Family Advent Night and More

Melanie —  December 14, 2008

Well, the day started bright and early for us today about 5am.  It appears our nasty little virus is still around, much to our chagrin.  Aliyah had diarrhea and vomiting this morning after we have had almost one week of no sickness (just Hannah complaining that her stomach hurts off and on).  This virus is the wierdest one I have ever experienced (if it is actually a virus).  Aliyah perked up after a few hours so we went to church but I kept her away from Sunday School.  She was very lethargic this evening so I hope a good nights’ sleep will help.  Please pray for wisdom for how we should deal with this sickness and of course for healing.

Peter preached a Christmas message at our church this morning from Revelation 12 which seemed well received.  I, for one, really enjoyed it!  Also, he introduced a new idea to the congregation – “The Daily Reader – Reading through the Bible in 2009.”  I will let him put a post on explaining it in more detail.  Maybe he will even encourage you to get involved!

What I really wanted to write about was our Family Advent Night.  We decided to do 4 of these in the lead up to Christmas.  Tonight was the 3rd one.  We have a little display of Christmas greenery with 4 candles.  We have been lighting one more each week. (and enjoying the candles at meals during the week too!)  We’ve been doing things like Christmas crafts, reading bits from the Bible, playing a neat Christmas game we have and having snacks.  Tonight the kids painted Nativity coloring sheets I had printed off the internet.  I will put some pictures on soon of them showing off their artwork.  Anyway, the night turned so humourous – I probably won’t be able to capture it in writing, but I will try!  After the painting we went into the front room (lit only by the blinking Christmas lights) and went through a Christmas ABC rhyme I found on the web . . . “A” is for Angel, “B” is for Bethlehem, etc.  We had the kids guess what each one might be.  There were some pretty funny guesses! (B is for banana?  I is for Igloo?) But the whole time, Aliyah was holding a bowl (in case she needed to throw up) and Mariah and Joel were up to all sorts of antics.  Joel was “playing” our little keyboard, which was on the song play mode.  So we had Little Brown Jug, Ode to Joy, Love me Tender, etc. playing in the background as he swayed and “sang” to the music.  Mariah kept running out of the room and coming back in bizarre outfits.  The first time she came back naked except for a large Mexican type skirt which she pulled up very high so she looked like she was wearing a strapless dress (except it kept slipping down!)  She kept saying, “I’m Spanish” and wearing an entertaining grin on her face.  Then she came in in another dress with a stuffed dog down the front of it.  Soon she came back with the dog fully dressed in a baby outfit.  We all were roaring with laughter!  At one point, Joel was “playing” the keyboard with various random songs blasting out of it and he shouted to Mariah, “Ballet!  Ballet!”  So she obliged and started dancing!  The whole scene struck me as so funny.  Later one, Joel put on a floppy, pink hat of Mariah’s and continued playing the keyboard – well, playing it and trying to move it from place to place, struggling to not drop it!  Ah, the joy of children.  They are amazing little creatures.  We are so blessed to have them in our family.

Peter decided he would start his week off with some major changes in our bedroom/office.  So tonight, we have moved 2 wardrobes and a filing cabinet!  The goal is to make more space in our bedroom/office and have it less messy.  It’s in a pretty bad state at the moment.  Hopefully, by the end of this week, it will be more inhabitable.  I am looking forward to his week off.  He’s planning to help me with some of the homeschooling, do some jobs around the house and clean out his desk/our bedroom.  I am hoping to get a little more reading time in than usual (for me and pre-reading books for Hannah).

This is a long post and it is late.  So I better quit!  Lord willing, some pictures will come soon. (If you want to know the truth, I still don’t know how to put them on.  Maybe this is the week I’ll learn!)