Celebrations

If you know me, you know how much I love Christmas.  It's a little ridiculous, actually.  I go all out.  Multiple trees, new linens all over the house, decorations always in one's eyeline.

I'm also a bit of a Christmas purist though.  I love it so much, I try to keep it special.  No Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving.  But then it's full steam ahead!  It's such a short time of year that I like to squeeze as much out of it as I can.

This year, Thanksgiving was late.  Nov. 28th!  Lots of people were breaking my absolute rule of bringing Christmas out early - and even I was 'getting the itch' too much.

And then Thanksgiving came.  It was a lovely day.  My parents were down from North Carolina and we got to celebrate with lots of great people that day.  Two dinners, one with my family and one with my husband's.  Our daughter was worn out by the end of the day, but with so many people who love her around, she could hardly be still.  I truly am blessed and spent much of the day basking in the beauty of the gifts God has given me.

Here we are at Thanksgiving - we were all in orange - partly because of the holiday, but partly because it is our favourite colour!

So!  The next day comes - and I don't get down all my Christmas decorations, I don't decorate the house and I don't go buy a tree.  I don't bake cookies. I don't do ANYTHING Christmas-y except put on some music.  I spend the day preparing for my daughter's first birthday party!

Paisley was born on December 4th, 2012.  So this year, for her first birthday, we decided to pick a date for her party when my parents would still be in town.  Luckily they both got the first Sunday of Advent off of work (they're both pastors) - a rare occurrence!  So even though many people were traveling and couldn't make it, we had the party two days after Thanksgiving on November 30th!  And many more people came than I expected - and it is a VERY good thing more didn't come!  More on that later....

It was a wonderful party, if I do say so myself.  I knew that a little kid with a lot of people around could only survive so much, so we scheduled it only to last 1.5 hours.  Good thing too!  She woke up from a nap just before and was in a pleasant mood.  She was passed around from friend to friend during the party and we played a game with the older kids for a bit.

Paisley and James

But then we looked at the sky and the 10% chance of rain was starting to look like a bit more.... so quick, to cake and ice cream!
Paisley had a blast eating her cupcake and ice cream, and of course, got SO messy.  Adorable though - I can't complain ;)

And then... RAIN!  Just like that.  Gotta love the Miami rain - one minute it's sunny and the next - downpour!  Quick!  Get everyone in the house!  People grabbed gifts and food and we ran inside in one of the best examples of group cooperation I've seen in my lifetime. 

We live in a fairly moderate house..  About 1600 square feet.  Well.... try fitting the 40 or so people into my living/dining room combination.  OY.  We were packed.  Paisley was soaked from rain, and covered in cake.  So we did a wardrobe change and I asked if people, squashed like sardines in a tin can, wanted to call it a day or open presents.  PRESENTS from all the kids and 'presents' from the adults meant we went ahead and opened gifts in our tight quarters.

Paisley is so blessed to have such loving family and friends and I was again reminded of how wonderful God has been to us. 

People left after gifts and my father was able to pawn off the leftover cake and cupcakes onto guests as they left so that I didn't have temptation staring me in the face all week long.  Hooray!

My parents left on Sunday night and Sunday we finally got our decorations down.  I've been slowly putting them up all week, with more to come - (a post on this later!).

Wednesday was Paisley's actual birthday and we had fun.  She was cranky all day - but hey - she's one and that's not unusual!  For dinner that night we had friends over and it was great.

In the end, this time of year, so full of celebrations, reminds me again and again just how incredible I have it.  There are so many in this world who don't have the ability to have a party for their child, a family to be with on Thanksgiving, a place to go to get out of the rain, and a home to decorate.

This season, please take the time to count your blessings!
And as Bing Crosby sings in my favourite Christmas movie "White Christmas"...

"When I'm worried and I can't sleep,I count my blessings instead of sheep, and I fall asleep counting my blessings. When my bankroll is getting small, I think of when I had none at all, and I fall asleep counting my blessings.

I think about a nursery, and I picture curly heads, and one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds.

If you're worried and you cant sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep and you'll fall asleep counting your blessings. "

We al have much to be thankful for, and many blessings to count.