Christmas is arriving

It seems to me that lack of sleep over the course of weeks, months and years makes a persons brain turn to mush occasionally. I am in a mushy state of mind these days. Hence the lack of posts recently. Just don't seem to have the energy to form coherent thoughts that another human being would find interesting.


It seems as though for some reason God has seen fit to give us another cherub who either thinks sleep is overrated or that nighttime is the best time to get quality time with the mother. I don't mind the sleepless nights as much as I mind my lack of patience with the kids and lack of perspective with life the next day.


Eden has come through her sleepless nights beautifully, Tristan is sleeping finally after 3 years and now we just have to conquer the babe!! In time, right? I don't mean to sound like a broken record. I am very well aware that if I were to read back over my blog I mention sleepless nights more than anything else. How dismal. On to something much more fun and celebratory.


The festive days of Christmas are in full swing at our house. The boys drug out their fake trees last evening and we decorated the night away! The stockings are hung all in a row. I am buckling under the pressure this year. I have always been a white light only decorator and wanted nothing gawdy. But really....what fun is that for little kids? Think back to when you were a child. What grabbed your attention? The wonderfully, hideous colored lights (no offense to you colored light lovers) seemed to spark much brighter. I have been able to convince my kids to remain with white lights but we will have lovely green and red candy canes that will adorn our sidewalk. Can hardly believe I am admitting this! Yes....we will have some otherwise ugly decor this year but the smiles on my children's faces will be more than worth it. The tree isn't up or decorated yet but was purchased today. I am not sure how this is all going to go - Eden has already broken some pieces from my beautiful and favorite nativity set.

Something new we are doing this year is a homemade advent calendar thingy. I say "thingy" because my attempts at being crafty leave a lot to be desired. Some examples of activities are game nights, movie nights, baking cookies, possibly visiting a local shelter with the two older boys (still working on this one), taking our neighbors Christmas cookies....you get the idea. Last night the boys picked out what World Vision gift they wanted to purchase. Both boys, upon receiving the World Vision gift catalog, offered to give $10 of the money we would have spent on them for Christmas. We told them we would do the same so last night they spent time looking through the catalog and making their "purchase." Shane spent his half of the money on soccer balls for children in Africa and Judah spent his half on emergency medicine for children and infants in Africa. It was fun watching them "shop". Shane was so torn - he thought it would be better to purchase mosquito nets for a family yet couldn't stand the thought of the kids not having soccer balls to play with.

We really want to cultivate in our children and ourselves an awareness of what this season really and truly signifies! Not an easy task in such a consumer oriented society. I would love to hear how other people celebrate with their children and families! Anyone care to share?