As if she were my own

There are events in life that will stick with you forever. Marriages, births, deaths, funny moments. Four years ago today our best friends welcomed their first daughter into the world. This birth will stay with me forever, not only because of the beautiful child that we have with us today but also because we were expecting our first child. So this delivery was my eye opener or actually Chris' on what we could expect. Forgive me for those that don't know this story it may be graphic. We ate dinner and then decided we would go over to the hospital you see Jess has been in labor like 2 days so surely this child would arrive soon! We get the phone call a we were getting out of our truck at the hospital, she's here! We ran straight into the proud papa in the hallway, he took this moment to describe his daughter's birth to my poor husband. So apparently it kind of looks like when you shoot a deer in the heart. Sorry Jess I know you hate that story! At this point Chris is seeing stars, his mouth has hit the floor, eyes wide open looking slighy nauseated he turns around and tells me he doesn't think he can do thiss! Thanks proud papa I now have to spend my next 3 months convincing my husband he's strong enough to be at his son's delivery. All joking aside this little girl has changed the lives of those she's met. She's beautiful, intelligent and humorous. Happy Birthday and we live you Josie.

Holidays

Did we have Christmas? How about Thanksgiving? I can't believe it's already January 19, 2010; my how time flies! I am proud to say that I cooked Thanksgiving lunch, went way overboard and sent lots of food home with Uncle Wade! We were supposed to spend Thanksgiving with Chris' side of the family, his parents and aunts in Decatur, but Chris was on call all week and I'm not quite crazy enough to drive 3 hours in a car alone with 2 small children. Maybe in a few years! Chris did work Thanksgiving day but was home around lunch and we had a nice quiet, overzealous Thanksgiving with just the 7 of us, plus 1 friend. I also attempted to take pictures of the kids for our Christmas card. We went to Bass Pro to see Santa, who was very busy and Liey was very angry that we left, see photo above! The day after Thanksgiving Chris and I went shopping. We had an absolute blast with each other, we were so on the same page that day, spent lots of money and I truley believed that we were done Christmas shopping when we came home. But according to my pocket book I was far from done, you will see pics of what Santa left, it's so hard not to spoil them. So once again Christmas was filled with fun and joy and busyness. Liey sang in the tree lighting ceremony with his preschool. He was hilarious, he sang and cried, afterwards he told me he was so scared. But he did really well and I am so proud. The week of Christmas arrives and we spend one night with our dear friends exchanging gifts with each other. Well Mr. Li not missing a beat tells me that the gift Uncle Joe & Aunt Jessica has just given him is not what he wanted for Christmas! He graciously repeats this statement numerous times. Now I must explain that the entire time he's telling us this isn't what he wanted for Christmas he is playing with the gift, to the point where he is so distracted he doesn't even realize when the girls go take a bath. Needless to say I was slightly embarrassed, Oh Well at least he's only 3. Christmas Eve arrives and we head to church for communion services, Elias explains that Santa isn't going to come and see him because he didn't clean his room. So the elder members of our church look horrified and explain to him that he shouldn't have anything to worry about. This brings me to my dilema. I grew up with Santa, my husband grew up with Santa, but I'm finding it very difficult to allow Santa to infiltrate our Christmas. I mean how confusing is it. We celebrate this holiday because Jesus was born (and it's Poppy's birthday-that's a whole nother blog!) but then this big guy in a red suit drops off presents? HMMM-I'm even confused. Hopefully we filled our month with enough Christian activities that the true meaning of Christmas stuck.