2011 Christmas Post

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Is 9:6 "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Merry Christmas From the Hardackers!

It has been a Topsy

 Turvy

Upside down kind of year at our house

We have gone from a one income, mom at home family to a 2 income dad in school kind of family.  We have set a long term goal, have a vision and are taking action.  Because we are DOERS!  And we are doing it!

The year started out with us living our regular life. 

So we spent a lot of time driving all over the twin cities in the early winter dark to find various high schools and watch our son wrestle.  And we are back at it again this year, loving that Jake has found a sport he is so passionate about.

Isabelle turned 6 years old and John made yet another fun cake for our little artist.

My dad injured his back while in Florida and had to fly home so Isabelle and I flew down to drive home with my mom.  But not before spending a few days soaking up the PERFECT weather they were having down there and getting in Isabelle's first trip to the beach.  (A trip I am no longer free to make on a whim so my parents better stay healthy this year!)

Just as I am about to launch into a full time job I have a not so brilliant idea to plant a garden for the first time ever.  It didn't turn out well but the kids had fun watching all the ants run around after lifting up the board I had used to kill all the grass.

I have spent this first 6 months of working "releasing".  I have released myself from many outside commitments as well as releasing myself from expectations I have for myself and ideas I wanted to implement.  It has been challenging but God has taken care of all of us along the way.

John had some time this summer at home before he started school and spent a day starting the tree house I had wanted to build this summer before I learned I would be working.  He rocks.

Jake turned 17 in June a month after I started working.  I was exhausted but late one night we still made the birthday poster happen.  Proud of him and the godly young man he is becoming.

This summer Isabelle was also learning to adjust to my working and the schedule of sitters.  We cried together alot but in the end she had a great summer.  One week she went to camp at the YMCA and loved every minute of it.  A definite repeat for next summer.  Here she is wearing a the t-shirt they made and warrior face paint.

At last the day had come, first day of school for John and Jake.  Jake is doing PSEO for his senior year of high school which means he is taking classes at the same community college John is attending and receiving both high school and college credits.  He will graduate from high school and finish his freshman year of college at the same time.  Year one of college paid for.  Check.

I have loved seeing John and Jake studying together.  So proud of them both.  John was concerned about going back to school after so many years but he is doing great and enjoyed his classes this first semester.  He is now 1/4 of the way through the first 2 years of his 6 years of school.  (We have broken this journey into 3 mental parts, makes it seem a little less daunting.)

Then Isabelle started 1st grade!  She loves her teacher, tells us she is the best 1st grade teacher in the school, and is having lots of fun.  She loves art and music class, no surprise there.  When did our sweet baby turn into this sweet girl?

Of course Jake worked at the Renaissance Festival again.  He now owns a kilt and really looked the part this year.

I love that he has a job where we can go watch him work and it isn't weird when I pull out a camera.  He really is a pro at hawking and he loves it.

Jake also had the opportunity to go to Panama this year with our church youth group working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM).  It was a great trip for him getting the opportunity to share Christ with teens down there in local high schools and come to appreciate that people all over the world worship the same God who is at work in all our lives.  The group acted out a drama without any words and Jake played the roll of Jesus.  They did it for our church when they returned.  It was very powerful.  Here he is sharing his testimony.

The youth group guys.

And then this fall as the weather was getting cooler, John finished up the tree house.  We all love it.  Isabelle even went out there one day when she was mad at me to get away.  We didn't get in a tea party up there before it snowed but I see several in our future for next summer.

Isabelle's exciting news of the year was that she became a big sister!  Her birth parents had a little girl the end of October named Scarlet.  We went to a little baby shower before she was born and Isabelle was excited to show off the tutu she chose for her.

Unfortunately they moved to Japan with the military shortly before Scarlet was born so she will be over a year old before we are likely to see her in person.  However, modern technology is our lifeline so we got to meet her on skype and Isabelle and her sister got their first picture together.

As Isabelle would say, "isn't she cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

While this was a topsy, turvy, upside down kind of year we still managed to have fun, keep our family prioritized and rely on God to take care of us as he leads us on this crazy, fun, exciting new adventure in our life.

 

Can't wait to see what 2012 has for us!

 Ps 32:8 "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you."

 

Light and Hope

We had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed both Christmas eve and Christmas day services at our church.  I love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday!  As I sat listening to the Christmas sermon something caught my mind and sent it down a path.  I was thinking about how Christmas is really about hope and new life; the birth of Christ and the fulfilment of the promises of God.  It made me think that we should be celebrating Christmas in the spring when everything is fresh and new and summer is coming and the world is full of hope and new life, not the middle of winter!  But then I immediately realized we celebrate Easter in the spring and that is even more about hope and fresh starts and redemption and it is more appropriate in the spring. 

But do we really need to celebrate Christ's birth right before we head into the coldest and most depressing time of the year?

Then I remembered something I had been excited about earlier in the week.  The winter solstice.  From Thursday on I get a little bit more sunlight every day for the next 6 months!  It will be a few weeks before the sun is still up when I leave work but at least I am headed in the right direction.  The thought that will get me through the next couple months.  It was bringing me a great deal of hope and joy this week.  And there, in the middle of the Christmas service, I realized why Christians decided to celebrate the birth of Christ at this time of year.  We are moving into the light.

I am amazed at how the subtleties of what God created can be used to magnify His glory.

So often those who do not want to acknowledge the Christ in Christmas will talk about how this is really the celebration of the winter solstice and we just stole the celebration.  I have never been clear how that diminishes the fact that Christ was born in a manger, God became man, so that I might have eternal life.  But now I find that it is even more God ordained a time.  And maybe this time wasn't chosen to eliminate the celebration of the winter solstice but instead to magnify the one who created the moon and the stars and set them all spinning.  And every December he causes the sun to shine on the earth more and more each day and we celebrate the Son coming to the world to shine His light on us.

And God said, Let there be light." and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness." Gen 1:3

The big fall

It is important to have a few interesting Christmas stories to keep the conversation going each year... "remember the year when Michele and I knocked over the Christmas tree while fighting..." or "remember that year we abandoned the family for Wisconsin Dells..." or "remember that year when 88 year old Grandma Dorothy slipped on the last 2 steps and broke her ankle..." OH WAIT, that was this year!

There we are enjoying a lovely Christmas eve gathering at my parents. Because of the snowstorm and late night my parents had picked Dorothy, an adopted grandma and close family friend, up earlier and planned for her to spend the night. We had been enjoying conversation and a delicious meal together upstairs but could hold the kids off no longer, it was time to open presents. My mom had decided to open up the gifts downstairs this year which seemed like an exciting idea as we had always opened up gifts in my grandma's downstairs on Christmas eve growing up. My Grandma had always made Christmas eve special and now after she is gone we still try to hold on to some of the many traditions she brought us on this holiday. Dorothy had been present for all those Christmas eve's as well.

I go downstairs and start passing the gifts out. My dad has just asked Dorothy if she needs help and has been assured that she is fine. As I am standing around the corner I suddenly hear a fall, rush around the corner and see Dorothy sitting on the stairs. "Are you OK?" I ask. The correct answer was supposed to be, "Yes I just slipped" but instead she answered, "I don't think so." She indicated her ankle and as I looked down I knew it was broken. That is not the normal way an ankle looks even if it is swollen and that was an awful lot of swelling to occur within moments of the fall. By this time my mom, dad and husband have arrived and I gladly step back to let them assess the situation. There is a reason I never considered going into the medical field, just that little interaction was all I could handle.

Once they moved her to a chair I knew what I could handle...taking pictures!

Initially Dorothy was hiding her face from me but eventually I got her to smile for me. This is how she handles everything in life, with a calm smile. Ankle broken in 2 places and dislocated she sit here smiling while we wait for the paramedics to arrive.

While the paramedics were checking her out and preparing to bring her upstairs She and my mom were deciding what she needed to bring in her purse, wondering if she should change her clothes and in general planning for her hospital stay.

They wheeled her up the stairs on this chair and then out to the ambulance where my dad rode with her to the hospital.

The moment she got to the top of the stairs Isabelle looked around and said, "NOW can we open our presents?" That's my girl.

Family Christmas

We are blessed to have our families close by for the Holidays. After 19 years of marriage with various Holiday arrangements and many changes to both our families we have hit on a schedule that seems to work for everyone. Christmas eve with my family at rotating homes and Christmas day with John's family at his brother Mike's home.

We are all working on creating traditions and memories. There are still lots of little kids on my side of the family which means we are always wondering what we can do on Christmas to make it special for them. Should we try a craft, sing songs, read stories, a little of everything? With 5 little kids in town our holidays are all about them. There is alot of excitement to Christmas through the eyes of a child.

The Minnesota Grandkids

With Grandma and Grandpa

My Brother's Brood

Our Family

In John's family Isabelle is the only grandchild under 13 and our holidays have become more relaxed as the kids have grown and become part of the adult mix. We don't have to entertain them but can just sit and enjoy them. It is a little harder for Isabelle since there isn't much child proofing or kids toys laying around anymore but on the other hand she has no shortage of people to love her up and play with her. Of course Mike and Dara now have a 1 year old grandson in the mix which I suspect will mean some changes as their family continues to grow.

I wanted to get a picture of all the activity going on at once. This big room is why Mike and Dara host every year.

Mike and I telling everyone where to stand for the family picture. They all like to act like they don't want a family picture and then thank me later for making it happen.
I only got them to stand for 2 pictures. Luckily this one is just about perfect. Dara's eyes are closed but were open on the other so we just have to work a little photo shop magic. Anyone out there that can do that for me???

White Christmas

It was a beautiful Christmas here. The snow came, we embraced it and experienced a wonderful white Christmas.

As we waited for the snow we wondered if it would keep us from spending Christmas with family. OK we didn't actually wonder that because we are true Minnesotans and never let a few inches of snow keep us home. So of course we made it to all our Christmas gatherings with both my family on Christmas eve followed by our church service and John's family on Christmas day.

We had most of Christmas day at home before heading to John's brother's house and so we took some time to enjoy the beautiful weather. Lots of fresh snow, no wind and warmer temperatures made it perfect for building a snowman and throwing a few snowballs. Isabelle kept begging for a snowball fight but then discovered the heavy snowballs actually hurt when you got hit by them. The reality of the activity wasn't quite what she had imagined. We decided to toss the snowballs on the garage roof instead.

Ready for Christmas

I am ready for Christmas. Can you believe it??? My gifts are all bought and under the tree:



And my Christmas letters will go out today:



I am so relaxed I am even bought some ornaments for Isabelle to paint despite deciding for the good of our relationship not to buy her craft supplies for Christmas (future blog post on that topic):



And I have plenty of teenage food for the approximately 30 kids who will be at Jake's annual Christmas party tonight:



(there is also wings, meatballs and pizza rolls in the freezer. Do you think it is enough? You are thinking I need more pop right? Me too.)

Since I am so on top of my life an entire week before Christmas I have time to think about well...Christmas. An entire week to devote to thinking about the gift of Christmas, Jesus. Jake will be off school all week. I am imagining some family time watching Christmas movies in the evening. Talking about the joy of giving, of having a heart of gratitude for the gifts we receive, praying together and simply reflecting Christ in our lives through time spent enjoying one another. We will play games, sing songs, drink hot coco by the fire...It will be like a Norman Rockwell experience. Ahhhh. Let's just sit and enjoy the image for a moment shall we...

Ok, Ok, I know, Jake will want to get out of the house with his friends or stay in the house and get online with his friends. Isabelle will try to understand gratitude but will be too distracted telling us what she wants for Christmas to really pay attention. John will be home late trying to finish up whatever job he is working on before Christmas and I will be too tired from dreaming up my ideal scenario to motivate them all.

Just trying to keep it real.

Hopefully somewhere between the two images we will be able to spend time as a family focused on Jesus and maybe start a new family tradition or 2. We do have one great tradition that started when Isabelle was a newborn who went to bed early (it worked best that year). We watch the entire LOTR trilogy over Christmas break. While I am hoping to add "The Nativity" this year, I know at least this one tradition we will all find time for.

How are your preparations coming?