This is the title of one of my favourite British TV shows that I used to watch in Zimbabwe. It is also an expression of what our lives have been like since October. We have been so crazy and so busy that time just went by. I have looked at my blog but did not have the heart to update as it has been a busy, sad, festive time all at once.
Some friends who read this may know what I am talking about, others not. Well when you have lost a member of your family who used to be a part of your everyday life for so long, and especially of your family celebrations it is hard to adjust to those times without them.
Christmas does not have the same allure for me as it once did. Besides not being the real actual time of year that Christ was born, and the outlandish publicity of it all, our last Christmas with our son Brendon was so special and we had no idea it would be our last. We decorated all out with our 7 foot Christmas tree and lots of presents, decorations all over the living room, and special treats to eat. Each year Christmas has come upon our family way too quickly, but my husband and I are glad to see it go.
If you are wondering if we celebrated. Yes we did that. I will say though that as the years go by we notice the gap between the boys more and more. Our oldest tries to be more understanding to his three year old brother but some days it just drives him crazy! He does like to take over and 'guide' him wisely into how to do and play certain things. This makes the parents nutso too. Can anyone understand this?
We celebrated by decorating a very small tree we purchased last year for the boys room. We moved it to our living room and had a nativity scene set up as well. We read Christmas books during the month of December. I even conceded to "The Night Before Christmas" story on Christmas Eve as we were snowed in and unable to attend church. We do not celebrate Santa/Father Christmas. Our personal feeling is not to introduce something that we have to tell them to forget about getting gifts from in the future. I may switch to celebrating St Nicolas earlier in December this year though. He was a real person who blessed others during the winter months.
We had a quiet day at home with family coming over for dessert in the evening. However I did notice that not everyone was content with what they received. I need to remind my children a little more often that there are others who would appreciate just a portion of what they have once a year. Thankfulness and Gratefulness are so hard to teach young children some days when they focus so much on themselves and pleasing their will.
Scriptures we are learning in our homeschool are about Character this year, not just relating to the Bible characters, but those in our history, adventure and story books too. Who, what, and why did the characters act and say the things they did? It is a challenging one for any parent or child to learn this way.
I will post pictures of Christmas in the next post. I wanted to ask you to continue to lift our family in prayer as we may have found a church home we want to stay at. It just so happens to be the church my friend Mrs Keller attends. It was a surprise to find out this very sick little chap recently diagnosed with cancer (same kind as my son had) does go to the same church we had been visiting for a few weeks. Is it coincidence - I don't know. We shall find out!
2011 is full of new things for our family. We are still dealing daily with the past. Brendon will always be a part of every day. I know of a family in TN whose son died 10 years ago, and they still think about him daily, and what an impact he left on the world.
Don't Give Up would be on Brendon's lips if he were on earth to say it, but he whispers it in my heart most days!
