All is Calm

I am sure the "Silent Night" song has special meaning for many, but as we sang it several times over this past weekend, it had new meaning to us - to know things are calm and peaceful and there is bright hope of tomorrow. Just imagine the hearts of those when Jesus was born and what hope they were given at that time.

We had a good, peaceful, calm weekend. It wasn't without tears, but overall, it went very well, and we had very good family time together. A couple of the girls especially, just plain miss Matthew, and when it's good family time together, and though it was so nice, there's still that ache of missing him being a part of it. But we got through those tender moments.

We went to a Christmas Eve service Saturday night that was wonderful. It was just people in our church participating in various things, from Scripture reading, to singing, to sharing. One of our daughters sang with two of her friends. It was nice fellowship afterwards, but not too late, that we still all made it to church Christmas morning. Last Christmas Eve, there was not a service, but our church family came to our house, and just surrounded us and got us through that day. So, it was good to be with them again, in a different atmosphere, with much more joy. I made Sunday Christmas dinner for the family, which was so wonderfully supplied to us by the gals that came over on Friday. We exchanged a few gifts. The children had picked names, and were very excited to give to each other. Monday we went and celebrated with Norm's family, and it was a very nice, relaxing time with his brothers and sister. The girls especially loved being with their 9 girl cousins. It was neat to hear them singing and enjoying each other. The generosity of family and friends was overwhelming and just neat to see how God supplied. Our children get just as excited about "hand-me-downs" as new clothes, and I think especially the younger girls have pretty much a "new" wardrobe with several people giving us things and we were able to replace our "hand-me-downs" with newer. One of my little girls favorite toys is little Teddy Bears they got several sets of clothes for, and I actually prefer them dressing and redressing these bears than them dressing and redressing themselves! That is the challenge with 5 girls in one bedroom and trying to keep their clothes orderly!

Please continue to pray for Norm regarding either more work for small engines coming into his home business, or an outside job to open up. He did not get the job he was so hopeful for. The owner just is not sure what he wants to do as far as further business opportunities, and even if he wants to keep the machines he was having Norm work on (which were quite outdated as far as the computerized part). He was quite indecisive, which was hard for Norm, but there must be something else God has planned. So, this is still and up and down thing.

Thank you for your prayers for our family and the many notes, e-mails and cards. It was so good to hear from so many.