Christmas Week in a Nutshell

What a week!

Combine living from a suit case, looking for a new home, making ginger bread houses, Christmas Eve services, Christmas Day, bowling and after Christmas shopping, the last week flew by. With no posts to show for it.

That being said, this is bound to be a long one.

The Lusk Christmas of 2013 seemed to come quickly and leave just as fast. Because we were so focused on our move and selling our house, as well as travelling to Kentucky I felt like we missed out on some traditions we typically do, but looking back it was a great celebration.

Starting off Saturday with a visit to Santa Clause!

After three years Maggie has finally gotten over her fear and trepidation regarding old Kris Kringle.

Her sister, not so much.

Every year we have gotten a picture with all the cousin's and Santa. This is an extra special Santa, played by Poppy (my dad) himself. (Charlotte knew for a bit, but didn't seem to make a fuss. My girls had no idea.)

We spent a lot of time at home the next couple of days. Enjoying each others company and much to my sheer delight playing games! I think my competitive nature has turned most of my family off of playing games, but I'm thankful for them humoring me. 

The Wilson's kind of have a family tradition of decorating gingerbread houses each year. I say kind of because sometimes the holiday is too busy and we have missed it here or there. 

This year though, GG had things prepared and done up with style! There was candy everywhere!

Much to Magpie's delight. 

Of course it turned into who had the best house.

Which of course I thought I won. 

Until I realized that Rachel had help...

...And still ended up with this masterpiece...

...That is until, this one got a hold of it. 

Most everyone did a pretty good job.

Dad's Moose Lodge

KK's Stable

Jeff's Tsunami hit Home

And then there was Dave...

Oh well, they tasted good!

Christmas eve service is always something that we like to do. I was nervous about how my girls would do in the large service, being quiet and still. And I was pleasantly surprised. Mag had a small moment when our lit candle dripped through the protective paper and got our hands, she held it together though and didn't make too much of a scene. 

Then we took the traditional picture by the tree. Together, and then broken up into smaller family units. 

The engaged Couple: Dave and Rachel

The parents: Poppy and GG...and KK (We're still waiting for Mr. Kasey to show)

The Expecting Family: Jeff, Diane and Charlotte (Lucas will make his debut in February)

And us.

We typically opt for opening gifts Christmas eve, seemed like we had so much to do leading up to Christmas I may rethink the timing of this in the future. 

We let the girls open first, and then when the kids were in bed the adults got their turn. 

We tried to stay with the four present limit for the girls. That turned into four general categories (Something they want, need, wear and read) and that coupled with the grandparents, aunts and uncles, my girls racked up. Maggie who is going through a puzzle phase raked in at least ten new ones. Ellie was most excited about her baby doll. We may have a million already, but each one is special for her. She's a good mommy. 

Christmas Day we woke after 8, so glad my girls don't get the concept of waking up at the hiney crack yet. 

All three of the girls were gifted from Santa with bikes.

And yet, Magpie ignored hers for several long moments while showing the entire room the calculator that she got in her stocking!

Despite that I messed up and got Ellie a bike that will fit her next Christmas, she loved it and sat on it for most of a movie that afternoon.

And once the whole room saw her calculator, Maggie went for a spin or two around the house on hers too!

And just like that, our holiday was over. We have the next week visiting with family still, so more memories are sure to be made. 

Hope your Christmas was as exciting as ours!

Seven Days

Seven days. We hired a new realtor and it took seven days to sell!

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!!!

WOO HOO!!!!!!

We close January 15, so we are busy figuring out the logistics of  moving everything and finding our new home!

Thank you so much for your prayers!!

No more facebook posts about showings...Your Welcome!

Kentucky, here we come!

A Trip and A Surprise

In the often spoken words of Ellie, "I did it!"

3 kids. 6+ hours. 80 mph. And me. 

Let's back up. Remember this guy? 

He's been serving your country for eight months now. Far away. And away from his expanding family. 

The story was he was coming home in March. No February. No January. You know the army...

Turns out all those rumors were false. 

And a great surprise ensued. 

I got a call from my dad asking me to pick up my cute niece Charlotte Poo to bring her with us to my parents(Ok, so I added the poo to her name. Aunts prerogative and all that.) 

Diane and she were in town for a friends birthday so it worked out. Until Diane threatened to ruin everything by staying in town one extra night!

Thankfully, the capable Katie  came to the rescue and kicked Diane out sending her home as planned. (If she weren't such a good friend that could have been hurtful!) 

So, I headed off with these three. 

Two stops to wipe noses and pick up cups off the floor. 

One seventeen minute bathroom break and I finally got this. 

I know it's fuzzy...Trust me they are all sleeping! 

An hour and a half of quiet! 

After another quick pit stop and snack we finally made it to GG and Poppy's! 

And later that night, after having been asleep for a few hours Diane got a crooning phone call saying, "I'll be home for Christmas." 

A doorbell rang. 

And the rest is history! 

Welcome Home BIL! So happy for that sister of mine! 

A Pillow of Her Own

My baby is less than a month away from her second birthday! Seems like every week she is hitting milestones or experiencing firsts.

The other night she made another step towards kid status, moving farther from being my little baby.

She asked for a pillow at bed time!

I know a pillow! I'm such a sap.

So, I pulled a pillow out of the closet and she happily dozed off.

Inspired by my crafty sister, I decided to spruce up the spare pillow to make it her own.

So we made a pillow case tonight.

I let the girls pick out their own fabric, which is so interesting to see their opinions and preferences shine through.

So, Cinderella for Maggie and Dora for Ellie. They had to hold their fabric through store. They even got their own little bag to bring it home. Maggie told every fellow shopper in the store that she was getting a Cinderella blanket. I quit correcting her after the second person. Meanwhile, Ellie who has only one volume of speech yelled at every passerby, "Dora! Dora! Dora!"

So, we got started.

Maggie was an excellent helper by pushing down the reverse knobby thing. (See how technically savvy I am with my sewing machine!)

Ellie was an excellent helper by guiding the fabric for ten seconds, then she graciously went to play with baby dolls.

Then voila! Done.

 An excellent incentive for an early bed time tonight! ;)

Faith the size of Six Boxes

Do you need to have things planned out? Or are you a go with the flow, a Que sera sera kind of person?

I personally like to plan. I like knowing the major happenings of the the coming year, and the general plans of the next five. I don't usually fall apart if my plans don't work out, but I do like having a general goal to work towards.

Nearly all of my future goals depend totally on the sale of our home and subsequent moving to Kentucky.

I have waffled back and forth between total excitement about the process and complete disappointment and hopelessness.

When my plans aren't working out like I hoped,  I spend my time trying to understand why. Why is my home not sold yet? What is the lesson? What do I need to do, or not need to do for God to answer my prayer?

Do you ever think like that? Like God's is basing everything He does in your life on you.

For instance, some days I think I'm in this single parenting role to help foster my relationship with my girls. Like, if I don't yell or if I spend extra face to face time with them then I'm one day closer to my goal of being in Kentucky. On the flip side, if I lose it or stick in one too many videos that day then that sets me back a whole week!

Or maybe there is a character trait that I'm supposed to be working on (like patience, *barf*) and once I get a handle on it, then God will allow my home to sell.

Or is it that I don't have enough faith. If I have faith that my house is going to sell then it will.

Or is it that none of it matters and God will do His thing and I need to just do my best to do my best?

Here's the deal. I don't know if God works like that. I know that it is my job to be the best mom I can be AT ALL TIMES. Not just because I want God to bless me with something.

I know that patience is a trait I have never been able to get a grasp on, and wish I did because it would make life so much easier. But does God withhold blessings until we learn our lesson?

I also know that I have faith that God can sell my house tomorrow. I'm just not sure if that is what He wants to do.

I have so much faith that I refuse to buy anymore butter or jelly or freezer food because I don't want to waste it when we leave. I also am buying the small package of toilet paper! That seemed like a big step to me, I'm not exactly sure why...

Anyway, I'll just keep working on my relationship with my girls, keep working on patience, keep working on my faith, and see what He has planned for this brood of Lusks.

Speaking of faith, what better way to prove I have faith than to pack a box...or six!

Craft Time

In an effort to make a bit of extra cash I recently hit up the craft store to make homemade coasters and ornaments to sell out my parents new donut shop. It only cost me $20 to make 100 coasters, and I earned a whopping $10 in sales. 

Since I'm not much of a business woman, I decided the extra supplies would make a great craft with the girls. I had made several ornaments for Ellie's first birthday (almost a year ago! eek!) and had lots of paints left, so we got started. 

I helped a bit with the squeezing. But that was it. Their creativity took over. 

 

I usually just squeeze a ton of paint in and roll it all around the inside of the ornament, but I thought that may be too messy so we opted for paint brushes instead. 

I know, silly me. Like that would keep the mess to a minimum with this one!

I trashed the shirt.  It was easier. 

We even showed Daddy the finished product when skyping. Which ended with Ellie's in a million pieces on the floor. So, here is the one we got. 

It fit perfectly on our little Christmas tree. Notice the ornaments are only at their arm level. Nothing at all on the top half. I think its sweet that way, so it stays. 

It'll do, until we can get to Daddy and celebrate Christmas together in Kentucky.