Her First Ball

So part of the crazy speed of things in my life happens to be my daughter's first ball.  She was asked, Jane Austen style, by her cousin to accompany her to the Winter Ball at her church and serve as charming conversationalist and dance partner should the need arise.  However, very un-Austenesque, she did wear her hair up (although she is not of age).  She is beautiful and growing up so fast.  The above picture I caught between dances.

A second ticket was procured so that I could chaperone and act as partner to my sister.  We had a wonderful time.  My sister and I danced most dances together trading off who was to be the boy or danced with our daughters.  The Fairfield Fancy was my favorite even though I sat out.  I developed a cold half way through the ball and if I were a Bennett would have gone home early much to the chagrin of my sister.  I toughed it out knowing that my friend Acetaminophen was waiting at home for me.

The whole evening was fabulous.  I think that there is nothing so magical as a true Ball filled with beautiful dresses, chivalrous men, great conversation, laughter, music, and traditional dances (as a nod to this side of the Atlantic we did dance the Virginian Reel.)  It has got me thinking of putting on my own Spring Ball, hence life at the speed of cheetah!!!!

cheetahs, childhood, and other things that move way to fast!

With my younger dancers I play game of Fast/Slow to teach them how to listen to music, recognize different tempos, and practice gross motor skills.   We skip and gallop to the fast music and tiptoe to the slow music.  It is lots of fun and always results in lots of giggles.  Unfortunately my life seems to be stuck on the fast music with no slow down in sight.  And, unlike the 3 year olds, I am no longer giggling at the chance to gallop full speed.  I am winded and my legs are beginning to ache.

I want to slow down but the music isn't cooperating.  Life seems to be moving at the speed of cheetah and I am doing all I can to keep up.  The first month of 2014 has flown by at record speed which leaves me wondering what the rest of this year will look like if in fact I can slow down enough to see more than a blur.  It also leaves me wondering if God even wants me to slow down at this particular time or if this crazy pace is part of His plan for me...

The un-resolution Resolution

I am not into New Year’s Resolutions but God has been showing me something (and you all know that I am a slow learner) that I need to put into practice this coming year.  In the past I haven’t called it judging but really labeling people is a nasty way to rename and justify judging others in a socially acceptable way.  Labeling (judging) others is harmful to adults and detrimental to children.  For example, a child hears they are a trouble maker as a child enough times that they soon to believe that a trouble maker is what they truly are.  But God doesn’t see them as such.  He sees His own wonderful creation struggling under guilt and shame or anger and hatred and His heart breaks for them knowing that is not what He had planned for them.  

I think if we all dig a bit we can find something similar in our own pasts.  I know I have struggled to break the lies of Satan that I swallowed as a child so that I could be free in Christ.  Not all but many of them were begun or reinforced by words of others.  Arrows used by Satan to sting that stuck in my little heart.  God has removed them gently one by one healing the hurt places, allowing the garden to grow.  Can you imagine what this next generation could do if they grew up knowing the truth of who God made them?  If they grew up without the twisted lies of the evil one tainting their self image?  

“Important in any community of faith is an ever-renewed sense of expectation in what God is doing with our brothers and sisters in the faith.  We refuse to label the others as one thing or another.  We refuse to predict our brother’s behavior, our sister’s growth.  Each person in the community is unique, each is specially loved and particularly led but the Spirit of God.  How can I presume to make conclusions about anyone?  How can I pretend to know your worth or your place?”  Eugene Peterson

So this year I am going to strive to bring to fruition this truth and look with God’s eyes on everyone I meet.  For children especially, to look for what God has placed in them that is special and tell them about it so that they will hear the marvelous plan of God for their lives at least in part.  What an amazing generation of children we have growing up before us!  Let’s help to make them realize the truth about who they are in Christ.

“No recorded cultural system has ever had enough different expectations to match all the children who were born within it.”  Margaret Mead

Advent Series 301: Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning is finally here!!!!  All the expectation and preparation has come to an end.  The gifts all wrapped, the cookies all baked, And we light the center white candle.  

Everyone has their own Christmas Morning Traditions.  This is how we start our Christmas Morning.  Unfortunately it starts with a rule...the kids aren't allowed out of their rooms until we tell them it is time.  So that Daddy and I can get up and make a fabulous breakfast and set the table and have a cup of coffee before the craziness begins.  (It's funny but that rule has not once been broken.  Maybe they fear loss of presents?  No stipulation has ever been made but stay in their rooms they do, although we hear the impatience of childhood down the hall.)

Once allowed out of their rooms we have a feast of a breakfast which always includes some sort of eggs, bacon, Monkey Bread, and fruit salad along with a cookie tray of whatever is left.  During breakfast we read the Christmas Story out of Luke 2 and, generally read some devotional type reflection. Lighting the candles is exciting because the kids get to recite what each represents and then we light the center candle.  I use a three-wick candle to represent the Trinity and we talk about how God sent His Son and then later the Holy Spirit came for all believers.  This year we finished out with Christ in Christmas:  A Family Advent Celebration.

After a leisurely breakfast we move to the living room.  The leisure part of breakfast was the hardest to enforce when the kids were young.  But they both realized that 1. Mom and Dad aren't giving in, 2.  The gifts aren't going anywhere, and 3. Time with family is a better gift.  

First on our agenda this year was sponsoring a child through Compassion International.  As a family we decided to forgo some of our gifts so that we could use that money to sponsor a child.  We picked Christon from the Philippines.  He had been waiting for a sponsor for over a year.  His birthday is in March. The kids were excited that they get to send him cards in a bit!!!!  

Then we open our gifts one at a time.  We don't tear into them but open each one and enjoy the time and effort it took to pick it out.  The kids open toys if they were given any and play.  Then we remember there are more and open another one.  It is such a fun time to take our time.  My kids amaze me each and every year.  Even this year with fewer and smaller gifts they are always amazing grateful.  I think because the gifts are a byproduct of Christmas not the real thing and we have always made an effort to enforce that truth.  

We give gifts because God gave the best gift to us - His Son.  The real gifts of Christmas for my family are the special time we get to spend together, the slowly built traditions of years past that help us focus on God and on family.  The wrapped stuff under the tree is like the sprinkles on a sugar cookie.

Christmas Night we pull out The Advent Book and read it all the way through.  We talk about our day before we fall into bed, happy and exhausted!

Advent Series 204: Week 4

It is kind of like the home stretch in a marathon, that last week of Advent.  We have gone to parties, made cookies, shopped for friends and family, sent cards and accomplished other more sundry tasks.  We are generally exhausted and so on this night we do a great deal of nothing together.  It is our movie night.  Whatever favorite Christmas movie we haven't watched yet gets watched as we hang out on the couch or on the blow up mattress in front of the tv.  This year we watched ELF - one of our all time favorites.  We had already watched White Christmas and Sound of Music.  (Why Sound of Music is on our Christmas movie list I am not quite sure but we always watch it this time of year.)

FAMILY ACTIVITY:  Movie night and sleeping under our Christmas tree which always ends with a fabulous game of eye-spy.  Popcorn, hot cocoa, and Christmas cookies are generally on the snack list.

FOCUS:  Love.  As John 3:16 states, love is the reason God sent His Son to earth.  And so we celebrate that love on this night.  We rejoice that God's love has no bounds and is unfathomable.  We also rejoice that Love Incarnate will one day come again with Christ's Second Coming.

DINNER:  An easy-peasy dinner is on the menu this evening.  I usually order out for pizza or something else equally paper plate worthy.

ADVENT READINGS AND WREATH: We read week 4 out of Christ in Christmas: A Family Advent Celebration.  We also read John 3:16-21 and Acts 1: 6-12.  As always we light all the previous candles and add this last one.  I usually review the meaning and reason for each candle as we light with the kids.  We end the nights devotion by reading up to the appropriate page in The Advent Book.

ITINERARY:  This night is super relaxed so we just kind of go with the flow.  I don't think we even lit the fourth candle on this night.  We had a carpet picnic and hung in the living room all night.  We lit the candle the next night at dinner.

I think this night is my favorite Advent Night when it is combined with sleeping under the tree and playing eye-spy.  I think because we don't have any plans and it is just us.  We have a chance to chill out together, joke around, and laugh.  This year we all fell asleep mid-way through the eye-spy game.  Fabulous memories!

Advent Series 203: Week 3

The third week of Advent we light the JOY candle and have a JOY party at our house.  The guest list varies and some years it is just us and the kids.  This year we invited my parents over to celebrate with us.  In past years we have invited elderly neighbors, new friends, old friends, family, and generally anyone we thought could use some joyful celebrating.

When our kids were younger this was their favorite week hands down for two very specific reasons.  1.  It is a "party" therefore there are food items in our menu that I normally don't have around the house like Totino's Pizza Rolls.  2.  It is an appetizer party which means the kids can graze all night and not have to sit at the table to eat.  They still like it a lot but the novelty of walking around and eating has worn off.

FAMILY ACTIVITY:  This night is a true group effort.  The kids help me come up with the appetizer menu and help prepare the food.  That is all part of the fun of the evening.  We have also on this night in the past gone caroling as a way to spread JOY.  We always include a family dance party with old Christmas songs.  Our favorite cd is "Yule be Swingin'".

FOCUS:  Joy.  We have joy because of Jesus.  Joy isn't bound by circumstances but is fully dependent on Christ.  When we have Christ in our hearts we have Joy.

DINNER:  Appetizers.  Be sure to let the kids pick out some of the appetizers!  You may be surprised by what they choose.  Every year at least one if not both of my kids ask for a raw veggie tray and other good for you stuff.

ADVENT READINGS AND WREATH:  We read week 3 out of Christ in Christmas:  A Family Advent Celebration and we also read Psalm 100 and Luke 2:8-20

ITINERARY:  Because this is a party the evening is run a bit differently than the others.  We start with food and dancing and fun and light the first three candles.  At the end of the evening when everyone has had their fill we sit down and read the devotional and the appropriate pages out of The Advent Book.  If we go caroling on the same night we usually do that first and then come home to party.

Advent Series 202: Week 2

For our second week of Advent we light the Peace Candle and celebrate my husband's cultural background.  He is Filipino and both of his parents grew up in the Philippines.  Consequently, they have some very different Christmas traditions from when they were younger.  We love this night when we can spend quality time with Lolo and Lola (Tagalog for Grandpa and Grandma) and hear their stories from when they were children.  Jason's Dad, Lolo, is at a rehab center currently healing from some major surgery so we moved the whole operation to his room at rehab!  (Except for the wreath, I wasn't sure exactly where it would fit and it isn't about the wreath anyway.  We lit that another night when we were home.)

FAMILY ACTIVITY:  There are lots of differences in the way Lolo and Lola celebrated Christmas when they were children and the way traditional Americans celebrate it.  One of the biggest differences is the tree.  So on this night we decorate a Filipino Christmas Tree the way Jason's parent's remember doing it as children.  And while we are doing it we get to hear lots of fabulous stories of when they were young.  Like when Jason's Dad's brother would go back to visit houses he had already visited in hopes of collecting more coins.  Gifts are not a traditional part of Christmas in the Philippines, instead on Christmas Day the children would go house to house in the village giving the traditional greeting of pressing the top of the hands of their elders to their forehead and wishing the inhabitants "Maligayang Pasco" or Merry Christmas in Tagalog.  In exchange they were given small coins to spend on candy or a toy.

This is our Fil-Am Tree.  He is a bit smaller than usual because he had to fit on the small bookshelf in the room.  Notice the hanging ornaments, totally American and added by Lola so that Dad would have pictures of his grandchildren on his very own tree.  The orange at the base are origami creations by my son.

FOCUS:  Peace.  We have peace on this earth amidst strife because of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.  He came into the world to restore our relationship with God and to defeat evil once and for all.  We will see the fulfillment of this peace in all things when Christ comes again.

DINNER:  In past years, I would make a traditional Filipino Christmas Dinner with Lola's help including lechon (a traditional way to roast pork), sticky rice and vinegar sauce.  I always add an american green in there.  Traditional Filipino veggies are hard to come by and harder to get used to eating (at least the kind I have tried!)  This year because of the change of venues and Lolo's special diet we didn't do dinner with his folks but it was a wonderful night full of stories and laughter.

ADVENT READINGS AND WREATH:  We read week 2 out of Christ in Christmas A Family Advent Celebration by Dobson, Swindoll, Boice, and Sproul. We also read Isaiah 9:6-7 and Luke 2:1-7.  

ITINERARY:  Each Advent Night runs about the same.  We start with dinner and then move to the activity and end the evening with The Advent Book by the Stockmans.

HOW TO: Making a Filipino Christmas Tree involves glueing tissue paper flowers to the tips of bare branches.  In the islands the kids would have found a bare mangrove branch to decorate.  In my opinion the end results reminds me of a cherry blossom tree. Lolo said that they actually have a tree in the Philipines that is very similar to the decorated tree but couldn't remember the name of it.  I tried to find it but it turns out that lots and lots and lots of trees flower in the islands and without Lolo I have no idea which he is referring to.

I love watching Lola work with her hands.  This year I documented it in photos.  From the top here are some simple directions for your very own tree.

We used streamers, according to Lola they are the closest we have here in the states to the kind of paper they would have used.  (Even the poorest families would have decorated a tree but used old newspaper instead.)  I purchased three colors.  Pink, white and green.  The branch is an oak branch out of the yard mounted on a wooden base. 

Fold the pink streamer on itself into a 2-3 inch rectangle.  Depending on how full you want your flower make the rectangle 4-6 layers.  Fold the rectangle in half length wise.  Cut a petal shape out keeping the folded side intact.  (According to Lola it can be any shape you want BUT hers are always a simple elongated shape with a small notch cut out of one tip.)  Fan the petals out.  

Repeat the first few steps with the white streamer making your rectangle half as large. This part isn't photographed.  Instead of cutting a petal shape simply cut the unfolded side of the folded rectangle into strips without cutting all the way through so it looks like fringe.  

Insert the white center into the pink petals.  Glue in place and twist the ends of the pink petals around the white center.  (Now when Lolo and Lola were children they used cornstarch and water with a bit of vinegar.  We just used good old Tacky glue.)  

Once the flower is together pick a branch and glue it on.  If the flower doesn't want to stick take a strip of green paper and wrap it around the base of the flower and branch.  

For the leaves follow the directions for the pink petals.  Then separate them and use one or two at a time.  glueing them to the branches in intervals.  

We also made white flowers with pink centers.  

My favorite shot of the night is the one of Lola's hands and Mera's hands working to place a flower on the selected branch.  Beautiful!

It was a wonderful afternoon and evening of hearing stories, teaching my kids about their heritage, and celebrating the birth of Christ.