The days after Christmas

As you can see by the slideshow, below, Christmas came to Western Nebraska.

After candlelight on Christmas Eve, in which the voice choir sang twice and Lars had crawled away into the narthex while I was singing, we came home and went to bed. The pastor, of course, stayed up writing a sermon. All is quiet and calm.

Christmas Morning, Al left early and I grabbed a shower and quickly got dressed, as I had about seven things to do before we left.

Eden woke up, ran to the bathroom in tears and started crying b/c she'd had diaharreah all over the bathroom floor and was standing in quite a mess. I undressed her, tossed her in the shower and threw her clothes and the rugs into the washer. Ran upstairs, got Lars up and into the highchair for breakfast and back down to Eden's shower. After her shower, she was, quite naturally, cold and shivering.

Back upstairs to the kitchen for a naked baby breakfast. Eden has to go again. Off the stool, into the bathroom, onto the toilet just in time. Back to the table for breakfast. We left the dishes where they lay and got some winter church clothes on. As soon as her tights and shoes are on, it's another run to the bathroom. Again, just in time. I change out the underware for a pull up, just in case...

Out the door, down to the car, back inside for the blankets, back down the car, back up for the cheesecake, back down to the blazer. The driver's door won't shut. Chalk up one more reason for a new vehicle. We drive to church, holding the door shut with one arm and steering with the other. Get to church just in time to run in and sit down. Except Lars has pooped up his back.

Eden sits in the back pew while I take Lars down, strip him, clean him up and put his sweater and pants back on over a clean diaper.

Get up to the pew, Eden has to go to the bathroom three times before the sermon. We really need a bathroom upstairs!!

Get through church, head home to eat lunch. Lots of cheese and yogurt offered up for this meal, along with some whole milk. Daddy comes home in the midst of this and we open gifts before crashing in various locations around the house for naps. After naps, we open some more gifts, play and read stories, then watch The Grinch and Frosty the Snowman beofore popping popcorn and heading to bed.

All in all, a great and relaxing day. Full of adventure and always full of something to smile about.

Has anybody seen my sheep for the manger??? Eden??

Yesterday, we got a sitter and Al and I headed to Scottsbluff to do some after Christmas shopping. It was great, except that Al and I both had what Eden did the day before. Thank God for the Wal-mart restrooms on both ends of the store! We hit about seven stores in 5 hours and test drove a vehicle we'd like to figure out how to pay for :-)

Love to all, enjoy the slideshow!

Christmas 2008

From the Strawn Family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Twas the week before Christmas...

I’m sorry, did somebody say ‘last week is over’? But I’m not ready yet!

That means Christmas is coming soon! Not yet, we don’t have snow! You can’t have Christmas without snow! Can you? Well, in Western Nebraska, apparently if you have biting cold weather and a whipping wind, then you can have Christmas. With that in mind, I guess we’re more than ready!

Needless to say, this week has been cold. The weather channel has varied it’s adjectives by saying, “Very chilly”; “Extremely Cold”; “winds in excess of…”; “very bitter”; “dangerously cold” and the like. At least they are creative. Wind chills tonight will approach -30 degrees. That’s unimaginable, but what’s even stranger to me is that, in a matter of 24 hours, we can have a 40 degree swing and the sun will be shining. By Thursday, it’s supposed to be bright and 42! What’s up with that?

Per usual, our week before Christmas was somewhat cramped with time. Somebody had something every night this week, and sometimes more than one thing. Poor Lars just went along for the ride…over and over and over. He looks like a snow creature in his bulky coat and hat. Cute, but annoying.

In the rush of the week, I completely forgot Eden’s Christmas Party at daycare on Friday…oops. We had the Austin’s over for supper that night, in a delayed thank you and also to sit and visit over fine wine. The kids played darts downstairs and watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special.

Eden is practicing hard for her Christmas program tonight…she is an angel and has had her line memorized for weeks, but she’ll only say it in private. I said it really doesn’t matter how the program goes, Jesus will still be born and we’ll still celebrate it and it will still be the best pageant ever!

May all of you who are travelling have safe trips home and back. Those of you who will be stuck in the airports, watching the snow fall and eating crumbs off the floor, hoping for Mom’s home-cooked meal, may the peace of Jesus be with you!

For everybody else, far away from home or family, may the peace of Jesus be with you also. It’s the day to celebrate Him and His Holy Birth, so be thankful for what you’ve got and be pleased that you can have a quiet house to take a nap in!

For those of you like us with a small family within arm’s reach, may the peace of Jesus be with you. Stand around the piano, sing carols and stay warm, passing out hugs and hot chocolate as you are able.