Sonnystone Acres

what a great year it has been! i praise and thank The Lord for all He has shown me! i’ve learned to shut-up (still a work-in-progress) and listen; whatever the conflict, i’ve learned that if i choose peace everybody wins; i’ve learned that not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts (is that a sesame street reference?). what has been restored inside of me is a right relationship with FatherMotherGod and i know that nothing, neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate me from Love. so into a new year with these lessons, and more which are too deep to be expressed… forgetting (and forgiving) what is behind me, i press on…………..

to add that extra festive touch, the pipes to our shower have shut down their “hot” for the holiday…..good thing i don’t value personal hygiene (much). since husband doesn’t go back to work till 2:30 fate stepped in and gave him a real job—under the house breathing on the water pipes. merry christmas!

my lovely daughter and her dashing husband left at 5 a.m.—she’s got a flight back to nyc at noon and a singing gig at 8 and 11 tonight. the boychild will be attending the family functions of his fiancee’ this evening and tomorrow. i’m cleaning the cider off of the floors and working on the leftovers… it has been a great celebration–40 hours of fun! to all who read this: may your chistmas be as blessed as ours.

everybody’s here–most of the time– the husband/dad is working 16-hour shifts; we prop him up and he opens presents when he’s home…the texas hold-em (las vegas style) is a hit…the kittens are having a blast with each other…the cars have been stuck and unstuck from the driveway (we allow casey to do that while he’s home) lots of eating—hundreds of shrimp, dozens of presents….i love these guys.

what great timing for record snowfall….melissa & eric arrived in indy this a.m. and are on their way even as i write this; luckily jessica took a half-day off of work so she and michael will hit the road around 2 p.m. e.s.t. the snow doesn’t get deep until they get south of terre haute—no worry about speeding tickets in sullivan county today. the first storm has dropped 8-12 inches and stopped; another is scheduled to hit in 3-4 hours and add another 2-4 in. the husband has been out plowing since midnight last night and is scheduled to go back at 10:30 p.m. for another 16 hours. i’ll be very relieved when everyone arrives safely, though getting into the driveway might be their biggest challenge! it is beautiful, though, and i’ve got all the supplies here at sonnystone for a great celebration.

it was 30 years ago today at 1:21 p.m. that melissa beth arrived on the scene. she looked something like this:

29 years ago at her first birthday party she was already a party girl:

25 years ago, she had achieved royal status, a princess:

in recent years she has banned pictures of herself, though not birthday parties. i could write a book about how much i love this girl, how gifted and kind she is, how courageous and wise she is, or how stubborn and hard-headed she is…. or how much i admire her tenacity and faith in her calling. i love you, daughter; may you have peace on this joyful day and every day. amen.

we’ve been practicing every sunday since thanksgiving and had a dress rehearsal yesterday, but this group of great kids knew their parts early and made my job easy…hey, not just easy..enjoyable. this is the start of my own personal christmas….away in the manger, God loves me dearly…..”and man shall live forevermore because of christmas day.”

for me, one of the most fun things about raising kids is getting to establish traditions that are unique to our family circle. i love a christmas tree surrounded by presents, but even more i love opening presents. i’m not sure when i began to do the number thing at christmas, but i have now thoroughtly evolved into a “keep the numbers the same” freak. i buy several (ostensibly inexpensive ) gifts for each person and that’s easier for moon than boychild…he always will want a video game that isn’t out yet…so i’ve filled in with socks, mittens, underwear, etc. to “keep the numbers the same”. it’s now multiplied with the addition of the spouses and grown more challenging, but it’s SO FUN!! at the appointed time, we start opening, taking time between presents to admire, thank and praise….or in the case of opening the socks to move on to another present quickly. when the kids lived at home we started on christmas eve and finished up on christmas morning with santa’s gifts and stocking stuffers. we’ve adapted in recent years to have our “christmas” whenever we can be together. this year it’s going to be 12/23 and i’m so excited. it is, of course, imperative that the kids be “surprised” by their gifts…..this is tough for me when i’m excited and sometimes they figure out what they’re getting….well, okay, usually i just can’t help spilling the beans…but husband does his part by effectively wrapping and warping the shapes and sounds of the various offerings. it’s really 24 hours of love and sharing. i’m so excited…….

tuesday i babysat noah–he is 4 months old now and was actually awake for half of the 3 hours i watched him. he ate, farted, fussed, but mostly laughed and played (if i held him). big brother ben and i looked at all the christmas decorations, sang a few songs (ben played the piano with me–the kid’s got rhythm!) and took this great picture. i love these guys….wink was confined to the cowboy room–noah’s hands move so much that wink would have considered them invading marauders! we’re going to get together again for cookies and milk and maybe a surprise or two before christmas.