Our First Christmas...

as a family of three! Well, technically it was M’s third Christmas alive and his second as “our son” since we passed court in November 2010, BUT he didn’t come home until January 2011. This means it was his first Christmas here in America with his family.

Warning: This blog post is long. This blog post has no pictures. This post could really have been four posts. I guess you could pretend it is. I am going to do a photo blog or two next week, and if you read the long entry below the photos will make a lot more sense!


The Advent Season

M loved the whole advent season. He enjoyed decorating for Christmas and really got excited about putting his ornament on his little advent tree each night. He has a fun and durable nativity play set which he enjoyed playing with all month. His favorite parts of the play set were saying “No” when Joseph (Joe-pit) asked several places if they had room for him to stay. He would then offer “Barn” when Joseph, Mary and the donkey reached the stable. After Jesus was born M enjoyed having the animals go up to the baby and say “Hey, that’s my food.” We pretended that the animals were quite confused about their feed box being converted to a crib. I would image they were actually quite confused! Speaking of Mary and Joseph. Brandon had a meeting at a church member’s home during December. He told M he was going to Mary’s house. M then said, “Joe-pit?” too cute!

M also loved listening to and singing Christmas Carols. I am sure this surprises no one as anyone who has met him knows that this little guy never stops singing. He sang Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and Happy Birthday Jesus in church with all his little Sunday School buddies. I was quite surprised that stage fright and “sitters” on both sides of him caused him to sit perfectly still and motionless during the whole performance. He did belt out the tunes the rest of the day if anyone asked him. He usually loves a stage so I am not really sure why he did what he did, but oh well, there is always next year... or sooner if the littles sing in church this spring. M was very into singing the chorus to Angels we have heard on high this Christmas season as well.

M got to go caroling with the church this year. We go to area nursing homes and ride a big school bus. He loved the bus, loved the people, loved the music. It was great!

M had no idea that Christmas had any secondary gift giving/receiving theme. I am so thankful for this. Moreover, I am thankful that even after Christmas is over he continues to have the same understanding of the celebration. M thinks that it is all about Jesus Birthday. As we thought about what to get M this year we decided to give him a gift through World Vision. Actually, most of our family received World Vision gifts this year. Not only were they super easy to wrap and pack, but they were life giving and will truly be appreciated for years to come. M received a goat and two chickens from us. He also received a Lara Bar. He got to eat the Lara Bar on the spot which was a HUGE treat for him.

Christmas Eve/ the eye patch story

On Christmas Eve our house was quite busy. We hosted a small noon meal with the other pastor and his family. They are so much like family to us that we are blessed to have this special Christmas tradition. It also makes a lot of sense due to the crazy schedule of Christmas Eve for pastors and their families. Anyway, I was cooking and cleaning in the morning and we were on a good pace to have the food ready early so I could begin packing for our big adventure which would begin the next day. I was vacuuming upstairs and came down to hear that M had scratched Brandon in the eye. At first I offered a tiny bit of sympathy and continued to vacuum. I didn’t realize the extent of the injury and I was one a mission to have clean floors. After I stopped I learned that Brandon was in lots of pain. I guess after the accident (while I was upstairs vacuuming) M was actually screaming “Mommy! Daddy hurt.” Brandon was in quite a bit of pain and started saying “oh man” so of course M started marching around Brandon who was balled up on the floor saying “oh man” as well. Super cute to think of now that Brandon is no longer in pain.

I told Brandon I would do a quick google search about home remedies for eye scratches. As it turns out, and most of you know, there are not any. It is very important to see a Dr. right away so you can begin to rub an antibiotic on the eye. Eye infections happen quickly and are not what you want to get. So, I informed my preaching pastor husband during the mid-morning of Christmas Eve that he needed to head to a walk-in clinic right away. Poor guy was in so much pain that he said he barely had to sit in the waiting room at all (thanks God). I think they all had a lot of sympathy for him. He was able to see the Dr. and pick up the cream within a couple of hours.

M and I made the meatball gravy and the food prep was underway. We were behind schedule, (meaning we didn’t have a thing packed) but the food would be ready. Brandon put the cream in, but it seemed to make the pain worse. L and his family were here for lunch and it was lovely though strange as we sat in the dark and all sort of stared at Brandon as he sat in extreme pain. We knew we had to do something to get rid of this pain. It was less than 3 hours until the first church service. We were praying and pleading and wondering how everything would turn out. After lunch our friends headed to church or home to nap and Brandon put M down for his nap. I made an emergency pharmacy trip of my own. I will on the hunt for eye patches. I found them quickly and thanks be to God they were the ticket to ease a great amount of Brandon’s eye pain. Obviously, the patch was VERY visible to all who attended church that night, but I think he only scared a few little girls so all in all not a total nightmare.

After church we opened some gifts here. We were quite spoiled by local friends and we had several packages to open. In hindsight, M was very tired and Brandon was in pain and had to turn around and preach the next morning so we should have just called it a night, but oh well... M did have a late night Lara Bar!


Christmas Day/ The road trip begin/ Brandon’s family
Christmas Day was filled from morning until late night. We had one church service. Brandon was already able to go without the patch. He was in some pain, but apparently eyes heal very quickly. We were very thankful that the pain was lessened. It was awful for M and me to watch Brandon experiencing such pain. After church we wrapped gifts and packed the car and ate an early lunch and tried to get M to release all liquid from his body. We hit the road around 11:30... I think... you know it was over a month ago so my memory is a bit sketchy!

The car ride to Missouri went pretty well. Overall, we were always near a bathroom when we needed to be. Our entire journey around the mid-west M didn’t have a single accident! Amazing! The more tired he would get in the evening, the more he would request to stop. The frequent stopping wasn’t too fun (esp. on Christmas Day when many things are not open), but we made it through.

We had a great time with Brandon’s family. We were able to meet our new niece, Baby A. She is so sweet and seriously the best behaved baby I have ever met. I think she was only awake about an hour or two the whole time we were with her. She slept so sweetly through all the noise around her. She was so tiny (born 12.8.11) and light. I felt like I was holding a doll when I held her. Big A her brother is an excellent big brother and is transitioning very well to his new role in the family. A and M have great fun together. They especially enjoyed feeding Brandon’s parent’s dog Maggie. Maggie weighs more than me and is intimidating to most people. M still shares about how he was scared, but that grandma held him so he could give Maggie treats. One of the cutest memories from our time there was M and A feeding Maggie bird food or “birdie treats” as M says. They opened the deck door by themselves and handed out their treats with no parental help. I was so thankful that everyone let them continue long enough to record it on video! Another special memory was watching the boys in their new matching PJ’s dancing and being silly together. One more special thing was watching grandpa Tom play trains with the boys. I know the boys enjoyed it, and hopefully it wasn’t totally stressful for Tom. I sure got a kick out of watching all the crashes, the sparks flying, the trains derailing, the track being torn apart, and all they other delights of letting a 2 and 3 year old boy play with a real train set. So sweet, so special! While with Brandon’s family we were also able to see a lot of extended family and enjoy many laughs with them as well. We also all passed our tooth exams this time. No cavities... yahoo!

More roadtrip/ Shelly’s family
On the road again... M did very well on the car ride (to my parent’s home) taking a several hour nap at the start of the journey. The only glitch in the day was an extra smelly bathroom. I tried to tell him it was fine but I kept having dry heaves. It was seriously awful... you get the idea. In the end Brandon ended up taking him in to the men’s room and all was well. Speaking of bathrooms, do you know how you can tell if a bathroom is “nice”? Keep in mind that “nice” is the ideal for all things with my son. Well, a “nice” bathroom is one that does NOT have a fan. It is really “nice” if it also doesn’t have a hand dryer. Oh boy, it was like fighting a great battle to get him to go if the light was connected to a fan. Yikes! One other bathroom story, you love them, right? Brandon told me once after a stop that he heard M singing In Christ Alone while using the toilet. I guess the vents must have been connected. I hope he put a few smiles on faces.

We had a great time with my family. After days of sharing toys and adults with Big A and Baby A, M was in his glory surrounded by adults who wanted to play with him. He loves reading with grandma and playing on the floor with grandpa. M would say “up high” (I think, I can’t remember actually) to my dad and then my dad would tickle him. He just couldn’t get enough of it. M was able to go on an adventure to both the ambulance garage and the city garage. He really enjoyed both of them, though has recounted MANY times that the siren on the ambulance (which he heard for one second) was very loud and scary. He really liked sitting in all the big machines at the city garage. His favorites (according to my mom) were the street sweeper and the dump truck. I guess he pretended to drive the street sweeper all by himself and even pretended to wave to people below. He got to see the dump truck bed lift up and down which is another thing that he talks about all the time. While with my parents M experienced his first snow of the year. The amount of snow was minimal, but we got the most out of it that we could. M (with MUCH help from grandma and grandpa) shoveled the sidewalk and made a snowman. He also face planted 3 times in his new boots. The boots have now been returned! One other classic Shelly’s family experience happened on the way home from my grandparents house. After a warm day the weather changed and rain turned to snow. The snow was coming down hard as we drove home in almost complete white out conditions. There was a lot of prayer going on in the car as no one felt like they could see much of anything out the windows. I am so thankful for my dad’s driving ability and his knowledge of the road we were traveling. The reason is this classic as it seems to happen every single year! Seriously, I would say 3 of the last 5 years this or dense fog or freezing rain or something has happened. M was silent and very awake the whole journey. When we got home to my parents he said, “Yay Grandpa Yay Driving!” While with my family we were also able to see much extended family and friends and make lots of new memories. We also introduced some of the family to the game Farkle!

On the road again... The last leg of the journey went quite smoothly. We were able to stop at my mom’s parent’s house of a visit and lunch and that really broke things up. We got to see one of my cousins and one uncle as well. M got more gifts so he was thrilled. After leaving their farm we only stopped twice the rest of the way home (5.5 driving hours) which is pretty amazing.

Brandon continues to be my hero. I did all the driving, but he did all the entertaining of M. I am pretty sure his job was a lot harder than mine. Brandon is so creative. M’s cat “Kitty Cat” was the star of the show through every car ride and I am so thankful for his traveling companion and for Brandon’s ability to have the cat to 100’s of silly things!

We praise God for a wonderful Christmas time with our family both immediate and extended. We are so very blessed and so very thankful that God sent Jesus to earth as a baby on Christmas! He really is the reason for it all!