs more lights next year. I like the way you are thinking, sir. And since we have the power grid to support the 2,000 lights we think it needs, that's what we'll do next year. And we've mostly followed our Jesse Tree devotional with the kids, hanging ornaments each day that remind us of all God was doing to prepare the world for his Son. GOD MADE MAN-This one moment in time that truly changes everything. I've managed to make some Christmas goodies along the way and not kill myself buying gifts for my in-laws. Thankfully they are super gracious with me when I have a hard time coming up with gifts for them every single year. But Christmas still feels "off" for us. First of all, we're wearing shorts. That just feels wrong. And since we're in our own home this year, we're far from our families and even farther from our China family. So we don't really have a group to celebrate with. And we're struggling, deeply struggling with things we don't share on our blog. Doesn't Christmas just seem like a time when our celebrations should be perfect and the problems that plague us should take a back seat for just a moment? But they don't. Our problems, our sin and the broken places in our lives make no concession for the Holidays. The contrast of all I want Christmas to be and the reality of what it is in my family today is a gift really. Yes, the contrast is a gift. Do we know why Jesus showing up to our mess is such glorious news? He left his throne. I imagine it's so peaceful there. He left his Father. Oh to be perfectly loved. And he showed up on the scene to right the wrongs we've done. To clean up the mess we've made. This king of all kings, born in a manager which undoubtedly was filthy, broke into our world with one mission. His birth puts him on a trajectory-of service and humility that leads all the way to his horrific death. All to clean up our mess.

So today when I see the mess in my life and I face the reality that my Christmas celebration doesn't meet the mark, I'll rejoice. This season isn't about my perfectly accomplished to do list. It's about rejoicing in Christ's perfectly accomplished to do list: To seek and save Erin Ashley Huffman. It is finished EA, and you can rest and rejoice. I can eat those Chocolate Thumbprints with real joy in my heart and look forward to a day of feasting and celebrating when every detail of the party will be perfect, including me.

Finished Product - the Biggest Lego Ever

More pics of the clubhouse to come. Thanks Kacki and Poopaw!

Making Progress

An Early Christmas Gift

Thanks so much Tim and Kathi for the wonderful Christmas gift. Our kiddos love it! I am sure there will be many happy memories made enjoying your gift!

STRIKE A POSE

Uncle Al comes to town

We had a really great time with Alex, Andy's brother a couple weeks ago. The weather was perfect for an airboat ride with our small group from church...we saw lots of alligators!
Andy and Alex got to see a WVU game while in town. It was a great game and Andy loved having another WVU fan to celebrate the victory with.

And EG and Jack loved their time with Alex. Here's Emma Grace directing the clearing out of a part of our yard for a secret gift coming soon!
What a pleasure to have you with us Uncle Al!

Doodle Jump

Uncle Al introduced our kiddos to Doodle Jump on the IPhone. Sorry to say we will probably never have a cool phone like that, kiddos. But that's just one more thing to enjoy when Uncle Al is around! Our kiddos loved their time with him two weeks ago! More pics of our time to come!

Celebrating Jack

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!

Too Cool for School?

Not this little guy. He LOVES school. His best friend at school is a little girl named Elena. They've been in the same class for 2 years now. And his precious teacher, Mrs. Pike is as loving and warm as Jackie boy is, so it's a great match! As much as he loves time with his mom, I am pretty sure this guy would go to school everyday of the week if I let him! He's so social, like his Daddy and I think he comes alive being around other kids. I'm so grateful that our preschool has been such a wonderful fit for both our kids.

Alive

I think there are different parts of us that "come alive" depending on where we live. For example, living overseas in a developing country really tapped into my sense of adventure. Of course, after 7 years of living there, many things felt normal, but I always loved the challenges of overseas living. I liked that my life there required resourcefulness and thinking outside the box. In order to have fun, we had to work for it. In order to have yummy American dinners, we had to scavenge the city for ingredients and diligently execute our furlough packing list as if our life depended on it. In America I am rarely challenged in that way. Fun is way too available and my cheese is pre-shredded and pre-measured. The only thing my grocery store doesn't do for me is cook my meals. (though Publix is coming really close with their "Aprons" meals-they give you a new recipe each week and they have all the ingredients for that meal in one little section, on sale, and often times the veggies are pre measured and sliced. They even have a cute old lady cooking up the meal every weekday from 4-7 so you can try it and make sure it's a winner. Last week the loaded french toast and crockpot hashbrown casserole were amazing.) Anyway, that was not my point. My point is that my love for "challenge and adventure" is not nurtured here like it was in China.

But there are other areas, I am now discovering, that are beginning to come alive again-areas that couldn't be fully alive in China. I think we all have them. I am pretty sure that my friend Marianne will return to her role of Music Connoisseur now that she is back in the US and has access to a music scene. So glad about that Marianne, my music selection has suffered terribly since you stopped recommending albums to me! I imagine that part of her coming alive again as she listens to some local St. Louis band. And I know Alisa would be one heck of a family member if she lived in the US. That girl was made to be a part of a big, close family. I imagine her planning the fourth of July cookout every year and loving every second of it. I imagine her thriving in her role as oldest sibling.

I was made to create. Much like my little Emma Grace, I need to make things. Yummy desserts, colorful dinners, scrapbooks, homemade decorations. It's just how God made me. And I feel alive when I create beautiful things. How like our Father, the one who created the peacock, (our family bird), and the one who placed all those stars in just the right spots so they would look like a dipper. He loves to create and what he makes is beautiful.

Most developing countries don't have the luxury of creating beauty in everyday life. They are too busy getting up at 4 am to push their potato cart up the hill to the market just to earn a day's wages. I did have opportunities to use my creativity in China. But it was often so hard to even find the right supplies so that part of me sort of went dormant for a while. (except for those 25 lbs of scrapbook supplies Andy lugged over the ocean for me more than once.) That part of me is coming alive again and I find myself constantly wanting to make things beautiful. I am simultaneously sad and thankful. Sad for all the people in China who God has given those gifts but they can't use them because they are too busy making ends meet. Oh the frustration of living in a fallen world. And I am thankful. Thankful that God is allowing that part of me to come alive again. And I am thankful that he knows the right season for each part of me to be made a little more alive here on this earth. He knew that this little chapter of my life would have Beauty and Creativity in leading roles. And he intimately works those details out in all of our lives. And most of all, I am thankful for heaven. I know that in the New Heavens and New Earth we'll be fully alive. Every part of us, all at once. And more alive than we've ever been here. I wonder what that Chinese potato cart lady/would-be artist will create when she gets there? This was a family creation-Andy and I made the wreath yesterday while we were on a walk and then my kiddos and I picked out all the goodies for it around our neighborhood today. Tomorrow we'll be delivering them to EG's teachers for Christmas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas