Wild and Crazy!

This morning I looked at the calendar and gasped...it is December 8th already? Has it really been a whole month since I last blogged? Sadly, it has. I think it's this time of year, combined with the truth that life is busier this year than it ever has been before. I spent 2 weeks of November battling a hideous illness. My immune system, compromised by a great deal of stress--financial and familial--couldn't cope. When Matt got a few cold sores, my body picked up the herpes virus and couldn't fight. I wound up getting 50+ canker sores in my mouth, and hundreds down my throat. Add in a high fever for a week and joint pain, and I was pretty much miserable. Two weeks of my life down the toilet. Two weeks of a painful reminder not to take good health for granted. Two weeks to get a taste of what so many people deal with constantly. Two weeks to grow in empathy for those with chronic illnesses. But man, was I glad when the fever broke and the last canker sore melted away. 

Pretty much all of the rest of my time has been filled with getting ready for Christmas. In a year of limited resources, I have had to get creative with my gifts. And wow, have I had fun! I have spent many delightful hours figuring out digital scrapbooking, and I think I pretty much have it mastered. Having a family room upstairs has made it possible for me to leave my sewing machine set up all the time. Great pattern and fabric sales at the fabric store have kept me busy sewing doll clothes for Snapper's dolls. There's another great story that goes along with this, but it will keep for another post. Between sewing and scrapbooking and the continued editing work I am doing on my sis-in-law's wedding pics, I have been really busy. Oh yeah, and I can't forget that since we're not at FamilyLife anymore, I no longer have a mail room that will take care of our ministry mailings for us. Lots of hours spent sending newsletters, too. 

There have been some wonderful highlights in the middle of the crazy life, too. First, we got to spend Thanksgiving with the Bright family. Bill and Vonette Bright founded Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951, and they are some of the people I most greatly respect and admire. Bill passed away several years ago, but Vonette is still living, is a most gracious, beautiful lady. On Thanksgiving, we sat around the dinner table for hours, and had the privilege of hearing her stories firsthand. She is so dear. Snapper especially loved her, and spent part of the evening cuddled up with her on the couch, discussing dolls, little brothers, and friends.

The other great highlight was made possible by my new friend Michal, who has a coupon blog for people in Florida. She did a giveaway on her blog last week and I won. The fabulous prize: 4 tickets to Disney's Magic Kingdom for the filming of their holiday parade! I took the kids out of school for a day last week, and we had a magical time at Disney! Watch Disney's holiday parade on ABC on Christmas Day. Snapper and Pepper will be on it! Look in the audience during the segment where Debby Ryan from "The Suite Life on Deck" sings "Deck The Halls." We were right on the curb, and the cameras parked in front of my kids for a good portion of the filming! Disney also loaned us a flip cam to use to record our family's personal parade experience. They may use some of our footage from that, too! Yay!

Okay. I think that's a pretty good update. More later.