Setting the Scene

Tis the season. I made an attempt to sleep in this morning after being up late running again and just being exhausted from a week of late night running and not many hours of sleep. Why is it that the day my kids don't have school they get up early with absolutely no prodding from me? That is just wrong. Well, my sleeping in hopes were dashed by a little 6 year old boy named Jack who could only think about one thing, setting up the Christmas tree that grandpa dropped off last night.

There are times when I am an opportunist. I try to use things as motivation when there are other things that need to be done. There were some beds that needed to be made and some rooms that needed to be cleaned so that became the requirement before any Christmas tree set up. The beauty with Jack is that when he wants to do something he will respond to the requirements. I have learned that about him. He is very much a reward driven individual and when he understands what the reward will be (earning a fish for a good week of school, a new hot wheel car for playing in a soccer game, a slice of cheese for doing part of his homework) he will do what needs to be done. With the Christmas Tree Jack was motivated and got stuff done. Natty on the other hand likes to find herself in a book and can completely forget about everything else. If the rule is that something needs to be done first she will simply change her plans and not care about what it is she wanted to do. She sat down and stuck her nose in Harry Potter while Jack and Andy worked. I rearranged furniture in the living room around her, vacuumed and then finally told her that she was being extremely rude and selfish to make these boys wait for her to get her stuff done. I don't think she cared much for my displeasure and she got moving and she managed to use Jacks motivation to her advantage. I managed to get the rest of my house cleaning, or most of it anyway, done while the kids got their stuff done.

So we pulled out the tree. It was one of these fancy pre-lit numbers. It set up quite easily. When we left Florida I did not bring our fake tree. Left it and figured we would buy a real tree. Well, Ma and Pa happened to have an extra tree and it has worked out great. I pulled out all the decorations and the ornaments and the kids started going to town. I think Andy continually tried to out do himself for the lowest hanging ornament. Jack piled pine cones in the tree in the same general area. I have gone in and made a few changes in an attempt to balance some things out. All in all they did a really good job decorating the tree. I set up other decorations and put things away while they decorated the tree. It was quite a fun day. I snapped a few pics as they went about it. Here are some fun ones.







Andy has fallen in love with the camera and I let him play with it today. So when I downloaded pictures tonight there were roughly 150 images. It was rather amusing to see what he likes taking pictures of. Funny how things always seem to be at a certain height as well. I had to laugh when I saw the picture of his toy camera. There were three pictures of the toilet bowl, very happy the camera didn't end up in that toilet bowl. Loved the feet and then he managed to catch me once or twice. I may have mentioned this the last time I let him lose with the camera, I am thankful for digital cameras. We would have burned through some serious film today otherwise.









I have to say the day was rather fun. The kids really had a good time. I couldn't help but feel a sense of loss today. As our family structure changed earlier this year it was evident that someone was missing. There are moments in my life when I feel a tremendous amount of sadness. Despite the hardships that existed in my marriage there were also some choice memories and fun times together. Those have long since passed. Being a single parent is not always easy and there are times when loneliness is just plain hard. I think it is natural to long for companionship. When times have been most difficult I have been lifted and strengthened by the Savior and today was no exception.

For whatever reason we have a ton of pine cones in our decorations. Jack had already loaded the tree with pine cones and I didn't know what to do with the rest and then started setting some up as a back drop to the nativity scene. I got down to where I had one pine cone left and I was ready to drop it back in the box and then, and this may just sound crazy, I couldn't do it. I could not deprive that silly pine cone the opportunity to be in the backdrop participating in the moment. So I gave it the best spot I could find, tucked right behind the kneeling Mary holding the Christ child. I don't know that I am normal and I guess I don't really care but I felt peace and a love for that little pine cone. As I looked at the scene with Mary holding the baby I felt the love of the Savior for me. I am grateful for His life and for this time of year when we celebrate His birth. I know that He lives and that He knows us personally and that He loves us, each of us.