Since it is Christmas Eve, I give you...

...The Christmas Post.

Drum roll please.

Here it is:

Merry Christmas to all my bloggie peeps!

~from a home with two little people and a mama without enough brain space to think up a profound or witty Christmas post.

I'm off to continue enjoying my family and loving my Jesus... hoping you are all doing the same. See you after the New Year sometime!

Little Ones to Him Belong

...they are weak, but He is strong.

We have a tiny unborn niece who is very weak right now.

She desperately needs the strength of the Great Physician, as do her parents.

Yesterday my sister-in-law received the news that her precious baby girl has Turner's Syndrome. There are varying degrees of this condition, but in this case, the doctors don't expect this sweet little one to be with us to the full forty weeks of her mama's pregnancy... if she does, she isn't expected to live long here.

We are praying for a miracle. We know God can do it, because we've seen Him do so before. We also know that when He chooses to take someone dear to us, He gives peace that we cannot understand and an unbelievable amount of comfort by His presence. We've seen Him do that, over and over and over again.

Please pray for my dear sweet sister-in-law and her husband, as well as for the rest of the family. We are all heartbroken, yet not without hope.

Sarah has written a post on her blog, telling the full story with the details I was unsure of... and once again displaying the comfort and goodness of our Lord. Feel free to keep up with the story of our niece there. Thank you for your love and prayers... Sarah read your comments here today and I know it is will be a blessing to her to know that people none of us even know (as well, of course, as many we do!) are praying for her.

The God of All Comfort

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Our hearts are very heavy today after receiving some devastating news regarding someone very close and dear to us.

We are trying to remember... we love and serve a God of hope... there is always hope. And when He takes us (or those we love dearly) through the very darkest of valleys, when we feel crushed and broken down further than we ever wanted to imagine, He is holding us, caring for us, comforting us, loving us.

Even when our hearts are breaking...

This mama’s heart might not be able to handle so much preciousness

Can anything top the sweetness of a newborn boy whose eyes smile and sparkle so clearly at those who love him, even while his sweet pink lips are still learning to do the same?

Or of a toddler who has started telling his mama “Love you--“Luh lou”—without any prompting, ten times a day, even while battling a stomach bug?

I think not.

As I was saying...

Ahem.

Does the "post" below need an explanation? If you are a mother, I think not.

Ah, children.

The little one was spitting up (I believe the correct term for it would be projectile vomiting), the older one was unhappy because he thought his baby brother needed his binky and didn't understand why putting it in his mouth while he threw up wasn't a good idea. the daddy was downstairs trying to make sense out of the stuff bomb that seems to have hit our living room the moment we pulled into the driveway, my computer was sitting out from a failed attempt at writing a post left-handed while nursing, then the toddler climbed up and sat down beside the laptop while I cleaned up the baby.... and thus the post you see below. Along with the fifty windows open on my desktop and the lock he somehow put on my keyboard.

I'm guessing this will also explain why I am sitting here without makeup on and my hair in a not-so-stylish ponytail when I was planning to be out the door two hours ago to spend the morning finishing my Christmas shopping and running five zillion errands before getting and decorating our tree tonight.

As I was saying--we are home.

And we are determined to enjoy every moment of this next week-and-a-half of Christmas, whether we be in the snowy six degrees in Colorado,




...or stringing popcorn with my family in the desert...

...or, you know, wiping up infant throw up while in our beachy home.

It's all good, peeps.

And so, we're home

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Earlier tonight John's mom made a quick trip over to the church to copy the bulletins. Once she came home, read Troy his nighty-night book and we'd put him to bed, she remarked that it was quite pleasant outside... a good night for a walk.

In light of the huge snowstorm we're in the middle of for the next few days, I was surprised and thought that maybe it had warmed up a bit since the afternoon... you know, "pleasant" weather and all that.

Funny how "warm" and "cold" become relative so quickly, dontcha think?

But, because we are a couple of crazy kids who are completely in love with the snow and cold weather--and, you know, each other--we donned our coats and snow boots and headed out for a walk at 9:30 at night.

Here we are! In the cold! Just us! No children! With cappuccino from the good ol' local Kum and Go! Like a mini, half hour date night! And I look like I have a pair of defective eyes! Which I don't! But, hey, we're walking in the 19 degree-snowy-weather at 10pm!

It really was beautiful, even in the dark. We've had over two feet of snow since yesterday and everything around us looks like a pretty Christmas story book.

And for a few moments, while we walked through the powdery fresh snow hand in hand, sipping our warm cappuccino, talking of whatever came to mind, doing our best to forget the event coming up in a few weeks, we truly felt we must be in that story book...

I’m way too busy looking out the window enjoying the snow to post anything readable right now.

If I were to write a post at this moment, it would probably sound a bit like this:

“SNOW! Do you see the snow? It’s beautiful. Just magnificent. Look! There’s some more snow! The forecast says we’ll get more snow this week. Did you know there’s snow here in Colorado? Let me tell you about the snow…”

I’ll spare you.

Instead, here are some links I’ve loved this past week for your browsing pleasure.

The sweetest article about the feelings and experienes of a tiny bebe…. It made me cry. (So does everything else these days, but that’s beside the point.)

"Christian Liberty and the Law of Wisdom," a post written by a good friend of mine that touches on some of the topics closest to my heart—our identity in Christ, extremism, legalistic tendencies in Christians, following the Lord and not people, fear of man, all that good stuff. I love this one.

"Perfection" by Jodi at The Deputy Domain. And don’t miss the post she links to in that one, Maxine’s “Becoming Real.” I cried at that one, too.

My good friend Tammy sent me the link to this story of a young military wife with two little ones and a deployed husband. Her simple trust and reliance on the Lord is inspiring. I think it goes without saying that, yeah, I cried in this one, too.

Now, it’s back to the snow for me. Because there's lots of it. And I wuvs it.

Somewhere in the middle of the coldness

Last night when we pulled into the parking lot of a hotel in Utah, it was 19 degrees and there was snow on the ground.

Stark contrast from the 70-something it was when we left our Southern California beach-y home the day before.

When we arrive in Colorado tomorrow, it's supposed to be colder and have even more snow. Lots of it.

And I have to say...

I AM THRILLED!!!!! I'm excited!!!! I'm THRILLED!!!!

So, anyway. We are on our way to John's Rocky Mountain home--"home," as in, where he grew up, his parents live and such, of course--in Colorado for about a week. We love it there.

(That was an understatement, just so ya know. We love, love, LOVE it there.)

It's going to be wonderfully cold and snowy. And we'll get to take walks in the beautifully lit and decorated tiny downtown, introduce Troy to the snow, keep Merritt nice and bundled up, and see all of John's dear friends and family.

And did I mention that it's going to be snowy?

It is.

Before we get there, though, we have another day of driving ahead of us. With two bitty boys. Yesterday went great. That was because we left in the afternoon and only drove 6-ish hours... the last few of which, both boys were asleep. Today will be fun times, that's for sure.

Actually, the fun has already begun. I just realized I didn't pack Troy an outfit for today in our overnight bag. Staying in his red fire truck jammies all day isn't really an option. I'm defending myself with the fact that it was almost 3am when I was packing said overnight bag.

See ya in the snow, peeps.