Merry Christmas, Elias!

After a very long and tiring mishap with Elias' Christmas present which involved the sending of it to a wrong address on the other end of the country (my brother and sister-in-law housed it for a few days until UPS came back to get it - twice!) and then being back-ordered, it finally arrived yesterday.

After a bunch of unpacking and set up, this is what we ended up with:

So, raise your hand if you think this was a good idea........Kelly's hand is raised ...........and..............and..............over there in the corner - is your hand up? No? Hm. Anyone else?? Anyone?

the Quest for the Tree

Our good friends, the Meulis, have a very large cattle ranch here in the valley. We went to their ranch to get our Christmas tree this year. On the way, Brad announced to us all "Let's get this straight. We are not looking for the perfect tree today - I am not going to carry this chain saw around in the wilderness for hours. We are going to find a mediocre tree - it is a Charlie Brown Christmas tree for us, everybody got it? " Now that we had that straight, we headed out with the Meuli's truck (ranch truck with chains which is the only way we were getting out to where we needed to go). The kids were all in the back of the truck (brrrrrrr!) and my former race car driver husband was having the time of his life sliding all over the place and trying to keep it between the trees while I, imagining smashing into trees and kids flying all over tarnation, rode white knuckled and wide eyed up to Skaggs lake - the official Christmas Tree grounds. The snow was at least 2 feet deep, but we only had to trudge around for about 30 minutes to find the tree. It was cold crisp and beautiful out. It is such fun cutting down your own tree - I really do love it. HOWEVER, I would be even happier if we cut down a tree, for the "cutting your own tree" experience, and then ditched it in the bushes to go home and plug in a pre-lit fake. Not very politically correct or environmentally friendly of me, huh? But way easier than stringing all those lights. Ugh.

I think The Edge is in my Basement!!

For Christmas, Josiah got an effects pedal for his guitar from my folks. We haven't seen him for about two days unless we venture to the basement. He comes up for air and food.

So Far, So Good

After opening gifts Christmas morning, we were invited to our friends' the Nye's house for brunch. Upon arriving back home to the total disaster of wrapping paper, boxes and "stuff", we quickly grabbed our coats and pjs (leaving the disaster behind) and headed over to the Millers for dinner, a double feature, and a sleep over!!! Woo hoo. We had tacos for Christmas dinner. We planned on starting the movies late, but we party-pooping adults were tired and decided that 7pm was a better idea. We watched "Night at the Museum 1 & 2". Crazy and really fun movies. The next morning we got up and went to Target. Can you believe we did that??? Nuts. but not as nuts here in Kalispell as it is in many other cities!! There wasn't even a line in the return area - they were all back in the 50% off holiday aisles which was where we were going. After eating lunch back at our home away from home, and lying around like couch potatoes, we gathered up most of our many belongings (We always leave a few behind. It is kind of like a treasure hunt finding the Dunham leftovers. Someone left ONE SHOE this time - ONE. And I am not sure you can really call dirty socks treasures) and headed home. The next morning, when we showed up for church, the entire Miller family was not in attendance - including Chris and he is the pastor!! They came down with the stomach flu in the middle of the night!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! The kids and I just looked at each other and started laughing. Not laughing that the Millers are sick, but laughing at what's to come for us. Ha. When we got home, I started giving the kids Tummy Tune-up and garlic and all sorts of my concoctions. Isaiah was achy today and so, among other things, I gave him some activated charcoal and raw honey mixed in water. I guess it wasn't such a great idea, because he took one sip, looked at me like he was going to die, and then out it came. Elias is feeling a little "different", but other than that - so far so good. I guess we will see. The Millers are better now; it was a short but nasty bug.

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas - how could one not?? The plan that always existed was set in motion on Earth - Jesus came to redeem us. What's not to love about that? All the other is just icing on the cake. The one thing that made things tough for us here is that Brad was away working in Minot, North Dakota over Christmas. He has been gone two weeks and will be away another 1 1/2 weeks. That was a bummer. More of a bummer for him, though, I am sure. It has been totally freezing there and he's working LONNNNGG days. So, McGyver - this post is for you so you can see our Christmas photos!!

Everyone wearing their hats and gloves from Grandma and Grandpa.

My folks got the girls two really cute outfits form Lands End. Here is one.

God Incarnate

This Christmas season was interesting for us in many ways. The snow and cold make it easier to get into the holiday spirit, but with our San Diego bison delivery when it was, we were focused on that and not able to focus on Christmas until just a week or so ago.

We have all the usual Christmas stories that we read each year and the kids laugh at me because I BLUBBER all the way through them. But this year I made it all the way through "The Crippled Lamb" without even crying (okay, so it IS a cute story and I did get just a tiny bit choked up, but really just a TINY bit). I was almost indignant and cynical about them this year. Christmas isn't about some forlorn little lamb keeping baby Jesus warm. Not that there is anything wrong with those stories, but they are just sentimental stories that keep us in the "feel good, warm fuzzies" of the season and keep our eyes off of the importance of what really happened that night so long ago when the gospel came to Earth. Amazing. The gospel always existed, the plan was always there, but that night when the angels proclaimed that they had "tidings of great joy that would be for all people", they meant what they said. The plan was set in motion and life on Earth would never be the same. They brought the best news ever : A Savior, a bridge to God, hope, sin forgiven not just covered, real grace. "In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God, He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made..... And the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." WOW. That is some serious stuff to chew on. How could He? Why would He? The great God of heaven and Earth, the eternal God, the sovereign God of the ages came to Earth to redeem His people.

Christmas is such fun. I love the decorating, the baking, the preparations, the family traditions, the gift-giving, the gift-getting, the music, all the fun things that go on, everything. But they mean nothing compared to what God gave us in Jesus' birth. That truly is something to celebrate.

Merry Christmas

From us to you - Merry Christmas. Celebrate Jesus!!

The Violin

We just got the most amazing pre-Christmas gift. It arrived from Brad's cousin, Donald, and his wife Mamie. Donald and Mamie live in Athens, Georgia and are both professional musicians (among other things - talented people!). Mamie plays in the Athens symphony and also plays in various bands in the area. She has also recorded with R.E.M. Donald has had a popular blues band in Athens for years. They are both outstanding musicians and we had the pleasure of spending time with them at a family reunion last August. Mamie had a violin that she wasn't using and so they had it fixed up and surprised us by sending it this week. It is beautiful - it is an acoustic/electric with a fifth string. We are all so excited. What a blessing! Thanks, Donald and Mamie - we love you - and the violin too! One person, in particular, is really excited to play.

Manger Throne

What kind of king would leave His throne,
In heaven to make this Earth His home,
While men seek fame and great renown,
In lowliness, our King comes down.

You left the sound of angel's praise,
To come for men with unkind ways,
And by this baby's helplessness,
The power of nations is laid to rest

What kind of king would come so small,
From glory to a humble stall,
That dirty manger is my heart too,
I'll make it a royal throne for You

Jesus, Jesus precious one,
How we thank you that you've come
Jesus, Jesus, precious one,
A manger throne....my heart is a throne,
For God's own son

This song was written by Julie Miller and appears on an old CD of hers - not even a Christmas CD. Our kids sang it last year for the Christmas Eve service at church and so I was able to impose one of my favorites on everyone else around! It is especially lovely with kids singing it. There is a Third Day version that Julie sings on, but it is a let down compared to the original.

The Hunt for the Tree

Well, just so that you all know - no more expensive, lame, tree-lot Christmas trees for us - no siree! In MT, you just go to the Forestry Service and pay them $5 - yep, 5 bucks - not $75 or $85, but FIVE DOLLARS for a permit to go and cut your own tree on forest service land. So, off we went into the not-so-very-wild blue yonder just around the corner and found the best tree. And how fun is THAT? We got a nice, big full one. Josiah says it is a blue spruce, but I don't know (how does HE know these things - he's only 11). It is definitely one with pine NEEDLES!! We brought it home and decorated it. I always get stuck doing hte lights - I hate doing the lights. I guess it beats cutting down the tree, lugging it to the top of the car, dragging it off, cutting the bottom off, setting it in the stand, re-setting it in the stand, and getting it even.....or maybe not - did I mention that I hate doing the lights? The kids put most of the ornaments on and you can tell, but we still love it. I try not to micro-manage the tree thing. As we got the tree up straight, Josiah stood gazing for a minute and then said, "Ya know, I really like this Montana way of doing things". See photos here!