Drum roll, please ...

What a nice surprise we got yesterday! Christa and J and kids came home from Lincoln in time to join us at Mom and Dad's to celebrate. Unfortunately, poor Lexi had an accident about 20 minutes after she walked in the door, so here she is in her "revised" Christmas outfit ...

My brother Chris (shown here under his sweet wife Amy), as usual seeking to irritate and offend with his gifts, bought Lexi a drum set. Unfortunately for him, they were the hit of the day - provided us with many good laughs throughout the day! Notice Lexi's coordination - amazing! Ha.



Mason gets into the act with these next two - I couldn't choose between them because they're both funny! We labeled him "the quiet drummer" - you'll see why. Watch him straddle the little chair ... as the day goes on he becomes more and more obsessed with that little chair, and figured out how to straddle it for a long while without actually sitting on it ... good thing because inevitably when he tried to sit he was off balance and ended up tipping over! There's a great shot of Alex's back side in one of them too - at least it isn't mine (someone (you know your name) gets a shot of my rear end at almost every holiday ... time to pass the torch).





Lots of chaos and noise in the background ... just the way it should be! :)

Merry Christmas!

I woke up with the Hallelujah Chorus running through my mind this morning - Merry Christmas!

This is the first ever Christmas morning that Greg and I have woken up to a silent, empty house. VERY strange. A little sad. I'm sort of going through the motions of the season, waiting for my kids to come home so we can celebrate together!

BUT the important stuff about Christmas is not related to my particular circumstances, this year or any year, and so I am in worship and awe this morning of what we're celebrating today - that Jesus set aside his "God-ness" to become a helpless human baby, so that we could be saved! Hallelujah!

Dave's Lanes

This is a picture I took of Linda this weekend - pretty good one I thought! What does that have to do with "Dave's Lanes", you ask?


Well, Dave's Lanes is the name of the bowling alley where she bowls on a Monday night women's league in smalltown Wisconsin. I had the pleasure of accompanying her Monday night, and was SO reminded of what small towns are made of!! This place is a bar with 8 (or 10?) bowling lanes ... Linda bought a new ball at the beginning of the season and it literally has HUGE chunks cut out of it in a number of places from the fine-tuned machinery at Dave's Lanes.


I will say that Dave is a nice guy, though, as he handed out freebies like the ice scraper below (I didn't REALLY steal it - did you think I did?). The best one in the box was a mini-fly-swatter-keychain. I really should have gotten one of those but unfortunately it wasn't "mini" enough to fit either in my pocket or my purse WITHOUT keys!


I have some stories I could tell about foul language, 1980's hairdos, strong drinks, and one of the worst wedgies I've ever seen. It was hard to decide what to choose, but I'll leave those and instead opt for my favorite visual of the night:

Bathtub babies!

Here's a neat picture - actually two pictures in one - on the right is Lexi at about 15 months (last time we visited Linda) and on the left is a picture of her cousin Cassie at about the same age (Cassie is now 9). See any resemblance?!

Martha, dear Martha

Yesterday during my quiet time I read in "The Message" Luke 10:41-42, right after Martha complains that Mary is leaving her to do all the hard work in the kitchen while she (Mary) sits at the feet of Jesus. Jesus says: "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it - it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."

Anybody else find themselves (at this time of the year especially) fussing too much, getting yourself worked up over nothing? I know I do. Jesus gave a gentle, loving reminder to Martha (and to me) to keep the main thing the main thing - very good for me during this holiday season.

On that note, I have the blessing of heading to Wisconsin tomorrow to spend a few days with Linda and family. I am really looking forward to spending some time with her! I'll be home Tuesday, in time for a few days of rest (and focus on the "main course!") before the Christmas rounds begin here - we will get to spend Christmas Eve with Greg's family, Christmas Day with my family, and the day after Christmas with our children and grandkids, parents, and neighbors-turned-family Kirk and Brenda and boys. So much to look forward to, and yet I am really praying that I will keep focused even in all the delight of preparation and gifts and fellowship, that I won't forget Jesus, even for a minute!

Here's a couple of cute Lexi pictures:

Here's Lexi, finally carrying our poor kitty in a reasonable manner ... she loves the kitty so much! Every time (and I do mean EVERY time) she's here, she tells me, "Nini, your kitty is SO CUTE!!" and "I WUB your kitty so much!" Don't know how much kitty has been feeling the love though, since it was a two week project teaching her to pick the kitty up "nicely" - aka, not by the tail or throat. :)

And here she is with Brenda, fresh from a nap (Lexi, not Brenda :), soft and cuddly and warm and flushed cheeks ... when I took the picture, Lexi said, "Nini took a picture!" Brenda replied, "Yes, she took a picture of a pretty girl!" Lexi's answer: "Yes, and of YOU TOO!" Ha ... ha ... ha?

It's 4:30 a.m. ...

... and I am as wide awake as Mason looks in this picture! I wish I was sleeping but since I fell asleep in the chair at about 8:00 last night it's not surprising that I'm sitting here in front of the computer instead!

A couple of points of interest - note that I have added "Pipsqueak Photography" as a blog link on the left - this is my niece Shannon's new business. Check out her site, and ask me or Christa to see the pictures she took of Lexi and Mason - she's amazing!! Also, be sure to take a look at B.J.'s blog - he has some news about school that many of you have been praying about I'm sure!

I had the blessing of going to help a new friend get ready for a dinner party yesterday afternoon - there's nothing better than working side by side with someone to get to know them better. Today Christa and Brenda and I are going to make Turkey Pot Pie for our respective family dinners - without a doubt that will be a blast! We've started cooking together recently, and I learn something new every time. Of course there's the added bonus of sweet babies underfoot, warm and yummy smells surrounding us, some good music on the cd player, and ALWAYS hilarious conversation!

Brenda and I have each started a "read through the Bible" - we do our devotional time separately but we are reading the same thing, then we go walk together at the Mall and talk about what we read, what it means for us, how much God is teaching us, how amazing He is, etc. etc.! I am feeling better physically and more alive spiritually than I have in a very long time - my days are filled with praise and joy, unrelated to circumstances. I am so thankful for this, as many of you know this is the time of year I generally struggle with depression.

And Christmas is just around the corner! Although it's been harder to get in the Christmas "spirit" this year, since we are truly empty nesters and neither of our kids will be home until the day after Christmas, I have been utterly struck once again with the idea of Jesus laying aside His "God-ness" in heaven to become not just a man, but an infant, helpless, human, and subject to all that we experience in our lives and so much more ... His purpose in laying that aside was so that He could save us! The first section of Philippians 2 talks about this - right after Paul tells us to put the interests of others ahead of ourselves. Sometimes I think I'm doing ok with this ... until I read the next section and get reminded of what Jesus gave up, in heaven and on earth, to put my interests (and yours) ahead of His.

Well, that's my brain dump for this morning. :) I'll leave you with some of pictures of the kiddos busy concentrating ... I love Mason's little tongue sticking out in the second one!

For better or for worse ...

Seriously, I adore this man and his many hidden talents!! (I betcha I get a serious payback for posting this but I'm already pretty sure it'll be worth it! :)

In the Christmas spirit

OK so I broke down and did some Christmas decorating after all. :) Actually, the way it went was that Greg started getting the stuff out and then I couldn't help myself, I got into the decorating a little bit.



Wondering how I got that stuff up there? Thinking it was Greg who helped? NOPE!


It was definitely Brenda, aka SHERA, my superhero friend who has me walking at least three days a week with her, and as a result I'm feeling more energetic than I have in a long time! (Obviously not energetic enough to climb up above the closet ... maybe by next year?)

Weekend antics

What a fun weekend we had with the kids! Everyone was piled in our bed Sunday morning, including the kitty ... it was more peaceful before Mason and the kitty joined us. :)

Lexi was her normal hilarious self ... when J dropped her off, I asked her when was the last time she went potty. Her answer? "6:40!" Huh?

Puzzle time

Doesn't snowy weather just beg for hot chocolate and a jigsaw puzzle? That's what we did when I was a kid and had a snow day ... old habits die hard I guess.

This is Lexi's handiwork ... with a little help from me. She pretty much lost interest in the boring white middle section. :)

This one Greg and I started Thursday night and finished the 1000th piece Sunday night - Lexi kept asking me what was in the barn. I would ask her what she thought could be in there, and she would answer, "A cow, and some pigs ... but what's REALLY in there Nini?" I don't think I ever quite got her to understand it was just a PICTURE!

Snowblower heaven

This was the perfect snow for a new snow blower! By the time it was all over, we got about 9" of powdery, fluffy snow -
and Greg got to break out the new snowblower! He and my dad went in together and bought one this year.
Once our driveway was finished (didn't he do a nice job?) he went to do Mom and Dad's, then Christa and J's driveways too.

The snow is still hanging around here, but from the looks of the forecast for the week probably not for long. More soon!