Christmas in the 'Cello

                                          

My mom, Nonna, with Grace and Callie

(Check back for video...trouble uploading!!!)
While we were in Monticello for "Christmas", Grace sang a duet with my 5 year old niece Isabelle (at church).  She did really well, to be so young!  She got up there infront of 100 or so people and sang away!  Check it out.  The video is blurry, unfortunately, but you can hear them pretty well!  Mom said all she wanted for Christmas was for the girls to sing with her (she played the banjo) and they gave her what she asked for!

This year was the last year to celebrate in the home I grew up in.  My parents sold their home to my brother and his wife.  They bought a neat cabin with about 15 acres and plan to move in January.  I'll remember many Christmases at my childhood home with warm memories, food, lots of singing, sitting around the fireplace, looking out at the land as it snowed, talking, laughing, lots of joking and picking on each other, opening gifts, and more.  This year as we drove in, it started snowing about 20 minutes before we arrived so the ground was white.  It was perfect.  I cried myself to sleep the night we arrived.  What triggered the crying was that dad went out to check on one of his horses very late, near midnight.  I noticed that the kitchen door was opened and looked out at the barn for him.  Shortly, he turned the lights off in the barn and I watched him walk the lane back to the house (in the snow).  I watched him and welled up.  How many times have I watched him walk that lane....I can't even begin to guess how many times...and this time was so special because of the snow and the realization that my childhood home's story has come to an end.  In it's place will be many stories for my my brother, Amanda, and their two (soon to be three) children.  I read something recently that fits perfectly, so I'm going to close with it.
"Home is the magnet...We rely on home not to change, and it does not, wherefore we give thanks, Again Christmas:  abiding point of return, set apart by its mystery, mood, and magic, the season seems in a way to stand outside time.  All that is dear, that is lasting, renews its hold on us:  we are home again.  Is it not one of the mysteries of life that life should, after all, be so simple.  Yes, as simple as Christmas.  Journeys through the dark to a lighted door, arms open.  Laughter smothered with kisses, kiss smothered laughter.  And blessedness is the heart of it all.  ~ Elizabeth Bowen

Thank God for the truth of this.  My childhood home, at Christmas, stood still in time this year as it did every other year that I recall the last 25 years.  I have returned there from undergrad at UK, an internship in Columbus, OH, grad school in Johnson City, TN, and presently from WKY.  Despite being married and now with two children, what I always held dear as a child...I found again and again there at Christmas.  I'll miss it...my journey through the dark, from different places, always took me home at Christmas.  I know how blessed I have been to have it there, with two supportive and caring parents inside, always ready to welcome me in from the cold.  A new story will start in a couple weeks and I pray God's blessing on it and thank him for the memories and love in my childhood home.

Sippy Cup

Post Coming....

Ribbon Cutting at the farm store!

I keep trying to upload a picture of the ribbon being cut but am having trouble!  Technology~grrr.  The ribbon cutting at the store went over well.  We had a moderate turnout and sincerely thank those who stopped by! Since the store's opening in early October, we have hit the floor running.  The Christmas season has proven to be good for business, because customers have been coming out to get quality foods for the holidays.  I'm still doing ordering and inventory and enjoy it, but doing more is not something I have time for or want to do.  I need to learn how to enter inventory into the computer, because right now Shawn is doing it.  When the spring and summer are here, it is going to be utter MADNESS as his hours pick up drastically w/ sod and planting and harvesting and markets....I have to learn this inventory stuff so that I can do it then! 

Bragging Rights

Post Coming.....Noah John started crawling and Grace put together a 60 pc puzzle by herself straight from the box

MOPS Christmas Float

This year, the MOPS group I'm in decided what better way to advertise than to have a float in the Christmas parade.  What we also inadvertently decided (ha!) was we would see just how cold we could get and the low temperatures we would expose our little ones to.  It was fr-eezing.  I have to say, I have some great MOPS friends.  They handed out 500 flyers that night.  5-0-0.  Wow :).  If that doesn't get the word out there, what will!?  (Quoting Brooke, friend/coordinator) (I had an injured ankle so I was in the back of the truck, without Grace might I add!  The firetrucks scared her so she got in the truck cab before it even started!  Typical! My idea to do this and my kids are either a) way too little to be out in frigid temps or b) too scared by all the commotion to sit snugly in my lap and enjoy! Sigh!)  My favorite part of the Christmas parade was actually the decorating part before it started.  I had a great time chatting while working on the float.  This last pic show Grace's dissatisfaction at being stuck in the back of the truck while we loaded the other kids onto the float.

Noah John at 6 months old

It is hard to believe that Noah John is already 6 mos old.  If I thought time flew with Grace, well it goes by in a WHIRRRRRR now.  The good thing about having a second child is that I do know this though...I know that babies go through phases and stages...and not to waste lots of time worrying over the sleepless nights or the endless thumb sucking...because before I know it, that stage is gone and another is entered into.  Noah John is a good baby, by any standard.  Recently, Shawn gave him the biggest compliment one could fathom.  Last Friday night, the two of us took Noah John to dinner and Christmas shopping (Evansville).  Bless his heart.  For the first time since his birth, he had his daddy and me all to himself!  (Grace went to The Nutcracker Ballet with Shawn's parents).  Anyway, while we were having dinner, shopping, then driving home, Noah John was so easy.  He never cried like you'd expect a 6 month old to do.  He was just very pleasant...and other than the fact that we had to haul his heavy carrier around :), he was no trouble at all.  So, Shawn said, "I wish there was two of him."  I said I liked having my boy and girl.  He said, "Oh, definitely I like having a girl and a boy...."  I said, "You mean you wish he had been twins?"  He said yes.  Isn't that a great compliment?  I don't think I can describe here, or anyway, how my heart has changed since having my children.  They are wonderful blessings and I am reminded of that daily.  God has a plan.  He has a purpose.  For all of us.  Even for the least of these.  Last night, I stumbled out of bed and prayed for each of my children.  Neither woke...they just slept peacefully...near to the heart of God I'm sure.  I want them to always know that prayers have always followed and encircled them, since before they were born.  This world is not always easy, but God is always there.  So, as I celebrate Noah John's 6 month birthday :), I thank God for giving him to me to parent.  As far as what he's doing right now...starting to crawl a bit, saying Momma, Da Da (a loooot), and eating!  Boy loves some rice cereal...and all his other babyfood too.  He weighed 18 lbs, 2 oz at his check up today.  That's what he weighed 2 months ago, so I have to take him back for a weight check in 6 weeks.  The pediatrician said she thinks that he is just leveling off though.  He is still nursing every 3-4 hours and still sleeps at least 8 hours at night!