Christmas in Our Home

Our family has been enjoying the Christmas season, although, or perhaps because, we haven't done much.  We have enjoyed having Advent together most nights.  If we have to miss a night, we catch back up the next one.  One of our other family traditions is, after Advent, we pray for the people we have received a Christmas card from that day.  A couple of nights a week, we all sit around the tree, turn out all but the tree lights, and sing Christmas carols and other Christmas favorites.  We have a fun time with that.  Sometimes we forget the words or get our verses all mixed up, and we've added motions to some of the fun songs.
    On Dec. 10, Marissa and Daniella participated in our church's children's Christmas program.  They were both so excited.  This was the first program Daniella had ever been in.  She had a short solo.  Marissa also had a solo, as well as a speaking part.  She had quite a few lines.  This was her first time with a speaking part, and she was pretty nervous, but did great.  She said singing solos is much easier than speaking!  It wouldn't be to me! 
They are the 2 to the left.  Everyone is in summer clothes because the setting was a Christmas cruise.  They were getting ready to sing their solos. 
    The next day, Ashley and Briana went with my mom and dad to Charlotte, N.C.   Ashley, Briana, and my mom volunteered at the collection center for Samaritan's Purse shoeboxes.  Their job was to open up the boxes, take out the payment and forms, check for any other money that may have been put in, and close the boxes back up.  If you've ever packed a shoebox to the rim, like we do, and spent 10 min. rearranging everything to get it to fit, then you will understand that that job was not necessarily an easy task!  I'm sure it's even harder for the group whose job is to sort through and take out the "no-no" items.  Ashley said she didn't want to see another rubber band for a long time.  Her hands were sore from being popped by them.  But, they had a blast.  In fact, they were only signed up for 4 hours, but asked if they could stay longer.  They ended up working 5 1/2 hours.  They are already planning for next year.  My mom had to stop before the 4 hours was up.  She had been sick, was feeling some better, but relapsed. 

 These are all stacks and stack of shoeboxes.  And, those are just the ones that had been processed at that particular center, THAT day, up until 1:00 !     James, Marissa, Daniella, and I went to our homeschool group's Christmas party on the 12th.  We had a nice time, eating, socializing, and doing some crafts.  I was on clean-up duty, so after that was finished, about 4 or 5 moms sat around talking for a while, while our children played outside, since it was a warm day. 
    Other than shopping, that has been about the extent of our activities--and they were all in 3 days time.  Ashley is in our church choir, and they had their program this past Sunday morning.  It was so pretty this year.    James and I went on a shopping date last Sat.  We got quite a lot of shopping finished up.  We were going to splurge and go to Texas Road House (I was craving some ribs!), but there was a minimum 1 hour wait time.  We went to Chic-Fil-A instead! 
    Every other year, my parents spend Christmas with us here.   This is supposed to be their year to come.  We are praying they will be able to.  Please pray for their (and our) health.  When my mom relapsed in Charlotte, she went steadily downhill.  She finally went to the doctor last Friday, and they told her she had a rattle in her chest.  She also has a sinus infection.  She's on antibiotics, and seemed to be getting better.  She had been 48 hours without fever, but last night started running one again and hurting in her chest.  She says she doesn't hurt this morning, so we don't know what's going on.  My dad is coughing a lot, too.  Daniella had a cold last week, but is slowly getting over it.  Then yesterday, I woke up with a stomach bug.  I was running 101.5 temp yesterday, but seem to be a lot better today.  I'm still hurting a little, and kind of weakly feeling, but much better than yesterday.  I don't seem to have fever today, either, which is good.  Ugh.  That fever, was awful.  So, this morning, Briana wakes up--kind of--really late, and feels horrible.  She had had a very restless night, probably with fever.  She was running 101.4 temp.  She has no symptoms so far.  I'm hoping she's going to do what she does lots of times.  Many, many times through the years, she would run a really high fever (104, 105).  We would struggle to keep it at 100-101 for 2 or 3 days, then she would be fine.  She would never be sick.  That's actually how our bodies are supposed to work, so I am praying that she will do the same thing this time.  She's loading up on Vit. C and Goldenseal.  Anyway, please pray, if you will, that everyone will be well enough for my mom and dad to come, and for us all to enjoy Christmas.  I don't want them to spend Christmas alone, and we want them to get to be here.
   We were all supposed to go to Dollywood yesterday to see the Christmas shows and lights.  Since I was sick, but it was warm, James took Briana, Marissa, and Daniella to ride rides for a couple of hours.  We were hoping I'd be well enough to do the shows today, but I'm not, and Briana is not.  I hope sometime before the end of the year, we'll get there.
I hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas season, and enjoying the fun and blessings of being a child of God.

Letitia

P.S.  Oh, it was so cool.  When James and I were shopping the other night, I saw a beautiful print that had my blog verse on it.  I would have asked for it for Christmas, but it was on sale because the frame was in bad shape.