Nothing like a wee girl in a dress, riding in a dump truck. Truly a girl with only brothers.
Was blessed to receive this Nativity this year. I collect Willow Tree ornaments and have wanted this set for years. I love how Mary is holding Jesus. It brings me peace just looking at it.
With cousins, meeting Santa at Heritage Park in Calgary. As soon as Santa walked into the room, Silas was clinging to his leg. It was sweet.
Ethan was in the bathroom when I took the other picture, so he got his own solo shot with Santa. He was so proud. I was touched by the way he's touching Santa's hand. For my non-touchy eldest child, this is pretty special.
The lake at Heritage Park. It was cold, but a perfect, clear, cloudless, prairie winter day.
Goofball at the mall.
Here, I will share a little story with you, of our new Christmas Stocking Tradition (I wrote this Dec. 6):
11 years ago, I celebrated my first Christmas as a wife. I love Christmas and wanted to make our first one special, with the few decorations we could afford. Stockings were a big deal to me and I lovingly chose two that were not exactly the same, but matched and were very cute. We hung those year after year. We added two more when our boys were born. They were not matching, but still very special, chosen for my babies.
A year ago, I spent my first Christmas separated from my husband and with 3 children on my own. Try as I might, I could NOT find a stocking that was "special" enough for my daughter. So, she went without. At 3 months old, there wasn't any complaining. I hung up the four existing stockings, even though it didn't feel as "right" or special to hang the one belonging to the husband who had callously walked out of our lives 6 months earlier.
3 months later, I moved from New Zealand back to Canada. In the boxes of things that I left there was the stocking belonging to my "husband". I don't care what he does with it. I just knew I didn't want to look at it again. This year, I pulled out the 3 stockings I had, belonging to me and my boys. I searched the stores again for the perfect one for my daughter and could not find one that stood out. MY stocking left a heavy place in my heart, with the reminder that its matching one was no longer there. There was just a heaviness surrounding the stockings, which discouraged me.
So, online I went. I had always wanted personally monogrammed stockings for my family and suddenly I found some. They weren't expensive. The hundreds of reviews of them on the website were all glowing. I decided to go for it.
They arrived this week and I'm in love. They are beautifully made. My kids are so excited to have their own names on their stockings. My dear girl has her own. And they are no longer connected to our past; the past which brings some sadness. They are all about the present. And the future. They represent my "new" family. The family that God is building and growing in me and my beautiful children. We have been wounded and scarred in the past 17 months, but we are healing and growing stronger and wiser every day.
They are simple Christmas stockings. But they represent something so much larger. They truly represent a tiny fraction of my "new beginning". And I am filled with peace and joy. Thank you, God, for Christmas. Thank you for the "new beginning" that started 2000 years ago with your son in a manger. If it wasn't for him, I would not be in this place.
Continued in "part 2"...
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