Celebrating Life




















I was beginning to wonder if I would ever write again. At times when I've been crazy-busy, I've written blog posts in my head, but not actually had the energy to type them out; but in the past month, I haven't even had the energy to write a post in my head. It's been like a flat line in my brain.

In less than a month, we've moved out of our house in Atlanta (literally outrunning a snow storm and traveling to Atlanta from Nashville by way of Birmingham to do so - oh, did I mention my mom who travelled with us to help was horribly sick?), moved into a house in Franklin, moved out of the storage unit, had Christmas with Birmingham family, celebrated Tori's birthday, had Christmas Eve services, Christmas, a week of move-in madness, New Year's fun, moved out of the condo and back-to-business!

For all the craziness, we had a wonderful Christmas season. Not that I ever want to repeat this one! We missed out on many of our family's normal Christmas traditions, but we maintained the most important ones - spending time with family, worshiping together on Christmas Eve, reading the Christmas story, and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. We went to Opryland Hotel, had the best Santa picture ever, and played in the (manmade) snow! We stayed up crazy late waiting for the kids to fall asleep and then bleary-eyed, we watched as our kids eyes nearly popped out of their heads as they took in all that Santa brought! We played games as a family, laughed, talked, and ate amazing food.

We watched wonder-filled Lillie experience Christmas for the first time (first Christmas gift, first Christmas cookie, first Christmas Eve candlelight service). We watched Will start to "get it," and experience genuine excitement as Christmas became his favorite holiday (he's already told me it's coming back "next year!") We watched Sophie experience Christmas for the first time since she asked Jesus into her heart (she had herself quite a moment at the nativity scene at Opryland Hotel!) And on Christmas Eve, we watched precious Zoe (on video) learn that she has a mama and daddy that can't wait to meet her (we alternated between laughing and crying as we watched this beautiful little girl get her first introduction to her family).

We survived 2010 (which is saying quite a bit), actually a bit stronger and infinitely more grateful, and we had a blast ringing in the new year with great friends! All in all, the holidays, though extra-hectic this year, were all the more precious as we celebrated life itself - Dad's, Lillie's, Sophie's new life in Christ, Zoe's (her name actually means life), and of course, Life, Himself, God coming to earth as baby, making a way for us to have abundant and eternal life.




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