Countdown to Christmas

Today, I was scheduled to be at work, but I'm at home on-call, so our day looks like:

  • watching a marathon of James Bond movies
  • fika with new tea(!) and leftover cutout sugar cookies (this gf sugar cookie recipe, made with butter, is my favorite)
  • a new knitting project: a colorwork beanie for Nicholas (my first official colorwork project, surprisingly)
  • planning a second new knitting project (a knitter simply must be prepared with enough yarn)
  • snuggles on the couch
  • a quick trip to Trader Joe's
  • keeping warm inside (it's 26 degrees out after it was 75 degrees yesterday. My goodness, Texas, you keep us guessing)

Now that the knit-this-as-fast-as-possible and hurry-up-to-the-post-office parts of my brain are settling down, the rest of my brain is mulling over packing lists and meal planning with careful leftovers for the next few days. Only two 12-hour shifts are between me and our "Christmas break." That said, an unexpected day at home is a welcome opportunity for me to take a break from the frenzy of planning. To pause and remember the true reason we celebrate at Christmastime. So, I'm wishing you happiness as you celebrate with friends and family, with gifts and good food, and also a reverence as we accept that our happiness on earth is only a shadow of the joy we get to experience eternally, because of the arrival (and ultimate death) of Jesus. Let us find rest in that joy, this season.

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son 1 John 5.11
O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining It is the night of our dear Savior's birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining 'Til He appeared and the soul felt it's worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Related posts

Winter adventuring

Starting sometime in the fall, I made a point to be a bit more creative and find new to us trails to hike on and explore. Since then, we have found several new favorites for when we are in the mood for a hike, regardless of the season.

5 min read

2022: A year in review

Welcome to my annual post of our life in the last year – a review of all the big and little events, travels, habits, heartbreaks, and joys. These posts require a lot of time and energy, in part due to sifting through all the posts I wrote in the last year, but also because these posts spur me to reflect and sit with the previous year for a moment, before stepping into the next one.

12 min read

2021: A year in review

Every January, I assemble a blog post of sorts that catalogs our year. Largely organized in list-form, I touch on the big and little things, events and thoughts and experiences that shaped our life over the last year. I do find this incredibly helpful as a sort of reflection, a glance back on the Lord's faithfulness, to show me, time and time again, that He is a good God. And with that mindset, I feel less encumbered as we continue on into the new year, more ready to face a full year of new, fresh days, with the heart attitude that regardless of what the days will hold, mundane or exciting, difficult or good, I can walk into the future with hope and trust in Him. Plus, I do enjoy looking back on a lot of the little details of our life, the ones that make me smile or think, Oh, yes! We loved that! What a little joy in our life.

16 min read