Merry Christmas

It's finally here! The day that has drove my children nuts for the last month! The day we celebrate Jesus' birthday. Happy Birthday Jesus!
In our house we not only celebrate Jesus and the gift God blessed us with over 2000 years ago. But also celebrate St. Nicholas or what we commonly call him, Santa Claus. No seriously we do not celebrate "Santa" but we do have one Santa present for the kids. The "Santa" gift is the cherished gift that they just can't live without. Which for the youngest ones every thing they see ends up being that gift. (smile) This year we seemed to have a theme when it came for the Christmas wish list. The boys were so distinct that it was easy and yet difficult in knowing what to get them. Jaron wanted all "Iron Man" items, Kristofer wanted "Transformer" toys, Eli was our resident "Batman" and Sara well she just couldn't decide on anything. So she was actually the funniest to buy for. Enjoy the high lights of today's adventures~

T'was the day after Christmas

Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse...(better not be). AHHH quiet....the last 3 days have been nonstop activity in the Kelly house! It started Christmas eve..actually a few weeks before but it got worse that night. The anticipation of Santa coming...yes we do Santa but our kids know that Christmas is about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

The boys played games of all sorts that night while Sara crashed at 6:30 pm. I baked out birthday cake for Jesus while we enjoyed watching the Christmas Eve service at Venice A/G ( http://www.veniceassembly.com/ ). What a blessing it was to be able to worship from afar with cherished friends in Venice from here in Illinois via the internet! What a blessing the internet can be! When Sean finally got home from working we got the boys in bed and just as "Santa" began unpacking the gifts who should appear in the doorway...nope it wasn't 8 tiny reindeer...it was our Sara who thought she heard Santa come in the door.

Needless to say we finally convinced her to head back to bed and we finished playing Santa by 2:30 am. Sean in his pj's (t-shirt) and I in my gown had just settled down for a short winters nap when what do my tired ears hear....two little boys trying to sneak into the living room! Ahh mom has great ears...go back to bed boys...(4:00am) by 6 am the boys were back to sleep...mom so tired was finally able to get to that shorter winters nap.

At 7:30 I hear two little boys plea but, "The sun is up can we please!" I just chuckle and say go wake your dad and by 8 all 4 were ready to to see all that Santa had left under our tree. But before we do Daddy gets his Bible and we read the true Christmas story of Jesus' birth. Then the kids tear into the gifts. Smiles, laughter, screaming "look what I got!" was heard through the house...as mom and dad wished for our soft pillows and heavy quilt to take us back to that winter's nap.

The kids had a great time. The boys room has been officially "Transformed" with Transformer posters and bedding as well has many Transformer toys...thank you Granma Dede and MacMac. Sara now has a beautiful pink plaid comforter and lots of dollies, ponies and things to go with, oh and her Princess dress up clothes (thank you Dede & MacMac). They were showered with gifts from Florida and NY (thank you Nannie and Aunt Michele& Uncle Joe). They got everything they asked for and then some. Thankfully they all only really wanted one special gift.... Sara - a new baby, Eli - Yellowbee (Bumblebee Transformer), Kris - a orange robot, and Jaron - UB Funkeys game set. Made our Christmas shopping so much easier!

As for Sean and I, we didn't ask for gifts. Sean purchased us a nice camera and that was to be it. But naturally we gave each other a few small things. The kids and I gave Sean a large thermos for work...he needs his coffee when he does those overnight shifts, and a Work Hard Pray Harder t-shirt. Sean and the kids gave me some nice perfume and some much needed make up. Good job Honey! Sean and I will celebrate 11 yrs of marriage on Jan 4th. His wedding band has broken too many times and I have wanted to get him a new one.

Thanks to my Mom and Dad, I have been able to do that this Christmas as well. I planned to wait till our anniversary but I just couldn't hold out. My grandma had a boyfriend of over 25 years, he went to be with the Lord in 1998. He is the only "grandfather" I knew from my mom's side. Anyway, mom knew how much I wanted to get Sean a ring and she just happened to have Bob's father's ring. She graciously got it sized and sent it to me to give to Sean. Sean I know will cherish it. It looks so good on his hand. I know he will wear it with pride and honor just as he has the ring I placed on his hand so many years ago. Thank you Mom and Dad! We love you!

The rest of the day on Christmas was spent burning the wrapping and making the dinner. Oh and we were so blessed by the church. They took up a Christmas offering for us. It was enough to take our kids to the movies and spend time doing something different as a family.

We do not go to the movies that often. Just to go to a matinee as we did yesterday (saw "Waterhorse"-great movie!) cost us $35 and that was without including any concessions. Sure wish we had a $2 movie place like we did in Morehead, KY! The movie was worth the money we spent, definately worth it! It's not a cartoon either and the twins, Eli and Sara who are only 3 loved it! They all did fantastic, it made us proud to take them out and they behaved so well!

Christmas Break starts early!

Today was suppose to be "my" big day! My day to just relax, get some much needed quiet time for me, a day of gift wrapping, studying for my big "preaching" moment on Sunday with Sean and talking with someone from the National Office about my ideas for clubs type activities for smaller churches.

THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED!!!!

No instead Sean and I were up at 3 am with Sara, she was burning up and crying her head & tummy hurts. Take her temp to find its at 102.1 UGH! Why does she have a fever?? She just finished her antibiotics of Zithromax??!! Not no more than 10 mins. later I find myself sitting in the bath room with the hot water on full steam ahead! Eli is up coughing uncontrollably. I immediately think croup and there
we sat for 15 minutes. I had to open a window and the door a few times. The moisture was just too much. But it helped, he stopped coughing and was able to breath better. After giving him some cough medicine so he could rest I was back to Sara. I ended up sleeping with her and Sean was with Eli in our bed.

Needless to say I barely got anything done. Thankfully they both slept in and Sara continued to run a low grade fever. Eli has not coughed all day well until tonight. No fever just a runny nose...he has gotten Sara's cold...just in time for Christmas! Sara on the other hand played all day like nothing was wrong but once again her temp went up tonight. I know enough that this must be viral cause she has some strong antibiotics in her system right now. We will see how she is and I may have to call the doctor tomorrow again.

I am proud to say I did get my part of the sermon for our Christmas Candle Light Service done!!! YEA! Or at least the rough draft. Now I can go back and fine tune it with the Holy Spirit's help! Maybe tomorrow I can get some wrapping done....yea right!

I was not able to talk with the Nat. Office person due to her illness. It has been rescheduled for tomorrow. Which is better for me, now I can spend the morning fine tuning what I want to share with them...hopefully.

This weekend will be busy for us. Not only has the kids Christmas break officially started tonight but so has the last minute Christmas rush events for church. Today our church assisted the school with their Christmas Basket give away. Sean made some great contacts with some needy families in our community. We hope that we can continue to minister to them this coming year! It is an honor that the school would allow us to help them with this endeavour. Friday we have our "Christmas Blessings Baskets" to assembly at church and then deliver on Sat. morning. We have as of right now 10 families we intend to bless but it seems like the list keeps growing. I believe we are prepared for at least 2 more families for a total of 12 this Christmas. Sunday is our main Christmas service. Both Sean and I will be preaching that morning. I am looking forward to it. I don't normally get to share in the main service and for Sean to allow me this honor is exciting and a bit nerve wracking. I believe I have a message from the Lord for our congregation, I only hope they receive what I bring forth with the Lord's help. Then of course we have any final preparations for our family Christmas. Sean has to work Sunday over night and then also Christmas eve. Thankfully he does get Christmas off so we will have fun that morning.

We so wanted to be in Florida for Christmas. We even were planning to surprise my family....surprise family!!! BUT with my impending knee surgery we decided it would be better to use Sean's paid vacation and sick days for that time. SORRY GUYS!

There are so many thoughts going through my head. So much has changed this past year. Last year was the first Christmas break we have spent with out my neice and nephew! It was so crazy last year, we were still unpacking and getting things moving around here that we didn't have time to really think about it. This year is different. Even Jaron asked me today what Kaelyn and Brock were doing for Christmas break. I always enjoyed having them with us. I will miss that a lot this year!

Then of course we have the New Year approaching. Can you believe its actually going to be 2008?! Man I remember when I was a teen and would think when its 2008 I will be turning ..... ok I am proud to say I will be turning 38 this next year. But where has time flown?? I mean honestly Sean I will celebrate 11 yrs of marriage Jan 4th. So much has happened since we got married. It's just mind boggling!


New Year's resolutions......another blog I think all in itself. If you have started thinking about yours...I hope at the top of your list is this:

1. Got to Church more
2. Make a real commitment to Christ
3. Draw closer to Him

As for me the third on this short list is my top priority as for the rest....I am still contemplating that. I'll get back to you on that!