before we open presents we sing

 Happy Birthday Jesus!

eight BFFs and a movie

Our youngest daughter is a teenager

 This was a milestone birthday for Leeli.

Becoming a teenager means finally being allowed to see some of those PG-13 movies she's been waiting patiently to view.  

First on the list:  The Hunger Games

 She's old enough to hang with the older kids now. 

I'm grateful that she still loves stuffed animals 

and playing with her nine year old brother.

It's lucky 13!

the view from here

And she learned how to crochet a cute little vegetable

We've been BUSY here.

Like Santa's elves, we've been making, baking and decorating.

Whew!...  And it's almost Christmas.

But I've been negligent.

This little pea got her braces off.  Three days shy of a month ago.

Just in time to morph into the newest and sweetest teenager EVER.

She keeps reminding me that it's ALMOST her birthday!

And I keep remembering that she was my best Christmas present. Ever.

it's like they've always been here

Sunday morning we woke up to a foot of snow.

It was beautiful.

Most churches cancelled their services.

Ours was just postponed.

Instead of 10:00 am, it was moved to 4:00 pm.

The kids groaned.

I was elated!

No one loves a quiet snow day at home more than me. But there had been a plan put into place for Sunday, and I would have felt sad if it had been canceled.

I reminded everyone that there would be plenty of time to clear the snow off the driveway and walks and time to play in it.  THEN we could make time in the afternoon to get dressed up and go to church.

You see, there's this family.

I love them.

They're young, and just had their sixth child.

When I met them, #6 was due any day. I felt a fast bond with a couple who had enough love in their hearts and home for six kids. 

(Six cute kids, ages 7, 6, 4, 2, 1 and newborn)

 They just showed up at church one day in early November, and we all wondered where they had moved from. Turns out they had just bought a house in a neighboring town, but this was their first trip to church.  Ever.

The husband had previously worked at a job in Boston, and while there, met someone who had a conversation with him about faith.  He's humble and there weren't many details shared, but basically someone at that job challenged him to take his family to a Mormon church as soon as he got settled.

He kept his promise.

They're usually among the first people sitting in the pews on Sunday morning, and have been there faithfully every week since.

This snowy Sunday was scheduled to be their baptism day.

I was grateful for the chance to get to church and witness such an inspiring service made even more beautiful by a blanket of snow.

don't ask us to deck your halls.

The tree is up.

Such a simple statement.

By reading those four little words you might never understand the BIG chaos that was caused by a seemingly simple event. That's why I'm going to tell you. Don't you dare think that decking the halls is simple over HERE.

Have a seat.

First, the back-story.

My parents down-sized.

Their big Christmas tree needed a home.

(right: me.)

The tree also came with a large metal stand.  Mom and Dad were pretty sure the stand did not belong to the tree in the box, but they were both going home.  With me.

My people revolted (a little).

They made it clear that anything besides a REAL tree would be less than desirable.

Because we're young and energetic and willing to put forth the physical effort it takes to haul in the tree, the hand-me-down stayed in the box. The old stand was on stand-by.

We're young and energetic and willing; however, we have schedules that rarely afford us more than 20 minutes at a time in one place together.  Therefore, Mr. Dub stopped at the tree farm on the way home from work on Friday and paid for a tree.  We weren't sure when we were going to be able to pick it out and cut it down, but it was paid for.

Fast forward to the moment when we are hauling the tree through the front door and cannot find our own sturdy tree stand.  "That's okay!" someone yells from the hall--"We have that old tree stand that Mimi and Grampy gave us!"

And so it went.

We were so happy to get the tree UP, watered and strung with lights

(all while festive Christmas music was playing in the background)

that we immediately called for an all-hands-on-deck decorating party.

Homework stopped,

ornament boxes were distributed,

people came

and we made  it to almost 100% decorated status.

I probably should not have felt like the most surprised person on the planet when

the tree.fell.over.

Branches cracked. Water spilled.  Ornaments fell. Lights went out.

That's when the cacophony of the varied responses to stress and surprise became an unsavory stew of things that don't mix well...  Shock. Stress. Laughter. Anger. Tears.

Hey--an extra hearty Merry Christmas to you and yours if you never have a tree decorating experience like this.  In our house?  It's just a contingency in the big plan.

It became a humbling dust-yourselves-off-and-try-again experience that happened to time itself perfectly with the start of the Christmas Devotional Broadcast blaring from the other room.

We soaked in the spirit of the evening, climbed into the garage attic to find our trusty tree stand, stood it back up and wired it to the walls so it won't fall over again.

Then, while visions of sugar-plums danced in our heads, we snubbed the mess and tucked ourselves into our beds; feeling peace on earth and goodwill towards men.