Advent Adventures

As i added 'make peanut butter cup reindeers' on to the list of all the Christmas activities i wanted to do with my kids, I came to the rapid realisation that i am expressing to my children that the Christmas story is built around Santa, his reindeer, a massive feast and presents. I typically spend a lot of effort trying to get 'stuff' ready for the 25th December so everything is just right. All baked goods, a hot meal, cake etc are all perfectly consumable and not mouldy or stale (this i honestly think is an impossible feat in itself- how on earth is it done?) but also presents are bought and under the tree perfectly wrapped but also distrubuted to others in perfect timing, not to early - not too late, just right. Lets not even comment about Christmas cards (to make them more than a simple waste of paper i try to add a witty or meaningful comment to each).

I began to feel stressed with my list before i had even started. Too much to do, too little time, and all around 3 small children who will merrily and excitably ruin all the craft and baking activities with their over enthusiastic little hands who just cant resisit poking, picking, licking, insisiting on the wrong garish colours, or suddenly halting 10 minutes in leaving me to complete the 'fun' and add demands for a concurrent shopkins toptrumps game, or bum wipe. Argh. Thanks to the awesome book i am reading at the moment (Present over perfect by Shauna Neiqvist ) i was able to realise that this stress was ridiculous, i needed a new fun way. If you dont make life fun for yourself who will?? So i crossed off a lot of the list there and then, and took a new focus - almost a whole month of advent to enjoy with my kids to learn and explore the bible story of Jesus' birth in various ways. Instantly happier.

In the end this took on the form of 4 challenges a week (ok this was still took much, but at one stage i was set on one a day!), with part of the story acted out by myself and Xss every Friday night when they were unveiled.

Anyway, part of my commitment to this was to reuse the challenges next year so i dont have to do so much work next time. Withour further ado here are our challenges based around the 4 themes of the story i pulled out (i'm currently not anglican so no alliteration is involved)(oh my goodness my first Christian pun involved in my blog, may it never happen again):

God loves us:
Say your favourite thing about each member of our family
Spend time together doing something fun
Buy and wrap up presents for each other
Buy some food for the homeless

God uses normal people:
Have fun as a normal family together
Dress up and act out some of the story
Make a sheep cake
Take time to notice the everyday people in our lives and say 'Hi'

God wants everyone to know his love:
Sing some Christmas carols
Have some fun together
Make/Send some Christmas cards
Mention something to others about your Christian life this week

God is a God who serves (as well as a King)
Make some food for someone else
Do a random act of kindness
Help someone with a job of theirs today

It was fun, but i still have a lot of work to do on chilling out and doing even less. I've omitted to mention that i also tried to create an ever growing collage on the windows illustrating the story too. Oh, and tried to make it look effortless. The collage never got past cardboard Mary and Joseph arriving at a whiteboard drawn box full of wild animal stickers (the full inn!).

pokeable candle

Happy Christmas Everyone

You can't tell but ive been on another photography course. This taught me how to use the mannual mode on my camera, but really it highlighted to me that i can struggle to get 'the photo' of out girls that i want because they are crap models. Really. Starbucks pulls an odd painful impression of someone trying to smile as soon as she sees the camera, and Cookie will never look directly at the camera, and if she does then she screws her eyes up so tight you cant see them. If you add to this the fact that i dont take my camera out with me when alone as i cant keep an eye on 3 kids and a valuble camera at the same time, and if i do, i usually have a split second to get the shot before someone falls, needs a warning about stepping in dog poo or the buggy is about to roll off and hit a stranger. Thats why i dont have good photos. (camera phone? - shush).

Anyway, here is my Christmas attempt:

see what i've done here to disguise the smiles...

 

Recent trivia

Starbucks said to us tonight, 'Guess how many types of mango there are?'
Taking into consideration her recent scholarly advances I took a punt, 'three?'
She confirmed I was correct; interested I asked what these three types were.
'Mango smoothie, dried mango and mango the fruit'.

More questions than answers

I've become worried that I've got busy living. I am comfortable, and have every single thing i could possibly need. I do not know hardship. I do not know pain.

I spend my time reading, watching TV, cleaning my warm flat, amusing myself and my children.
I write short magnetic messages on the fridge knowing that at random moments Starbucks will read them.
i iron Xss's shirts in the hope that lonely people in the city will know that he is loved (and professional)
I pick up Cookie and throw her in the air to make her laugh
I rock, rock, rock Hero to sleep in a baby carrier around the house, then try to tenderly sit down with her still asleep to drink a warm cup of tea and read my book for book club. Compromising relaxed shoulder muscles for a stolen read.
I clean the oven with WD40 to make it shine.
I go to toddler groups and chat.
I drink tea.
I wear the same two sets of clothes continually so i don't have to think about what to wear.
We drive a tiny, old car which we cant hear the radio in when its going fast.
I went to a bible study the other night without Hero, and i drove home in the chill of the autumn night singing along to blink 182, really singing.

But is this it.Should i be happy with this, or am i missing something. Is this the huberis of the young, to think that there is always something greater; that we should aspire to leave our mark on the world?

When i imagine our grandparents generation, with their reduced world-mobility, their community being a local one (with no virtual far fetching section apart from through mail and newspapers), they seem like they had a smaller mission, the one i have now, to be happy. To go to the butchers, to wash the clothes.

But perhaps i am doing them a misjustice, and this is the true downfall of my generation, to believe that small and local and discreet, cannot equal life changing. Making your mark on the world does not have to mean starting your own charity, or creating an organic recycled material; marks can be made on individual people through individual moments.

I hope one day that i will adopt a couple of kids, and that part of my life now is a waiting game, preparing for them to come and a future i do not know. I try be myself when i meet others, offering them happiness, a laugh and love, but is this too fleeting? Do i need to house a homeless person just to prove to myself that i am making the world a better place. This would not be enough, I'd become used to this and be happy and perhaps complacent again.

Can i genuinely consider my children my projects, investing in them as a way of changing the future. DO WE NEED CHANGE AT ALL??/

In a world where everyone seems to be needing something more, is it ok to be happy? And if i am happy, do i need to then help others find their happiness?

Does life have to be any more complicated than smelling a sleeping baby's warm head?

Starbucks and XSS showing us simple