December musings

It seems that I've been so occupied with life in December that the blog is sliding. I've barely been keeping up on reading other people's posts, and just haven't been inspired or thought of anything exciting to post on here. In case anyone is still reading in this crazy season I'll post a few highlights of the past few weeks:

• We've had two Christmas parties so far. One was with Arvid's work, and the kids got gifts (which the parents got to buy and be reimbursed for) and the girls loved it! Our second party was with our adoption agency last Sunday. A few hundred people jammed into a church basement and celebrated adoption and Christmas. It was so nice to be with lots of other families who looked just like ours. The kids got gifts from Santa...needless to say Mebira no longer thinks that Santa is Jesus. :-)
• We've watched a few Christmas shows. Last weekend we watched the What's In the Bible Why Do We Call it Christmas? movie. It was actually quite interesting and showed where traditions like stockings, Christmas trees, Santa all came from. It also explains why December 25th is the day...I think we'll watch it every year. It is a good reminder that we can still enjoy things like gifts, Santa, stockings and trees but that these traditions are meant to point us to God.
• The gifts are wrapped, the menus are planned, and we're just counting down the days until Christmas. We'll spend Christmas Eve with my family, and Christmas Day with Arvid's family. I am so excited for the Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church, and for the family time, watching the kids open their gifts and the excitement of coming down and seeing the stockings, for watching the Nativity Story with them, lighting the Advent Pyramid, etc., etc., etc. I also can't wait for the two weeks off. Arvid will have the first week off and we hope to have lots of time for puzzles, walks, sledding, skating and family Wii tournaments.
• I celebrated my birthday! What a wonderful day - slept in, had a bath, read a book, cought up on email, some (albeit a bit more brief than I intended) quiet time with just me and my bible, delicious lunch out, coffee with a great friend, and a family night! Oh - and the night before, a quiet dinner with Arvid at home with Thai food take-out (YUM!), Christmas music, a warm fire, candles and twinkling lights from the Christmas tree. Really, a perfect day and it's not over yet! :-)

OK, that's all for now. I hope you are all enjoying the season!