Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

You can consider this our Christmas cards... since we've never sent any out before anyway. But maybe next year! Until then you can look at all these photos of my babies since I couldn't decide on just one or two. How could I? And besides, it's Christmas.

A wonderful end to a wonderful year.

This One Night

The moonlight sways and cradles the land,

While voices mumble and fall to the dirt,

"There is no room here."

Her back bends,

her face practically touching the fur she sits on,

The donkey,

He walks on.

Carrying the woman with the sacred womb,

The man

He rushes from door to door,

Eye's pleading, but brave.

Until finally the dust settles

And one man points to the space that he has

For them.

There was one place.

Straw coated in mud,

Windows of splintering wood,

This ground, these walls, nothing special

until

This night.

We think we are better than beasts,

cows

sheep

pigs

      But yet

They are the ones to make room

As a young mother falls to her knees

panting and wailing

Trembling with pain

Not knowing yet

that her son would also be taken from this world

     trembling with pain.

She cries, she pushes-

She is scared.

But the man holds her tight,

Somehow

They don't feel alone.

As a piercing diamond illuminates the sky

It's white light falling onto them like silver drapes

And her pain is soothed somehow

melting into the

Silent night

Holy night.

And then

The air around them bows

and folds around the stable.

The blood that runs through her veins now spills onto the ground

This same blood runs through His veins

as the Christ child is born

The very blood he will one day shed to save

even those

Who have no room.

He now cries out into the night

as He takes His first breath of life

on this earth.

This earth covered in hay and dirt and blood.

The savior of all men only knows one thing in this moment

His mother.

And He is wrapped in swaddling clothes.

They speak of the manger he lays in

but the only manger this night

are the arms of mother.

Her blood is His blood.

And she will suffer through it all

with him.

But this night now rests.

Joseph

Mary

Jesus.

A moment and story

with so many details unknown.

Too sacred

for us.

But every year we remember

We light candles

and stare into the night sky.

For the one blessed night that changed

      Everything.

For this one night

Star light wraps around the skies

And heaven bows down

To kiss the earth good night.

For this one night

Hope is born.

And there is peace.

-- Words by me!

Lately

Hi again, it's me, the photo dumper!

First up, another outing to the animal farm. This time we went on our own with no friends. This was before the weather turned cold and it was fun to get out of the house.

June really likes to play dress ups a lot. And I like to take blurry photos of her with my phone.

June had her first dentist visit! It went well as long as I intervened. I found that I knew June best and what tactics were going to work to get her to be calm and cooperate. Duh. They just tried to put a movie on for her with head phones and then shove things in her mouth. June wouldn't budge. So I took the head phones off and asked if they had a mirror she could hold so she could see what was happening. We talked about what they were going to do, let her use the electric toothbrush on her own first and then she was fine!   And her baby teeth are doing great!

June's monthly hair cut. Her hair is growing so fast these days! I have liked how fun this place is but this time as June was sitting on a purple hippo and the girl turned on a cartoon for her, promising that she would also get a sucker and balloon at the end, it made me wonder if this was healthy. I mean, shouldn't kids learn how to sit still for five minutes to get their hair cut? Between this and the dentist is concerns me how often we shove television in their faces just so that we don't have to teach them to hold still or be patient. I mean if they have a root canal or something then by all means but... yeah. Whatever, I'll still probably go here because they style her hair all cute afterwards. Priorities right?

I haven't been "wearing" Hazel for a few months but lately I've had to get the back pack and wrap back out. She just wants to be with me and see that I'm doing and the silly girl still refuses to crawl. Here's a photo of me looking like a model. I mean, don't you when you're mopping? Also, it turns out mopping is very difficult with a baby dangling off your front side.

We have a new but sweet routine in the mornings. June wakes up and comes into our room and then snuggles with us in bed for a little bit. She brings her stuffed animal and blanket every time.

Here's an important thing to document. Rainbow cake from Walmart. I mean, can I really be concerned about sugar and food dye every day?

I swear, I leave the room for two minutes to pee, that's all! And I come back and this is usually what I find. June tells me that she is building a train around Hazel. Every day. I'm sorry but I'm a grumpy adult and all I see is a pile of things that have to be put away. ;)

This IS big news for us. After June's swimming lessons she is now brave enough to lay down in the tub (as long as it's shallow enough.) She used to never do this!

Oh this tree. I posted about this online already but it made me sad to see such a beautiful and large tree cut down just for one month! So that busy shoppers can merely glance at it and they pass by. A lot of people posted back and told me to think of how it loves to be decorated and that maybe it aspired to become this.
So let me add this to the dialog: I too have a real tree in our house at Christmas time, I'm not against it that way. I kind of compared it to killing a wild stallion and plucking it from its rolling green hills, just for a side dish at some huge dinner verses humanly killing cattle that was raised for beef. But even then I think what actually bothered me the most was the location of this tree. It's at these new outlet malls. The whole place is so fancy, you have to walk down a marble corridor just to get to the bathroom, the bathroom that also has a lounge room with white couches. I feel like this tree is just to show off and beckon people to come spend more money. So maybe if I saw this at a city center or I don't know, an orphanage then I wouldn't have been so sad. But there I go AGAIN thinking too much and rambling on. The end of the world is coming soon anyway, right? ;)

Found this little number at forever21. So maybe I hiked up my clothes a little bit just to see how it would feel to be so sparkly and saucy. I didn't buy it, obviously, but mostly because in the end I did kind of feel like a disco ball. (but a fabulous disco ball!) Okay maybe I was just sad I would never have an event to wear this at.

Buck went out of town for three days and it sucked. I cried when he left because I'm a baby and I just really miss him when he leaves. You would cry and miss him too if he were your best friend. 

So to pass the time we got out of the house a little bit.

We went to Thanksgiving Point to see the reindeer and drink hot cocoa and warm our hands by the fire. But the best part was they had an ice sculpture man carving a block of ice into a swan! I think we'll make this a tradition, only next time with Buck. We did have our nice friends there who invited us, Adrian, Aaron and Elora.

Another day we went to the dinosaur museum. Hazel loved digging for bones. :)

Sometimes I try and work out. And this is what I find afterwards.

I love how much June still loves to cuddle.

A typical scene in from my mornings. My Little Ponies on the tv, Hazel playing with her box of nick-knacks, the sun sprawling across the carpet, black cords haphazardly hanging around the television and a pile of blankets shoved onto our pirate chest.

 Another typical scene. Every beautiful morning. I can't say it enough what a great big sister June is and Hazel loves her so much.

 

 

We've been roaming a bit these days, searching for land that could be ours. Turns out you have to be a millionaire to own enough land to plant wild flowers and enough trees for your own forest. Why is it that the rich people only get the beautiful things?

Because everyone loves photos of babies in a towel with animal hoods.

What a real man looks like.

I'm a cool mom because I made a fort. (You have to build one at least once to qualify.) Abe was more obsessed about it than June or I was.

 Got a new magazine subscription for my birthday from my friend Maggie! I may not be able to travel right now but this will help me to dream! (or maybe it will just be torture...)

And this concludes this installment of photo updates. Till next time! xoxo