Happy Birthday Jesus

Our little Levi loves, and I mean loves Santa. Santa visited us early at a gathering and brought all the children a gift. After Levi opened his up, who did he run to to show his new prize? his dad? his mom? his brother? Nope. Santa, his new best friend. He's been lucky enough to visit with Santa twice this year and each time he ends his visit with a hug.

Along with Santa, I am glad to say that Levi has embraced the reason for the season, every time he sees anything candle related, he exclaims, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" It usually comes out more like, "Birthday Jesus!" But none the less, he's excited about it.

Today, was the day I had been dreading . . .Levi finally figured out that he can take his patch off all by himself. And he took full advantage of it. Eventually, the little guy realized that he was fighting a losing battle and that he might as well deal with keeping it on.

I gotta admit the patching has been the hardest part of the last few weeks. He transforms or I should say regresses when he has the patch on and I don't blame him, he can barely see. It's hard because he is SO needy and whiny during this time. I have to remind myself that 2.5 year olds are hard and whiny in nature and that we'd be dealing with this anyway, but it's hard to know how to guide Levi into appropriate behavior when I know that he is deep down frustrated. It's also hard to get the hours in, last night we attempted to bring him to a Christmas gathering while wearing the patch and needless to say, it didn't work so well. If he's hard to deal with in his familiar surroundings while patching, imagine how that goes when he's not familiar with his environment.

I have been trying to embrace stay-at-home momhood and get them out to do "fun" stuff in between the other stuff that fill our week. This week, we dropped in at Legoland to take advantage of the snow and season's festivities. We had a great time, until I lost Kade. Yes, I full on lost him! Fortunately, Levi was a trooper during the 20 + minutes that me and the staff spent finding him. What a way to end my "let's be a fun mom" adventure. This photo was taken just before the incident.

I came to a moment a few weeks back on a day that my spirits were down, that I didn't feel like dealing with the cards that we were dealt and I thought I'd just surrender and accept that this part of my life wasn't going to be good and that was okay and I'd just be depressed. Ah, lame alert. I am so thankful for the message that I heard at our church a few days later about Supernatural Joy that reminded me that I had it all wrong. Instead of being subject to the ups and downs of our circumstances, we are to have joy in all circumstances. Fortunately, we are told exactly how we are able to do this because as I very clearly realized, we aren't able to do this on our own strength. Now the challenge moving forward is to keep those pesky temptations for a pity party under control by living out the lessons that I keep learning. Over and over and over. (If you are interested in the audio from the message, I attached it below.)

http://www.northcoastcalvary.org/_audio/sermons/2011.12.11.mp3

So, as I reflect on my past few weeks, here are my thoughts on my New Year's Resolutions:

1) Make sure I embrace my opportunity to be at home with the boys and make sure I cultivate opportunities for them to learn, grow and have FUN!

2) Daily focus on the lessons that I have learned and relearned this past year and focus on the scripture that supports them.

3) Don't lose anybody.

I hope you have the Merriest Christmas, and remember the true things of value in your lives.

Merry Christmas,

Kara