Looking alot like Christmas

It's looking a lot like Christmas at my house and I'm so glad because I like all our Christmas decorations! Here's a little virtual tour:

These are the stuffed animals - I had to put them all together this year in a room away from the dog because we discovered that the dog LOVES to pull the ears off of stuffed toys. I especially love the Rudolph and penguin.

These three are of the windows in my kitchen right by the sink. I stand at these windows a lot to look out back at Utah Lake (and do dishes), so I put all my favorite little knick knacks there. Favorites here are the sock snowman, "Teach the Children" poem and sack, picture of Mary and Jesus, wood manger scene, and little plaid Santa sack (which I have had for like 18 years).

Christmas trees - I love them! We have them in every room, including the girls bedrooms.

This is the tree in front of our house. Last year, we had Josh and Kellie climb up and put lights all in it. This year, I found gigantic ornaments to hang on it.

Kitchen Christmas tree - I use little lightbulb necklaces for the lights and the ornaments are new this year: snowmen and reindeer.

Our "Jesus tree" - the first year that Katie was in our home (2001) I got all the pictures of the Savior that I could find and we decorated them with paper and glitter and then hung them on the tree along with a "gift" of an act of service we would perform for Jesus' birthday.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care - I bought all the stockings and cross stitched everyone's name on them as each child arrived. The hangers are a new things for this year. I've always wanted them!

Our main tree. When David's grandpa was alive, he would send us money every year for Christmas. About 5 years into our marriage, we used the money to buy this tree. Every year when we put it up, we think of him and his kind, generous love for us. The ornaments are pictures of my children - my mom learned how to create them when we were kids and she helped us learn. My sister made some of these for me as a gift one year, and I have added some since then.

Elves! My sister-in-law made these cute elves each year and sold them at Christmastime. One year, she gave us a personalized one for each member of our family. This year, they're sitting on this shelf in the kitchen/dining - I usually pose them funny, this year Josh is lying down :)

Door hanger - I've had this for years and I just think it's cute.

Nativity - my mom got this for us many years ago when she decided she wanted all her children to have a nativity. It's still in pretty good shape except for the baby Jesus who has been held and dropped too many times by loving children.

One more tree to come: this year we're getting a live tree for our TV room, partly because we have so many ornaments and partly because we just think it'll be fun!

Ginger

Two weeks ago, a dog wandered into the Thunderdome at Timpview. The girls coach, Jaimie, felt sorry for the dog and said to Jenna, "Jenna, take this dog home and I'll be by to get her later." Well, later didn't happen and after realizing that the dog didn't have any tags and no way to find its owner, we called Animal Control. We could tell that the dog was well-trained: she sits, shakes, rolls over, so we knew that she'd had an owner and been well-loved. Animal Control took her to the shelter where they found that she'd had a microchip under her skin to identify her owner, but after following all the info on that, they ended up at a dead end.

In the meantime, we were told that if she wasn't claimed by Saturday, that she would go up for adoption. David and I were praying that the owners would be found because we just didn't know if we were ready for a dog. The shelter called us on Wednesday and asked if we were interested in adopting her and I said, "Well, we don't want her to be put down, so if her owners aren't found, then call us." Turns out, what the lady really meant was, "someone else is interested in adopting the dog, so if you want first chance, you need to say so" but she didn't say that.

On Friday, I woke up and knew that I wanted to adopt that dog, so you can imagine my dismay when I called the shelter and they said, "Well, we called you and we have an application from someone else, so you'll have to turn in an application, too, and then we'll give the dog to the best home for her." I hustled down and filled out an application and the next morning, we got the call that we were pet owners!

The dog is a girl who all my girls named Ginger within moments of first finding her. She is a cocker spaniel, super cute. The shelter estimated her age at 8 years, but a trip to the vet put her at 3 years old. The hair on her ears and legs and belly was so matted that the people at Petsmart were nice enough to clip it off her even though she couldn't be completely groomed until 48 hours after her rabies shot. She came out of that experience a completely different-looking dog. Still cute, but SHORT hair. The super plus: she smells so much better!

We are getting used to the new responsibility and adjusting to taking the dog for walks and out to go potty and all the things that go along with a pet. She absolutely loves us and does not want to be alone. She likes to go outside, but she will not explore unless someone from the family is out there with her.

So, I am a pet owner. I can't believe I just wrote that.

They made the team!

Jenna and Kellie made the Timpview girls basketball team! Hurray! Wahoo! Yeehaw! Even more amazing because only 16 girls were selected for the combined JV/Varsity team and Jenna was one of those, and only 6 girls for the sophomore team and Kellie was one of those. Good job, girls! I can't wait to spend the next 4 months watching you play!

Halloween

We definitely enjoyed Halloween, the holiday otherwise known as "gorge yourself on candy day." I have eaten so much chocolate the last few days that I actually wanted to have a salad yesterday. It takes a lot of sugar to get me to that point!

Alissa and her friends went as fairy ninjas - the perfect combination of girlie and tough!

Katie and her friend Grace went as pirates and were joined by some other neighbor friends.

Jenna and Kellie wanted to dress up (Egyptian and princess), but I was a little hesitant about them going trick-or-treating (too old?) so I said they could go to all their young women leaders. This turned out to be the best because they got full-size candy bars for their efforts!

Mom

Yesterday, my daughter called another woman "Mom".

I was surprised that this struck me with such force.

"But I'm "Mom," I protested mentally, at least when it comes to this child.

I tried to brush it off, no big deal, I'm not bugged, but the fact that I am awake at 5am with a tear in my eye tells me that this was no small thing to me and I have to wonder: why?

Perhaps it is that the word itself is entwined around a woman and a relationship that I spent decades deciphering. My relationship with my mom was...complicated. Two very different personalities, struggling to find harmony amidst conflicting ideas and viewpoints. I spent my teenage years grappling with her on every issue, disagreeing on the vast majority of them. In my early adulthood, I blamed her for some of my own troubles while at the same time, recognizing that no one loved me with the same intensity that she did, nor was there was anyone I trusted quite as much as I trusted her.

Fortunately, God is kind, and He brought me into startlingly close proximity with my mom to work out my lifetime of conflicting emotions until together, we found understanding, resolution, peace.

I think it is this battle that makes the term more precious. "Mom" is not a title that I apply casually. There is only one person who has earned that name in my life, and I guard carefully its application; hence, the strong emotions when it came out of the mouth of my own child towards someone other than me.

I cannot deny that I am incapable of raising my children without the help of other women. I am not the end-all of mothers, nor am I the perfect fit for every one of my children, and there are many areas in which I am seriously found wanting. There are countless women who have stepped up to fill these gaps in my childrens' lives and I am profoundly grateful that they would care enough about children who are not their own to help this way. I cannot say that I have done the same. More and more the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" echoes through my mind as I see my offspring become more than I could have helped them to be on my own.

So why the frantic stirrings over a title so small as "Mom"? Are we not all mothers?

And yet, a small part of me protests, "But these are MY children. I bore them. I sacrifice for them. I love them in a way that I love no other children and, I believe, in a way that no other person could love them."

I will have to think on this one.