I guess there is some benefit in writing a summary of the last two months filled with holidays rather than multiple posts along the way. A few possibilities are the ability to be brief since I can't remember much of what's happened since Arlo was born, or it being easy to trim down pictures since I do not desire to have 100 in one post. The benefit I see most prevalent as I have thought through what I would like to include is that I know how it all went down & can easily see a theme. The theme of the past two months is "Jesus is enough." It is easy to say & we believe it's true but in the midst of the hustle & bustle, holiday expectations & loss of human life, it can be difficult to truly rest in that fact.
**in reference to being brief...my memory is serving me better than previously thought- it's another long one**
Let's back track to the weekend before Thanksgiving. The girls have participated in Jubilate Choir since September. It is made up of a good number of Christian homeschooling families offering choirs from age 3 through early high school. We meet Thursday afternoons nearby our house & two out of the three of us have really enjoyed it. I have always loved to sing & was excited to find something to provide an introduction to the art of music. It gained extra points for us considering it was inexpensive, one 1 hour commitment per week, practice back to back & a welcoming of younger siblings times three.
Charlotte was in a choir with 5-8 year olds & absolutely loved every bit of learning, practicing & performing. Eloise on the other hand struggled to keep a smile on her face & her finger out of her belly button when feeling nervous. I spent half of the fall sitting on the edge of the stage with a giant pregnant belly followed by another month with a newborn strapped on, sometimes nursing while eyeing the two stinker pie brothers trying to sit still...all for some moral support of sweet Eloise. I was concerned she would completely melt down until she walked onto the stage at the Christmas performance. We were still holding our breath as she began to sing. Thankfully she stayed put & made us smile with the serious look on her face.
Here are the lovely Valentine ladies before the start of the show...
We had a practice cd we listened to in the car for three months straight that only had six songs. If Arlo could speak he would sing the words of these songs. The favorite by far was "Jesus Joy of the Highest Heaven" by Keith & Kristyn Getty. I will share more on this in a bit but it was the final song performed with all the choirs together. Eloise had decided she was done singing so Charlotte went on stage with everyone else while Eloise sat on her Daddy's lap. I was video recording in the back of the auditorium and at the one minute mark I see this little one walking in front of the whole choir. I realized it was my little one & wondered what in the world Robby had said to her that provided the confidence needed to make that bold move. In seconds she was sliding in next to Charlotte & I was again holding my breath in hopes that she would be kindly welcomed. She was indeed welcomed by her incredibly loving sister who let her lean on her shoulder barely mouthing the words the whole time. Hands down our favorite moment of the night.
They must have felt so special with both sets of grandparents, a great Grandma, two uncles & my aunt all watching. Here's Auntie Deb, Gaga & sweet Eloise.
Here is the Ellis crew, me looking like I am pregnant with octuplets. What a flattering new shirt to add to my wardrobe! It was painfully cold & we felt awful for accidently leaving Eloise at home while we walked down the street. GGran called once we arrived & said "did you intend to take Eloise with you?" OH MY! We felt so bad. She looks kind of sad in the picture too.
All said & done, it was a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season being reminded in song that we are to be celebrating the birth of a savior. A savior that reconciled us to God. Jesus is enough.
Just a few days later we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house welcoming Grammy, Papa, Auntie Deb, Uncle Joe, Aunt Anne, Charlie, Thomas & Caroline. It was a houseful especially with our small eating area but we spread out through the living room & made it work. I took ONE picture on my camera & a few on my phone. Shows how busy it is to take care of five while my chef husband ran the kitchen. It was his first go round smoking a turkey & it was delicious. I say delicious because everyone else said it was. Sadly I had a major sinus & ear infection & was unable to taste anything for over a week including Thanksgiving dinner!
Prior to dinner we enjoyed a little craft my mom had left for us. Charlotte & Eloise's looked drastically different from Owen & Anson's as you can imagine....or if you can't there is proof below.
Grammy & Arlo together is the only picture I took with my regular camera. I am guessing that if there was one that should be taken, Arlo on his first Thanksgiving would be appropriate!
Auntie Deb showing Eloise & Anson how to taste test a chocolate pie is my favorite picture of the evening. It is a recipe from my Grandmother Alene that we enjoyed holiday after holiday when I was growing up. We always joke that you need two extra arms to make it. Auntie Deb's was delicious & gone way too fast along with pumpkin pie that Papa made. I ate them both even though I couldn't taste them...I knew they were good!
The day after Thanksgiving we spent the late afternoon & evening in Ft. Worth with the Valentine family to celebrate the life of Robby's Uncle Bill who had died unexpectedly the week before. It was casual, boots & jeans, appetizers & many family & friends from near & far. It was quite noisy & made for a great place to have our bunch. Plus, we had Grammy so I was off duty anyway ; ) It was a time to visit with family that included some of Robby's Aunts, Uncles & cousins I have either not met nor spent any time with & it was wonderful get to know them a bit better. Here we are before heading out the door...
Death always brings about many thoughts & feelings. We spent a lot of time contemplating how short life is in light of eternity. The girls are certainly old enough to notice when we are feeling sad or when they hear certain words in a conversation. That brought about more questions so they were quite involved in what was occurring that week. We can talk & talk & talk but the conversations return back to the fact that Jesus is enough. He is enough to cover our sin & reconcile us to God, enough to comfort us in grief, enough keep us rooted in joy & enough to assure us that we will in fact spend an eternity in his presence where death is no more.
During times of loss we are keenly aware of the gift it is to share life with those you love. One fall decoration was our little pumpkin family of seven. It was put out on the entry table at the beginning of September & each time I walked past I was reminded of the blessed 9 months of carrying a babe in the womb. On October 13th it was official that the pumpkins perfectly represented our growing family.
The last of the fall photos is of a pile of leaves that were intended to be filled with what we are thankful for & hung on our thankful tree.
There are some years that certain traditions just get left behind. We of course had much to be thankful for with a brand new baby but just never got around to writing them down probably because of that brand new baby. I am realizing I have to be okay with the changing seasons (no pun intended) of our life in relation to the addition of children & increased responsibility at the Nest. The responsibility alone requires simplification to even survive A day. We did love the leaves the girls made out of tissue paper & glue while at GGran's one afternoon. We can save them for next year. Again, we could write "Jesus" on each one. After all, he is the person that has given every good & perfect gift.
As soon as Thanksgiving was over we put the Christmas décor up as soon as we could! We baked cookies & decorated gingerbread houses the first week which is SO unlike us. It was disastrous & fun, as it should be!
Everyone in our house has an appetite for extreme amounts of sugar so these two experiences hit the jackpot! Arlo came out to join us for a bit at the end & looked surprised to hear that he would not be getting any cookies with his milk.
Batman had us laughing so hard when we would tell him to smile. He would make the face below & say through his teeth in a very irritated voice "I am smiling!" Ha! Lolo on the other hand loves to cheese it up.
We were finally able to convince him to grin....
Tackling gingerbread houses was a first for us. I looked up a recipe for the perfect icing to hold up the walls & roof. It was really, really perfect. Robby helped the girls & I helped the boys. Honestly, I just don't have a knack for the construction part but it didn't matter anyway with these two....
Our plan was to assemble them that night & consume them the following day. That worked for about three seconds. The only way we could keep the boys in their seats was to let them chow down. Every time we turned around they would grab a container of sprinkles, rip the cap off & dump them onto the roof. It was comical.
The finished product, Elo's on top, Char's on bottom. All I kept hearing in my head was "through the sea of swirly, twirly gum drops" thanks to the oh so quotable Buddy the Elf.
Decorating the tree is usually a favorite part but this year was not so fun. We keep thinking the boys must be old enough for things to not be so irritatingly difficult. Wrong again. They lasted about 5 minutes. There were broken ornaments by the middle three children & actually most by that oldest of the middles, poor girl. We ended up leaving multiple favorite breakable ornaments in the storage box. They will be "vintage" when we can finally hang them safely on a tree at the Nest.
We were delighted with our new decorations for the year....
Mr. Chubs was too big to fit in his own stocking so we had to cram him into Robby's. He lost his pants & most of his diaper when we attempted to gently slide him out. Haha! I came across this Etsy shop that sold hand painted wooden Christmas ornaments & could not believe how cute they were so of course I had to buy three. One for Arlo, one for the Polish Valentines & one for us. Since I loathe the post office I thought I took too long for a package to arrive safely in Poznan by Christmas day. I apologized to Jenny & told her it would be a "New Years" gift instead. I got this text on Christmas Eve....
and ours...
I find it hilarious as I am just noticing the ornament to the right of the new one. It is a s'more ornament that says "I burn for you." I mailed this to Robby 8 months into dating when he was living in Australia. Maybe that was a little too forward. What we can learn from this photo is you better be careful who you "burn for"...you might end up paying extra for all those heads in your sleigh.
Over the month of December we participated in very little exciting holiday traditions out & about. We were still getting not a lot of sleep & it seemed the daily grind was enough to squelch the energy for anything else. Instead, we were home & in hindsight it was restful even though we were not rested. In our attempt to do any Advent reading as we so desire to do, we read the same three stories in our Jesus Storybook Bible & acted it out with the Fisher Price manger scene set, over & over...and over. The Lord honored that futile attempt compared to my grand idea of a December full of fun & much energy spent teaching our little ones more about why we we're celebrating. He gently reminded us that he alone is the one that can change the hearts of our children. We experienced these reminders in seeing a desire for them to pray & talk about Jesus, in hearing our budding reader share stories from her Christmas book filled with scripture & prayers & in a general sense of his presence in our home.
The favorite song of the girls performance, "Jesus joy of the highest heaven" brought me to tears many a time while "practicing" in the car. The lyrics are as follows...
Jesus, joy of the highest heaven,
Born as a little baby
Under a wondrous star.
Like us, crying He takes His first breath
Held by His mother, helpless
Close to her beating heart.
Jesus, laid in a lowly manger,
Facing a world of dangers,
Come to turn me a stranger
Into a child of God.
Jesus, King of the highest heaven
Learning to take His first steps,
That He might bring us life.
Like us, knowing our smiles and sorrows,
He showed the way to follow,
A way that is true and right.
Jesus, take away every darkness,
Steady my simple footsteps
That I might in your goodness
Live as a child of God.
It makes me teary eyed reading through it just now with Arlo snuggled close. It has been so different to have a newborn during the Christmas season to help us more fully realize the helplessness of a new baby. When up at night nursing Arlo every few hours I couldn't help but think of how Mary must have felt caring for her son knowing that he would be the greatest gift of all time, our rescuer.
It is always so funny to me what the kids choose to play with. This clothespin, sharpie on the face, wrapped in "swaddling clothes" & laid in a mini box that had probably been stepped on many a time got a lot of attention. He was swaddled & unswaddled, carried around in a pocket or put safely back in his broken box. The blessing of this simple craft was a reminder of our time at Celebration Community Church. Robby & I made it with the kids in the class we taught & this was the one Charlotte made when she was three. Simplicity at it's finest. Jesus is enough.
