Christmas Nostalgia

This blog post has been floating around in my head for a couple of weeks as the activities of this year's Christmas season bring back so many wonderful (or just memorable) memories from my childhood. Here are some of those memories:
1. The smell of cinnamon rolls - I am sure by now most of you know that I am a cinnamon rolls making fool around Christmas time. And I totally come by it honestly. My mother would start the month of December with a 6' stretch of counter stacked two deep with flour, yeast, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar and cinnamon. Over the course of two weeks.Sometime around the last week of school in December, I would come home every afternoon to the smell of baked or baking cinnamon rolls. By Christmas I am pretty sure that 50+ 12" wide cinnamon rolls + plates of their cousin the lemon twist made there way out of her oven. We would spend several days delivering them to the shut-ins in our church, friends, Daddy's clients, and anyone else she could think of that needed some holiday cheer. I don't know how old I was when I got to start helping her make them, but by the time I was 9 or 10, I could spread the butter, cinnamon, & brown sugar like an expert. I began baking them the year I got married and hope to pass the passion for baking on to my kids, too.
2. Family - For better or worse, my mother was an only child which meant that for her mom and a childless great-aunt - we were it. So every year they would come up about a week before Christmas with the intentions of giving Mama a break from her 3 (then later 4) rambunctious children. We would spend HOURS making sure the fire in the fireplace didn't go out, playing scrabble, monopoly, candy land, and go fish, "helping" Mama cook, reading books, and watching old Christmas movies.
3. Candy - This one is somewhat an extension of #2. My childless great-aunt always seemed to me to be one big kid until the day she died. She loved laughing, playing with us, and oh boy did she love sweets! About the time that 6' stretch of counter was being cleared of flour,etc, Aunt Cile would show up with about 12 LARGE tupperware containers of every kind of Christmas candy you can imagine - Divinity (with & without nuts), chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, marble fudge, haystacks, peanut brittle. By the time New Year's Day rolled around - those boxes were empty. It is a wonder we didn't all develop childhood diabetes from it all, but it probably wouldn't have stopped us from inhaling it all. Peanut butter fudge is still my favorite to this day. I still haven't found anyone else who makes it as good as she did, though.
4. The Christmas Play - every year our church had a Christmas play - old school style - all the children dressed up like the characters and played out the Christmas story. A few years we mixed it up and told it from the animals or the shepherd's perspective, but usually it was just the plain and simple story of Christmas. We had bathrobe shepherd's w/ terry cloth towels on their heads. We had cotton ball covered sheep, angels with gold tinsel halos, and one year I think my baby brother played baby Jesus. I don't think I played anything besides an angel, but my one memory is my friend Allison always sang a solo of "Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne"
Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.

I always remember that because I always wished I could sing that song, but it was a horrible key for my childhood voice and she always made everyone cry.
5. Christmas Day -
* Stage 1 - Christmas morning usually started up around 6 am when one of my younger brothers would wake us all up. Now the rules at our house was that no one went downstairs without EVERYONE else being ready. That meant that not only did Marianna & I have to get up, but the previously mentioned Mammaw and Aunt Cile had to be ready. This eventually became somewhat hilarious because Mammaw wore both a wig and hearing aids, my aunt wore false teeth and Marianna and I both had contacts to put in. You can imagine what the four of us (and our bathroom counter) looked like all trying to get ready at once. We would joke there wasn't a complete head between us!
* Stage 2 - In an effort to make sure we were focused on what Christmas was really all about, we would gather downstairs in the big center hallway of our house and Daddy would read us the Christmas story from the Bible. He would start with the Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah and Micah and then read at least two gospel accounts of Christ's birth. We were usually fidgeting and distracted by the thoughts of Santa Claus' loot on the other side of the door to living room, but I still love, more than anything to meditate on God's Promised Deliverer and how Jesus is the fulfillment of those promises.
* Stage 3 - As soon as Daddy would finish, we would burst through the door of the living room and about kill each other trying to get to our gifts first. Our Christmas' were never filled with the coolest toys of the year - the year the Cabbage Patch kids were all the craze, my mother made us our Cabbage Patch kids, complete with forged birth certificates. I hated that doll that day, but the next day I named her and she stayed on my bed until every piece of yarn hair fell out of her head! One year Daddy made my sister and I cedar chests from lumber he had cut on our farm. Our stockings were filled with oranges, pecans, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and if I was lucky, some bows are clips for my hair. Sometime between the mad rush and noon, we would eat breakfast, and the rest of my family would appear. I had another great-aunt, my father's parents, and 8 first cousins on my father's side. By the time everyone got there, my mother's living room floor was 2' deep in shredded wrapping paper and gifts.
* Stage 4 - Family gifts - It is funny how different family members give very predictable gifts. One aunt was notorious for giving the toys that were the absolute loudest and most annoying thing she could find, Another was the pajama aunt, and another always gave us books to read, but the last gift of the day was always Pop giving us a commemorative silver dollar or a savings bond. Boy, did we think we were rich!

All of my grandparents and great-aunts and even my sweet Daddy have passed away now, but the memories they gave me at Christmas will never die. I hope that my children's Christmas memories will be just as sweet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

School!

Striking a pose before school the 1st day

Super Pumped UP!!!

All smiles with Thomas in tow!


Nathan started back to school last week. He is in 5k and is LOVING it!

New York Mission Trip

While most of my posts are about the boys, I want to take this opportunity to share about the amazing trip I have been on this past week. Along with 11 other people from Covenant Pres Cleveland, I went to Sunnyside, NY in the Burroughs of Queens. We went with the mission of holding a VBS for the kids in this community who are largely unsupervised during the summer months and many of whom have never had any exposure to the Bible, much less been told something like "Jesus loves you" or "Jesus died for your sins". They didn't even know who Jesus was or what a sin was.
We arrived last Saturday, and literally hit the ground running! We went straight to the school where Grace Fellowship Church (our host church while there) meets and where the VBS was to be held. We spent several hours being oriented about the neighborhood, decorating, figuring out logistics, and going over all of the details of the week with the local volunteers.

After decorating, the NY folks took us to a Peruvian restaurant where several us ate a few firsts! Laurel thought she was enjoying some delicious cauliflower that actually turned out to be ceviche (raw fish "cooked" in lime juice). It was good, but boy was she in shock! We also had fried baby octopus, and flan.
Sunday we enjoyed morning worship @ GFC and lunch with all the church members. We had NY style pizza! YUM! After lunch we spent a few more hours decorating, practicing skits, and then took the subway into Manhattan for Redeemer Pres' night service. Even though both of these services were totally in music style, formality, and environment from CPC, they were also Christ centered and amazing!
After church we walked and walked and walked, seeing bits of the Upper East Side. We also stopped by Time Square on our way home! What a wild place!

Wandering around Manhattan

Edge of Central Park


Break dancers/street performers


Time Square

Our day Monday started bright and early! We were at the school by 7:30 to finish our decorations, get our crafts laid out, and prepare for the kids! We had 45 kids come that first day. I taught the 4th & 5th grade class, with Anna Wood as my assistant. The kids were with us from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm everyday! We served breakfast, lunch, & snack, tutored them for 1.5 hrs/day in reading, language, and math, as well as the typical VBS skits, Bible story, classroom application, crafts, recreation, and music.

Some of the really special things we did with the kids were:
-making their own tie-dyed t-shirts to wear on their field trip
-watching a movie called "The story of Jesus for Kids"
-taking them on a field trip to the Hall of Science in Flushings (which included about 10 blocks of walking and a ride there and back on the subway!!!)

My kids! In the back is Andres, Jayson, Harjot, Bryan, Jack. In front is Pamela, Gabriel, Steve, James, Cristian, ME, Jason, Eric, Nalisa, & Alex. They have totally stolen my heart!
The kids were presented with th


Sweet and smart Nalisa - can speak Japanese, Thai, Mandarin, Spanish & English (not all fluently, but knows a lot! She is also a talented writer and math whiz!)

Enjoying breakfast.

Music time! Singing Hallelu, Hallelu, Praise Ye the Lord!

Mike did a great job presenting the gospel in Thursdays skit by describing our sinful hearts as "buggery". He went on to explain that only believing in Jesus would get rid of our buggery hearts! The kids totally latched onto this and kept repeating it!
After the gospel presentation and watching the movie, we divided into small groups and spent time letting the kids ask questions about what they had learned. Here are some of my kids questions:
1. Why are we born?
2. Where is heaven? What does it look like? What is hell like?
3. How do we get to heaven? Will we know people?
4. How do we know God is real?
5. How did God make us?
6. Can someone really really really bad become a Christian?
And many, many others! Anna and I spent nearly two full hours trying to answer their questions in words that they could understand. I tried to direct them back to passages of scripture and by reading stories from my "Jesus Storybook Bible" about creation, God's plan of redemption, and even about David who killed someone, and yet God still loved him! That totally blew them away that God can forgive such a horrible sin like murder! After the nearly 2 hrs, lunch was ready, but one little boy exclaimed "Awww, man! I want to hear more!!!" There were many times like that where I felt like the kids were really getting it, that I just broke down and cried!
On Friday, we did take a field trip. It was very fun, but exhausting and nerve racking!

Riding on the subway (look how cute their shirts turned out!!!)


Getting ready to go in


Their favorite part was the sports section. This was a pitching cage that told you how fast your pitches were.


The whole group in front of the rocket. This museum was home to the World's Fair way back when and is in the first MEN IN BLACK movie (where they show the alien's going back to their flying saucers!!) You can also see the edge of US OPEN courts, and METS stadium from their parking lot.

Last night (Friday), we hosted a huge cookout for the kids and their families. John Storck spent all day cooking Memphis style BBQ and a ton of other food. We presented the skits, songs, and message to these parents, many of whom have never step foot in a church before! Several parents showed interest in attending the church now, b/c of the love we were able to show their kids this week!

Kids and parents at family night.

What an amazing gift to be a tool in God's hand this this week! Even if I never see these kids again, I have faith that God is going to finish the good work that was begun this week, and I will see them in Heaven one day!

Summer

Whewwww! It has been a wild and very fun summer already. I am very sad that it is over halfway over. Nathan finished his t-ball schedule in mid-June and his team placed 3rd! We ended the season with a Pizza Party at Lost Dog Pizza. We also had Aunt Mari, Andy, & the kids come watch a game!



T-Ball Party!!!!


As soon as t-ball finished, VBS started. Nathan had a great time learning all the new songs, and 5 great Bible verses that week. Our theme was centered around the rain forest. It was an exhausting week, but so fun! I am really excited that I am going to get to do the whole thing over the last week of July. I am going to be on team from our church taking VBS to Sunnyside Neighborhood in Queens, NY! We will be teaching 50 kids who mainly come from completely unchurched backgrounds about Jesus & His LOVE! I am very excited.

Last week we spent a week in Destin on Vacation. It was an interesting year to go to the beach, b/c of all the news about oil spill. Despite the national news, the beaches there were beautiful! It was a little rainy while we were there, because Alex was stirring up the Gulf, but we still managed to eat way too much and enjoy plenty of beach & pool time.





I took Nathan to Big Kahuna Waterpark for the first time this year. I am pretty sure it is the first time I have been to a water park since I was 12! He is normally pretty terrified of heights and anything new in general, but he was FEARLESS! We went down a huge 6 story tall slide that was dark and twisty. I was so dizzy and disoriented when I got to the bottom, I thought I was going to lose my $20 lunch!! :-) He wanted to do it again!!! I declined and decided it was the perfect time for us to go ride the river again. He also tried to ride the body board on the half pike and did pretty well. The final attempt threw him pretty good, but he loved it anyway!

Thomas had the most fun playing at the Destin Commons fountains. He wasn't sure what to make of the sand.

We are also spending lots of time playing with our friends and being silly!

T-Ball

Nathan has playing t-ball this spring, and we have started with a bang!!! We have three games this week, and won the first two!!! He is playing right field, so you can imagine the talent that he has!!! He did hit a single and a double his first game (keep in mind he is hitting the ball off the tee, though). He also scored both times up. After his first run, he walked in the dugout, and said, "I'm ready to go. When is this over?" ie - I have done what I came to do, now let's go! Only 14 games left between now and June 16 - woohoo!!!!


Ready for action

Batter up!!

Rounding third and heading home


The most ready to field a ball that he was all night. Most of the time, he had his back to the batter and was picking flowers. . .



Post game chat w/ coach.

More Easter Pictures

The Logan grandkids

Easter Morning

The next Pullen/Logan generation


Checking out Grammy's Easter baskets

Spring

WE have been busy this spring! Nathan has started T-Ball and is LOVING IT!!! I am still in shock about having t-ball practice 4 times/week!!! Games start next week, so I will keep you posted!

In the meantime, Thomas has started walking, and tonight walked all the way from his room to the kitchen without stopping or steadying himself on anything. He has also discovered that he can go vertical - He decided to climb on top of the kid's picnic table to watch the big kids hunt eggs Friday morning! OH MY!

We had a wonderful Easter that was spent with friends at an Easter Egg hunt Friday morning, spent Saturday with the Logan/Pullen clan, and then had Easter lunch with friends. We had a 11 adults and 13 kids at lunch, but it was wonderful!


Nathan singing in Church Easter Morning


Thomas stealing eggs out of everyone else's basket

Watching the egg hunt from a safe distance

Climbing on the table

Nathan with his class before the Easter Parade at school


Taking a tour @ the Tunica Riverpark during Spring break.