19 weeks and the eve of my favorite Eve

I took a picture of myself in the mirror to document the fact that this may have been the last time I will wear my favorite jeans for awhile.
Pre-Christmas at 19 weeks:


Looking forward to our last Christmas Eve as a family of two, three if you include Toby, which we definitely do. Christmas Eve, is one of my very favorite days of the year because of all of the traditions that we keep as a family. Here are my thoughts on it from last year at this time.

I spent the afternoon finishing up a few homemade gifts, cleaning a bit for the out of town guests who arrive late tomorrow night and now I am just plain relaxing, soaking in a quiet night and looking forward to tomorrow morning holding more of the same. I decided not to do my annual Christmas letter this year for the sake of not doing it all. Instead, I will be collecting my thoughts and reflecting on 2010 in the next few days and write a little letter to my blog about the year. Until then, Merry Christmas! Peace, Love & Joy

And a partridge in a pear tree...

(image taken from here)

I know the song is the 12 days of Christmas and we are 10 days out from the day itself but this song has been on my mind ever since I lost the final Jeopardy question for our youth group team last Sunday night. I couldn't remember how many maids-a-milk, swans-a-swimming or any other thing besides the partridge, lucky bird. (here is the list if you need a refresher yourself).

So in order to redeem my caroling status and to share some thoughts, I thought I might share 12 out of the ordinary type gifts that I have been reflecting on. It all started with Ryan's post earlier this week about struggling well with the balance of what Christmas should look like (I especially like his conclusion about mistletoe). But more seriously, I do think it is important to take a moment or two to keep our perspective about the shopping, the decorations and busyness. Or as my favorite author tweeted this week:
"My grown-up thought for today: If this season feels crowded/frantic/shallow, my choices allowed that to happen. And I can make changes."-Shauna Niequist

With those thoughts, I give you my 12 gifts of Christmas list, thinking outside of the box about what we can give others this year.

1. grace. after all, His mercies are new every morning.

2. the benefit of the doubt. Who knew that the Subway girl today making my toasted tuna with honey mustard with the sleeve tattoos was going to be so polite and awesome?!

3. a second chance. if you believe a relationship or situation is worthwhile, give it your all and allow it surprise you.

4. hope. whether it be to pursue a dream or just to keep going another day, let's not hold back from giving one another the gift of hoping even in dark times.

5. your words. in written form by poem, letter or song, tell someone how you cherish them or what they do that you appreciate everyday.

6. a good book with a personalized note. I love when someone takes the time to think about what I might enjoy or believes in something they have read so much that they want to share it. That book for me this year was The Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore.

7. Your time. Carve out an afternoon for coffee & window shopping, a dinner in cooking together or breakfast at your favorite cafe. I know it is old school but I love the idea of receiving a "coupon" for a date with someone I love spending time with.

8. tickets to an event you know they would enjoy & free babysitting for the night if they have little ones.

9. A gift in their honor to an organization you know they believe in. Erich & Ryan decided that the three of us would do this for our gifts to one another this year and I love them for it. I can't take any credit but have a few ideas about organizations I believe are making an impact:
Kids Food Basket in Grand Rapids, providing meals to kids who otherwise don't have consistent food.
Under the Fig Tree, an organization our friend Brad is a part of that equips leaders and continues to walk with people on their faith journey.
There are SO many more, choose one that blesses the person you are gifting and I know they will be so touched to know that instead of giving them a new scarf from the Gap, you gave someone a meal.

10. a homemade gift. It can be a set of glass ornaments that you fill with something fun, a stack of homemade stationary tied with a ribbon or whatever your specialty is but a homemade gift always shows the time and energy you were willing to put into something.

11. A photo book from Shutterfly, Snapfish, whatever online photo site you prefer. So many of us take so many digital photos and never take the time to print them out into a form we can enjoy them in. You may have to get sneaky on this one to upload your loved ones' photos or you may have some but I think everyone enjoys preserved memories of a cherished family vacation, a wedding, a new baby or just a year in review.

12. And finally, a partridge in a pear tree. I had to add that one!

I hope you are finding yourself encouraged in this season amidst the parties and holly and even stealing a moment under the mistletoe- a gift to both involved!

official marker of Christmas

To me, the first Christmas card signals that the holiday season is officially here. I get out my fancy card holder that I got a few years ago on a post-Christmas sale and carefully arrange and rearrange the cards as they come in. Most importantly, the ones with the pictures must be in clear view. I think I am going to do both a picture and a letter this year, for the sake of loving both.

As I sit here and drink my hot chocolate (read: eat marshmallows by the fist full) I am browsing through a few fun layouts on Shutterfly, thinking gleefully about all of the friends who do picture cards. Here are a few I love:





A little mix of eclectic & a touch of dark brown through each of those I really dig. Especially important is the message on third one of peace, love & joy, elements that I believe should be part of us year round. You will just have to wait and see which one I choose!

I am about halfway done with my gift giving and the calendars on here caught my eye as well & I am tucking that idea away for a gift for the grandparents-to-be for next year. But that is next year, and this is this year so I better get a little more creative for the time being before anything with our child on it will count as a worthy gift! For tonight I am focusing on sitting by the tree, drink in hand and soaking up the quiet between parties .

loving lately: December edition

In no particular order:
1. Subway! toasted? why of course!

2. the fact that the holiday season is officially under way with tomorrow kicking off a stream of holiday parties including:
*our annual client event which is always hard to believe we get paid to plan because it makes life at work so much fun. For example, today I designed menus and nametags for the big day tomorrow at the fancy JW Marriott in Grand Rapids. What to wear?!
*next week's cookie exchange with Amber
at her mom-in-laws, I continue to love connecting with her and am thankful that
friendships do transcend the electronic world

3. the snowy nights now that my tree is all set up

4. using the crockpot to make easy meals, tonight it was simple with these ingredients:
1. chicken
2. one bottle of BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's of course
3. a little onion salt--second in line to real onion but you use what you have
*let all ingredients cook all day, shred the meat and you have so many options!

5. looking forward to hearing the baby's heartbeat again on Friday! 4 months already and feeling so great

6. OFFICIALLY deciding as a couple that we are not going to find out at our 20 week ultrasound what we are having! I surprise even myself sometimes but the more I have thought about it, the more excited I am to have it be a mystery until this little one's b-day!

7. Christmas cards!! I love any mail that breaks up the usual junk and bills routine that I go through when I pick up the mail. I used Groupon to score a great deal for our first batch of cards with pictures and I just got an email that those are on their way to me. I can't wait to see them and am conflicted a bit because for the past 2 years I have also written a Christmas letter and just included a pic in it. I may have to upgrade the whole thing this year and do both!

what are you loving lately now that we are officially in December?

Christmas: the aftermath

The presents are opened, the goodies eaten and eaten some more, the miles traveled and the carols sung. And I am at home, exactly where I love to be. I am going to leave my tree up until New Year's day to enjoy the light of it in the mornings when it is still dark and too early to turn the rest of the lights on.

It is going to be a busy week of work but a slow week of evenings at home to continue the rest following the wake of Christmas. This year's Christmas Eve was especially sweet as my brother Erich wrote a poem 4 pages long, chronicalling every step of our annual evening together as a family. Christmas day and yesterday were full of more parties and the older we get, the more grateful I am for the gifts we recieve and time with those we love.

All of that said, I am ready to return to quiet winter days and enjoying our little home and time with Ryan while he is on his semester break until January 12 (which happens to be his 27th b-day!). We are headed out on Friday to PASSION: TWENTY TEN in Atlanta with 50 college students from Grand Valley as leaders with some good friends of ours. I am so looking forward to a few days full of being with students and from what I am learning, Passion is all about encouraging college students to live out their faith so there will be thousands and thousands of young people who are part of campus ministry in their universities represented there.

On top of that, I simply cannot wait to hear and be challenged by people like Francis Chan (author of Crazy Love), Beth Moore, John Piper, and participate in worship led by David Crowder Band, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, Chris Tomlin...the list goes on. Feeling really blessed to have this opportunity and looking forward to the time away.

it's my favorite day of the year

no competition. This day is it. As I have gotten older, our annual traditions have not changed but my emotions around them have deepened. I believe as a child and even a teenager, that I experienced a very real joy around Christmas and sensed and sacredness of lighting the candles and reading Luke 2.
Now as I am comfortably into my 20s, I know that every year with my grandparents is a gift and that the traditions that my family carries on are unique and all ours. It gets so easy to get lost in gifts and lists and plans the older we get but today I won't let the adult in me steal my childlike wonder.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men
on whom his favor rests."
-Luke 2:10-14

Thoughts on Having a Party

The candles are lit, the pie is baking in the oven, the floor still needs to be swept and the junk hidden from the kitchen counter. You all know that chaos that occurs in the precious 45 minutes before a party begins when all of those little “to do’s” need to be done NOW. I have a love/hate relationship with that part of party planning but really more of a love.

We had a dinner party (that sounds so grown up and I love saying it) for our small group at our house Thursday night and I realized how good it felt to entertain. I have taken a break from it in the past 6 months or so and enjoyed every part from choosing the candles and place settings to stacking the dishes and soaking the pans. I truly meant it when people were starting to clean and I told them not to worry about it because I wanted us all to have time to just sit and talk! There was a little post party regret, admittedly when it took me until this morning to get on top of those dishes.

But I still think it was worth it, to have friends around our table laughing and telling stories. And I think entertaining is like anything else, the more you do it, the more at home you feel doing it. I have learned that I enjoy the party a lot more if I make it easy on myself with a simple menu and allowing others to bring things which saves me time in the kitchen and helps with the cost. So I made loaded baked potato soup in my Pampered Chef covered baker which can be done all in the microwave, amazing really. Others brought appetizers (Kelsey's bacon wrapped weenies are to die for), salad and bread and there you have it, a holiday meal.

instead of blogging...

I have been camped out with this guy, doing crafts all over my living room floor for multiple nights in a row.

and trimming our tree, setting up my Nativity in a new location and adding a little Christmas flair to every corner



and who could forget the late night bundled up walks with these guys down Christmas card lane to see all of the lights and decorations going up around the neighborhood?

plenty of thankful to go around

last night I had my high school girls over and they just knew when they saw the little pieces of paper and pens sitting by their place settings that I was going to make them write out their Thanksgiving list. Just 5 things, anything really. I loved hearing what was on their lists and was admittedly challenged myself to put into words what I was thinking. So here in no particular order is my list for this Thanksgiving.

1. a job with people I not only really like but love
2. my puppy who has kept me company on many lonely days
3. the realization multiple times in this year how short life is and even the beauty to be had in grieving & what it does to our souls
4. faithful friends who pray for me when they say they will
5. the fight within me to learn contentment, as many times as I fail, it feels like baby steps are taking place. 2 steps forward and one back is still one step forward
6. a hubby who loves me through thick and thin and the renewal of our friendship in this past year as we seek to move from living as individuals into one life together
7. family who is faithful to be there for anything and everything we need them for
8. this old house. I love this old house.
9. music and the way it fits my moods, help me worship and expresses what I can't
10. blog friends who are willing to put it all out there and share their experiences, I learn so much by reading others online journals
11. coffee, black coffee, coffee with hazelnut creme, the occasional latte, coffee
12. grace that I don't understand
13. the journey through the Bible we are going through with our small group & church, it is kicking my butt into being in the Word daily, something I could never do on my own
14. creativity and enjoying making things by hand
15. my wedding ring. I was asked the other day by someone when I was getting married and I was able to share about the joys of being married almost 5 years to another girl who was engaged

I know I don't have you at my dinner table, but if I did I would pass you a little paper turkey and ask you to make your own list...

are you ready for this?!

from pumpkin spice, which my bestie so lovingly posted about here, to the next season. Welcome Peppermint Mocha.

My leaves are raked, I bought milk that doesn't expire until December. I am ready for you to bring me in to the next season.

it's beginning to look alot like...

autumn still. But in efforts to get ahead of the game and in reaction to an unexpected night at home...yours truly is pre-Christmas prepping. Like ordering Christmas cards from Shutterfly with some of the new family pictures that we got taken a few weekends ago (promise to post them soon). I am also making a Christmas gift that might take a few creative sessions to complete...is it for you?

a day late and a dollar short

I was told I should have been her for Halloween:

I'm a day late and a dollar short. (ok 2 days late) but was curious about the recommendation from a good friend and found out that Flo, the Progressive Insurance Girl, has a cult following of fans. Who knew? He told me it was her bubbly personality; hmm..maybe I drank too much coffee that morning!