PRECIOUS MEMORIES

Most people take December 31^st and use it as a time of reflection.  I am no exception to this.  However, I am not using this day to remember the past year, I am using this day to remember a remarkable man, my Grandpa; John Howard Peacock.

Grandpa passed away almost three years ago now, so this is the second birthday that we have not been able to spend with him.  He would have been 83 today.  He lived a life full of love, joy, and happiness.  BUT, he was also a humble enough of a man to admit that he made his share of mistakes in his life too.  He was a friend to all, a lover of all children, and more than just my grandpa, he was my friend.

I miss not being able to call him and hear “Hey Jennie” every time he answered my calls.  I miss his stories, how he and Grandma would squabble over the details and he would always sigh and say “Yes Mother” and then continue to tell the story HIS way!  I miss seeing his face light up just because I stopped by to visit or because I came by with the kiddos, and he ADORED his great grandkids almost more than his grandkids!  I miss his laughter, his smile, and his hugs; in short, I miss him!

When we lost Samuel it was oddly comforting for me to know that he was with my Grandpa in Heaven.  I wish he was here to meet our newest boy coming very soon.  I wish he could see how much my other kiddos have grown.  I wish I could hug him just one more time.  I wish I could tell him I love him again.

Our time on earth is so short and yet we live our lives as if they will never end.  We worry about things that don’t have a lasting eternal value.  We put all our stock and worth into things, money, power, prestige, instead of people and relationships.  I am forever grateful that I was loved by a man who put his stock into people, who loved me for me.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!  Give my baby boy a hug and kiss from me.  Enjoy sitting at the feet of Jesus today.  I will see you soon.  Until then, I love you and I miss you!

 

 

 

NO VIRGINA, THERE IS NOT A SANTA CLAUS!

We just had the awesome privilege of celebrating Christmas.  In our home it is the day that we recognize as the birth of Christ, even though most people believe that Christ was conceived sometime in December and not actually born then.  (BUT, I am not doing this post to go into the details of church history and how it swallowed many Roman/Gaelic holidays and incorporated Christ into them).  This post is in direct response to what happened to us this week.

As parents we made the decision to NOT have Santa Claus visit our house the year that Maggie turned one.  As a matter of fact we decided then that the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus would not be visiting our home.  We also chose to not have our children participate in Halloween.  This was a decision that we made as parents, believing that we are making the best choice for our children based on our personal convictions and for our own reasons!  From this announcement, 12 years ago, we have received ridicule, flack, disrespect, comments, and in general disdain from people who DO choose to have these traditions acted upon in their families.

In our house we purpose to keep the focus on what is important to us.  We try to teach our children that Christ is the reason that we celebrate Christmas.  They each receive three packages under the Christmas tree from US, their parents on Christmas Eve and their stockings.  We chose this because the Bible teaches that Christ Himself received three gifts from the Wiseman.  We use the three gifts to showcase that we believe that we are no better than the Son of God, the very creator of our universe!

 As parents we use this time of year to encourage the ideas of giving to others.  The children shop for each other, shop for children that we have never met through the Angel Tree Prison Ministry, the local Care Center gift giving ministry, and OCC.  In our family we take this as an opportunity to showcase that there are people who have needs at Christmas and all year.  We do not teach our children that gifts are given based on their behavior (as in Santa’s naughty  or nice list), but based on each person being of intrinsic value and worth because they were made by God and in His image (see Genesis 1 and Psalm 139: 13-14).

Yesterday we received an anonymous letter (return address simply said North Pole), that was addressed simply to the Best Children.  Being the Mama that I am, I opened the envelope.  Without a specific return address I was NOT about to hand the envelope to one of my children to open.  Inside was a copy of the newspaper article, Yes Virginia There Is a Santa Claus.  Needless to say this information was NOT shared with our children.  As a matter of fact, it was immediately thrown out.  WHY?   I’m so glad you asked!

 We DO NOT CARE if you have Santa visit your home.  Please, let me restate this, WE DO NOT CARE IF YOU HAVE SANTA CLAUS COME TO YOUR HOME!  If this is your conviction, than please feel free to have fun with it enjoying the joy that it brings to your family.  However, this is NOT something that will be done in our home!  The remarks continue, the disdain for our parenting choices continue, BUT it will not change our convictions or make us change the way that we teach our children.   We do not feel that the true spirit of Christmas in embodied in the essence of a sinful man (and we have discussed the REAL St. Nicholas and how he put gold into stockings of families whose children were to be sold into slavery, but this is more about church history something that I said that I was NOT going to get into now), but in the essence of Christ and why He came to earth as a baby.  We choose to take Christmas to celebrate and focus on this aspect of the holiday, what we feel is the most important.  We do Chrismtas in our own way and without pushing our beliefs on others.  All we ask is that people treat us with the same kindness.  Sadly, they don’t!

 

CHRISTMAS DAY!

YAY!  It is finally Christmas!  Anyone who knows me knows just how much I LOVE Christmas.  I love the songs, the decorating, driving through town to see all the Christmas lights, the love and laughter of family, and well the sheer joy on my kiddos faces as we celebrate Christmas!  I love how the words to the Christmas carols seem more alive and real to me with each passing year as I contemplate the incredible blessings that God has given to us.  I LOVE the joy and excitement on my own children’s faces as we prepare for this day celebrating Christ’s birthday and what that really means to us.

The big kiddos all warned me that since Robert was on call they were planning on getting up EARLY for Christmas morning.  Their logic as maybe if we all got up early enough, Daddy could be a part of the festivities!  After Robert endured four call outs on Christmas Eve, this plan was sounding pretty sound to me.  I finally fell into bed around 11:00 and prayed that I’d stay asleep.  No such luck!  At 2:00 in the morning Cole came to get in bed with us.  This is very unusual and I couldn’t figure out why he was awake.  BUT, I dutifully put him in between his Daddy and me and got up to go to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water.  It was in the kitchen that I found the answer to the Cole dilemma.  John Robert was wide awake waiting on us to all wake up for Christmas!  After shoeing him and Cole back to bed, I tossed and turned and finally got up waiting to see when the kiddos were going to come back out.  At 5:00 when no one had made their appearance, I turned the tree on, turned the coffee pot on, and headed back to bed. 

Imagine my surprise when E-Man jumped on me at 7:00 telling me it was time to get up!  Being the dutiful parents that we were we made our way to the living room and let the gift giving begin.  Once again, the children had a wonderful time opening all their gifts and we delighted at them in their excitement and enthusiasm.  Cole was really a lot of fun this year, even putting the lid BACK on his box of clothes so that he could play with his new choo-choo!  Of course I was REALLY disappointed when my camera batteries DIED half way through the gift opening fest!  UGH!  BUT, I remembered that my phone had a camera and was able to get a few more photos before everything was opened.  Then we all relaxed, cleaned up a little, and started breakfast.

It's Christmas Morning!

What did Ethan get? 

 

A new bow and arrow!

John Robert has a gift to open!

Maggie snuggling a still sleepy Cole Man!

Look, John Robert got a bow and arrow too!

Ethan opening his gifts while Daddy looks on.

Cole kicked back to let Maggie open his presents!

 

 

My parents arrived with their loot and enjoyed a quick breakfast with us.  We all LOVED the gifts that they brought us, but more than anything we loved the way they acted like silly teenagers showing us how their new smart phones work.  After a short visit, they loaded up and headed home so we could spend the rest of our day relaxing and waiting to see if Robert would get called out again.  I even crashed and took a delightful nap.  (BUT, after the nap I got up and did two loads of laundry and a load of dishes!  HA!)

Papa is here to pass out presents, but it looks like he is playing with a choo-choo to me!

Cole helping Papa hand out presents!

The big kiddos and their gifts!

Maggie got some new cookie cookbooks.

All the boys got "guns" that shoot and have laser lights.

AND, they got some gift card loot!

Nana is here and she is opening their gift from the kiddos!

Papa on toy assembly and battery check.

 

Once again we have been abundantly blessed by God as we celebrate the birth of His Son.  We know that it is because of HIS faithfulness in our lives that we have everything that we have.  We also know that it is because of His rich blessings that our family is so blessed!  We all can’t wait to see what He has for us in 2014.  Christ had the birthday, the babe that was born in the manager; but we are the ones who get the gifts!  What a God we serve!

 

Our Christmas Eve Traditions

After poor Daddy had an eventful and exhausting day, it was time for our little family to gather and do our Christmas Eve traditions.  I must admit that the children were getting antsy waiting on Robert to finish filling out his paperwork for the day for work. BUT, Cole LOVED sitting next to his Daddy at the table and look at a magazine while Robert worked.  It was so cute to see his little head just lean over and lay on Robert’s shoulder while Robert filled out all the needed forms, in triplicate of course, HA!  Finally after what seemed like

F-O-R-E-V-E-R,

Daddy was done YAY!  The big kiddos all enjoyed opening their jammies, but I LOVED Cole’s reaction.  He was so cute to me as he slowly tore one strip of paper off his jammies at a time and then “modeled” his new jammies for me, all the while pointing out is was a snowman.  Then we all gathered in the living room while I read to the children our Hallmark Pop Up First Christmas Story book.  This is a tradition that is VERY near and dear to my heart since this is the book that was ready to me by my mother every Christmas Eve my entire childhood.  When my sister found these books for my brother and me she knew she had to get them for us.  It is something that I LOVE as part of our Christmas Eve traditions.

John Robert waiting to pass put the jammies.

Cole helping Daddy with his paperwork.

Kiddos waiting oh so impatiently!

YAY!  Finally time to open gifts!

 

Cole modeling his jammies!

 

Maggie modeling her jammies!

Cole and John Robert sitting with Daddy in his jammies!

 

Maggie modeling her impish elf!

 

All 4 kiddos in their new Christmas jammies!

Ethan told me he was an "evil" elf!

 

We all looked over to the love seat and Robert was stretched out snoring.  After I put the big boys to bed, I nudged Robert to bed and had Maggie help me put Cole down.  Once all the kiddos were out, it was up to me to get all the gifts out for everyone.  I must admit that I missed having Robert with me.  We always watch the Christmas Story on TBS as we set gifts out and enjoy the time alone just the two of us.  This year I couldn’t bring myself to turn the movie on without Robert and I set to work stuffing stockings and laying out gifts.  Then I cleaned the kitchen and headed to bed knowing that the kiddos would be up early!  Little did I know how early they would be waking up!

Yes, I am here, getting ready to read!

Poor Robert, he had a rough day!

Mama has been busy setting out gifts!

And stuffing all the stockings!

 

 

Now it’s time to wait for Christmas morning!

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS EVE WITH THE MASSEY'S!

Even though Robert was on call the week of Christmas, we still planned to visit with his family on Christmas Eve.  (Mainly because the family gathering was at Granny and Granddaddy’s house which is within walking distance of ours, so if Robert had to leave we were still close to home).  Right as we were sitting down to eat and enjoy each other’s company, Robert’s phone rang.  Guess what, he missed the whole family gathering to go one his 4^th emergency call out of the day (and boy was this one a doozy!!!!).  BUT, the kiddos and I stayed and enjoyed visiting and being together with the family. We ate, we played, we laughed   and listened and told stories, and then we ate some more.  Maggie, John Robert, Ethan, and Cole all LOVED playing and visiting with their cousins.  Of course opening presents is tons of fun and as always, the kiddos made out like bandits. 

Before Robert had to leave, his Aunt Lanie asked everyone to go around the room and say what they were the most thankful for this year.  Maggie was thankful for her new bunny Millie, John Robert was thankful for food (no surprise there, he eats like a horse), shelter, and clothing.  Robert was thankful for his family and children.  I said that I was thankful for all the miracles God has given us, big and small.  Ethan really surprised me; I was expecting him to say he was thankful that he was finally going to be allowed to open presents.  WRONG!  This mother’s heart burst with pride when E-Man said that he was thankful that Christmas was Jesus’ Birthday and we can all celebrate that together!  What a perspective from a wonderful 6 year old!

Check out all that loot!  It was ALL for the kiddos!

Adorable girls, awesome sisters!  We LOVE Lauren and Emma!

WOW!  What a good looking bunch of Best Kiddos!

Ethan LOVES his baby cousin!  She is so cute!

Yes, I am here!  Yes, I do steal baby smiles and giggles!  I LOVE being Aunt Jennie!

Maggie helping Emma hold Eva, hanging out with her little cousins.

John Robert and Lauren!  Whenever these two get together they are like two peas in a pod!

FINALLY!  PRESENTS!

Ethan LOVES him some Turtle Man!

Cole showing everyone his new jammies!

Eva is so much fun this year!  I LOVE this age!

John Robert and Ethan with MORE presents!

Little Ms. Eva still working that gift bag!

Eva and Cole snuggled on Daddy, aka Uncle Josh.

 

 

I am very thankful, that in spite of Robert being called out and missing the time we were able to go back down so he could eat and laugh some more.  I am also thankful that the kiddos and I are so blessed to belong to such an amazing and loving family.