blessed beyond measure

To all, the blessings of Christ. May His peace, love, and joy surround you this Christmas. Now I look back in reverence To that holy night For the God of the heavens Had us on His mind Let us sing of His glory Rejoice in His Name Oh Emmanuel with us always And forever His kingdom will reign

Well, I haven't blogged while sleep-deprived since Aden was born, so let's just see what happens. It all started with that foot of beautiful snow of nearly two weeks ago. A welcome, jolly-inducing, school-cancelling pre-Christmas storm to validate all those timeless holiday songs. It took about three days for it to melt, much to the chagrin of our youngest. He will still look out the window and hiss, I can't believe the snow is gone. It was soggy damp, the way it always is while the earth stores away its much-needed moisture. A week ago today, if the temps had been higher, would have blanketed us again, maybe in another dozen inches. But it is Virginia, so it was mid forties and the rain came tumbling down. Our little old house, she's strong and steady and secure, and to be honest takes quite a beating from her current inhabitants. It's the whole Velveteen rabbit love hurts kind of thing. And we do, so much, love this house. But she can only take so much...

It happened again, y'all. One year to the day after a surprise pre-Christmas winter storm, another one hit. One blessing after another, the Word says. And indeed, my cup runneth over. Twelve inches, a whole foot of powder fell on Sunday, dawn to dusk, in blustery drifts that would stick to our windows and hang over precariously from our roof. A festive blanket that hunkered us down and offered all kinds of Christmasy spirit that we would have otherwise never found time for. The house is clean, for one, thanks to two boys who acted rather Grinch-like about their chores. Snow is great, but obviously it can't fix everything. The gifts are wrapped. And wrapped magazine-style because I actually had time. No bags, no plastic bows or curly-qs. All wrapping paper, real cloth ribbon and twine. Something I haven't done all out since becoming a Mama. Took it slow, thoughtfully matched the paper to the person, sang Christmas songs, and pretended I was like this all the ti...

Saturday night was the event of the year in our tight little community. Two of our own, Jesus-loving salt of the earth folks and sweethearts from childhood, tied the knot in a perfectly beautiful, traditional wedding, complete with an elegant Christmas farmhouse reception. One of those nights where nearly our entire zip code could have been robbed blind, because most all of us were out party heartying. The groom was one of Brandon's former players, who basically grew up in the program and was a precious part of our big basketball family. Such a unique, wonderful relationship between coach and player, and I couldn't help but choke up when Noah shouted "Coach!" above the music at the reception and nearly tackled Brandon into a long, back-slapping hug. And then... Coach kept good on an ongoing trash-talk promise to his team that he could out-dance all of them. He requested his song, walked out on the dance floor, and the circle just formed itself. There are a tho...