The (Ri)Charmed Life: christian

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Christmas Musing

It's the day after Christmas. There's still gift bags and tissue paper piled high on the loveseat. The coffee table is full of Christmas bounty. Jason's back to work. Julian is crawling around the house in his new sleeping bag pretending to be a worm. Jane is sleeping off a crazy jam session in her fancy exersaucer. I'm feeling the usual mixed emotions that come with the holidays. This week between Christmas and New Years is always kind of long and strange, especially with school being out.

We spent Christmas day with my in laws. I'm so lucky to get along with them well. My mother in law made it a relaxed, delicious, beautiful time. We've established a tradition. We open presents at our home and then head over there for breakfast and time with all the family. At some point presents are opened. By noon, everyone heads back to their houses for a Christmas nap. We don't have other family in town so we go back for a nice holiday dinner. There's usually a non-related guest or two that joins us. It's a nice day.

I do miss my family though. My parents are overseas. My brother is in California and my sister and her family live in Texas. We try to talk, or at least text, Christmas day, but I think that only makes us miss each other more! For me, there's always a little undercurrent that something is missing during the holiday season and I know it's being with my family. Hopefully we'll all be able to celebrate together in 2015.

I also went into this Christmas thinking that there would not be many presents under the tree. We've had medical bills to pay off, stuff with the cars, and just a lot of financial drama this year. Jane is pretty small so I wasn't worried about her being disappointed, but Julian has had some major Christmas hauls in past years. I also love finding perfect gifts for friends and family members so, by my own choice, I normally have quite a few people to shop for. This year, we had to seriously slim down the list. We mostly just bought for our kids, nieces & nephews and our parents.

Much to my surprise (and gratitude!), we were flooded with gifts from family and friends. The grandparents got the kids' big items: a bike for Julian and a deluxe exersaucer for Jane. I'm pretty sure neither of the children minded that some their gifts from us were not entirely new. Julian even said that this was the best Christmas ever. We all loved hearing that!

Of course, as much as family means and as fun as all the gifting is, the real meaning of Christmas also brings me mixed emotions. I can't express enough thankfulness that I don't have to earn God's acceptance. Jesus made that possible, so celebrating His birth is the highlight of my year. This holiday and the whole Jesus story is about love, forgiveness, acceptance, peace... and it makes me very sad that those are not words that are associated with Christians in general any more. That's another blog post entirely though!

posted under bike, christian, Christmas, day after, family, friends, gratitude, Jane, Jesus, Julian, nostalgia, presents, sadness, tradition | 2 Comments

Commodities, Cousin-style

Thursday, July 19th~

Is it time to get out of the pork bellies, Juju?

Grandpa, says yes! Sell, Christian, sell!

My brother-in-law comes in tonight. The kids were pretty laid back today. Joy tackled the last big closet and mom started packing up some of the nicer dishes. I sort of bounced in between the two. And I kept going through all those magazines!

posted under christian, cleaning, closet, Commodities, cousins, Grandpa, Joy, Juju, kids, magazines, mom, organizing, playing, purging, tossing, trading | 0 Comments

3 Amigos

Monday, July 16th~

Bedtime story with Grandma was probably the kids' favorite time of the day

Today we started going through things again. It's a bit of a challenge to do all this and also keep an eye on kiddos. They can play nicely, but they're loud and still have to monitored. Julian can be a bit aggressive when the younger kids do something he doesn't like. He thinks smothering is an acceptable form of conflict resolution- not good! We have to work on that before school starts.

posted under 3 Amigos, aggressive, bedtime, book, christian, conflict resolution, cousins, grandma, Julian, smothering, story time, Trinity | 0 Comments

Food Day

from Saturday, April 6, 2012~

Love having a freezer full of quick meals!

Had a great afternoon at Dinner Done with some friends today. It's the meal prep place that I happen to prefer. The only real drawback to places like this is that it's not cheap. For a family our size, we split the entrees so that makes it much more affordable. Tonight we had one of the entrees I made. It was steak stuffed with sun-dried tomato and spinach and then topped with adobo seasoning and feta cheese. Soooo yummy!

Easter Christian Traditions, continued... Today there aren't many traditions that all Christians do for Easter. It is known as Bright Saturday. A lot of churches do egg hunts, but this has no biblical basis. Often the egg is used to illustrate the 3 in 1 nature of the Trinity. Some more conservative groups oppose the practice as it is rooted in paganism. Some Catholic churches follow the Byzantine Rites for this day.

posted under catholic, christian, church, Dinner Done, Easter, eggs, food, freezer, hunt, meals, pagan, preparation, recipes, Saturday, steak, tradition | 0 Comments