Our small group will be here in one hour. Thankfully, I can close the bedroom doors. And since everyone is bringing food, I won't have to stress about the full success of a meal weighing completely on my shoulders. I love to have people in our home & I want them to feel at home here. I think that's what I loved most about being a youth pastor's wife - having 20 teens rummaging through my kitchen cupboards, saying, "Got anything to eat?" and then whipping up something yummy & impressing them thoroughly. My grandma was a great hostess & always invited people over for holidays...or any occasion worth celebrating. I guess in a way, I want to carry on her legacy by doing the same thing.

When I was in high school, I got to be a part of my best friend's family tradition. Every Christmas they made sweet & sour meatballs. I remember sitting in their kitchen early on a Saturday morning, rolling meatballs to broil. The sauce tasted so good...until I found out what it was made of. Grape jam & chili sauce; 1 part jam, 2 parts sauce. I had forgotten all about it, but went looking online & found the recipe. Now, I'll have to decide whether to tell the "secret ingredients" to our company! :)

Well, enough yapping. I'd better get ready!

Favorite Things

This past month I discovered two new favorites: one old, one new. Someone told me about this 3D snowflake & my Sunday school class had fun making them last week. They turned out really neat. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake

The second is my sister-in-law's granola recipe...tweaked. For some crazy reason I was compulsively buying canisters of quick oats (thinking I was out), until at one point, I had 5 stashed away in various cupboards. The kids love this & we alternate between granola & oatmeal w/ raisins for breakfast. I still have yet to figure out if it's cheaper than cold cereal, but I'm pretty sure it's better for you. :)

1 c. shredded coconut
1 c. sliced almonds
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. wheat germ
1 c. ground flax seed
2 1/2 c. quick oats
2 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. honey

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl & mix well. Take 2 9x13" pans & cut 1/4 c. butter in each pan. Place in the oven until butter is melted. Add 1/4 c. honey to each pan & return to oven until warm & able to stir; add vanilla. Divide dry ingredients between both pans & stir to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring every 7-10 minutes, until browned & crunchy. Let cool & store in a Tupperware container.

Today was a lazy day. Dad, Mom & Aaron left this morning for IL & I went back to bed. Phil & the kids picked up the house. It felt wonderful to be lazy & sleep until noon...I can't remember the last time I did that. Usually I'm the early bird up w/ the kids while Phil sleeps in. We had easy meals - leftovers & sandwiches - and watched movies. I have laundry & other cleaning to do, but it can wait for another day. I told Mom "thanks" for all that she did. She said she didn't really do much, but she has no idea. Every dish that she washed & put away, every item she picked up & put back in its place, every little thing was one thing less I had to worry about.

Side note: Do you have any idea how difficult it is to think or finish a sentence when I have 2 boys pretending to be race cars?

On a serious note...

Christmas has a very different feel this year. I left the living room where everyone was watching a sappy Lifetime movie, because after experiencing it in real life, I don't have much interest sitting through a dramatic made for TV movie.

I remember the first time I saw Terry & Shari. It was Abbie's first year at Hillsdale Christian. She was in 1st grade. We were at school for the Grandparents Day program in the Fall & besides the 1st day of school, (where my focus was solely on my daughter) it was the first time I got to meet fellow parents & students - nerve wracking to say the least. There they were, a picture perfect couple. Abbie & their daughter, Jordyn, became instant best friends & decided all the similarities between them could have made them sisters. By the following year, our daughter's friendship compelled us to get to know this family. We invited them for supper & they invited us. Soon what was intimidating became comfortable & we were able to talk, joke, & learn about each other.

Two years after we met, we were shocked to hear that Terry had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The diagnosis wasn't good. He was diagnosed in August & died on December 18th, the day after his 40th birthday, the day the kids got out of school for Christmas break.

I never did like funerals. The first funeral I attended was my Grandma's. I was in college & I bawled my eyes out. I think Phil thought I had lost it. As a pastor's kid, he attended hundreds of funerals & looked forward to the "funeral burgers" (as they called them) that were served after the service. He remembers playing in the church sanctuary before the casket was removed for the burial.

I would have never imagined two years ago that God would ask me to be there, not just for the funeral, but for the last breaths. I can see now that He prepared me for it, but if He had asked me, I would have said "no". But that is the amazing thing about God. He walks you through one step at a time...all I had to do was obey in the moment. I didn't do anything spectacular. I just got to be a part of something...miraculous.

There are a lot of thoughts swirling around my head, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't start this whole thing off with a laugh. Yesterday when I was getting Daniel ready for bed, he was singing, "Bonus Features, bonus features...these are my bones...and these are my FEATURES!"