simply having a wonderful christmas time...

To shift gears a tad from the last post...

As has been expressed in previous posts, I love Christmas. Everything about it. I love the specials that come on TV. I love spending time with my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I love the feeling of walking into my grandmother's dining room and counting the hundreds of cakes, paying special attention to be sure that the Lady Baltimore cake (my ABSOLUTE favorite) is right where it should be. I love putting up decorations, especially the lights, while listening to the classic Christmas tunes on the iPod. It's funny how you can take one song and have 7 different people sing it, and I still want all 7 versions.

Christmas time this year has been different...it's my first Christmas being married and it's also the first Christmas we will have without my father present. Even with all the drama that has been completely surrounding me the past couple of months, I have found time to thoroughly enjoy time spent doing Christmasey things that bring joy in a time of pain.

This year, The [wonderful] Husband and I have decorated a tree, gone to see White Christmas (the play...the movie is 100x better), ice skated, and shopped. Last night, we had our own Christmas time before we leave to go to my family's house(s). The Husband surprised me with some beautiful earrings, going WAY over the budget limit we had set, officially making all my gifts look laaaaaame, but I'm willing to take one for the team when necessary. We had cooked a delicious dinner and ended the evening by wrapping presents and baking. The Husband really knows how to crank out those gingerbread cookies! I'm beaming with pride. It was such a wonderful night, just being able to relax and savor the season.

Also, last night, we got a call from my sister, The Artsy One, notifying us that a new member of our family had arrived. You see, when we went home a couple of weekends ago, we picked out a new little critter to join the family. Her name is Sadie and she looks something like this:



We are getting her from a breeder near my Mom's house. We knew she would be ready sometime this week and we were hoping it wouldn't be until Friday (the breeder said she'd hold her until she sold the other puppies), but she came last night. Currently, she is awaiting our arrival. The Husband is so excited...he's wanted a puppy ever since he was a wee little boy. I'm very happy that he's going to be getting something he's wanted for a while.

We're also going to the Christmas Eve service at Good Shephard again this year. I'm VERY much looking forward to going this year (long story for another time). Maybe I'll just link to the posts that Auntie Em writes, if she ever will.

As it stands right now, the long and the short of it is this: I have grown up in the Southern Baptist church - and by two amazingly consistent and Godly parents. They have truly lived their faith before me every day of my existence. However I have increasingly been feeling the leading of the Lord to step out of that and spend a season seeking Him about how He sees His world - His children - His Church. It has led me to places I didn't know were there. It has been a road of seeking, weeping, searching, praying, reading, laughing, writing, begging for answers, finding those answers, and mostly it has been a season of true growth and revival for my soul.

It's awesome what God has been teaching her in her life, and subsequently in the lives of other family members, this past year. It's been so wonderful to be able to talk to someone close to me who is going through much of the same thing I am, in that way. That's another post for another time. Suffice it to say, it's going to be a very wonderful service. I feel it in my bones, and I am so excited about going.

So, I guess I'll say, even with the overcast of deep sadness and pain that me and my family are dealing with, it is good to be able to experience these wonderful other things in my life. I hope that whatever you readers are experiencing in your lives that you find joy in Christ and Christmas this season.

"Comfort, Comfort my people," says your God. Isaiah 40:1