I'm Lovin' It

I love the Christmas season, but I hate when people try to downplay the special time of the year by saying Happy Holidays or calling it a holiday tree. Even the latest gap commercial is irritating to me. Have you heard it, it goes like this "go Christmas, go Hanukkah, go Kwanzaa, go solstice." Don't get me wrong, I am cool with the Hanukkah part even the Kwanzaa part to a degree, but solstice, solstice? Now we have to mention holidays that the wicca's celebrate! How politically correct are we going to take it? Why can't we simply use this time of the year to use it for the purpose it was intended, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It's like businesses want to cater to everyone to make sure they don't offend anyone in their path to making more money.

I am amazed by the businesses that stand up for what the believe and don't lay that aside in order to make a few bucks. Like our local McDon@alds, who every year paints a nativity scene on their windows. We have 2 in town, in they both do it. Also, our local GiGi's cupc@kes who had Jesus is born painted on their windows. Thank you for standing up for what you believe in!

Jesus is Born!

Suffering

Today, during my quiet time, I was reminded of something. We hear of children being born who are blind, with down syndrome, with physical deformities, etc. We hear of infants, toddlers and children battling cancer, HIV, and suffering malnutrition among so many other disease and conditions that we hope we never have to endure as an adult. Then there are adults who are solid people who suffer, and the age old question is why does God allow these things to happen? If he is a caring God, why does he allow it?

The verse I read today was in John 9, when Jesus comes across the man who was blind from birth and his disciples asked who sinned to cause his blindness his parents or the himself. (It was normal for people to associate sin with disease or conditions back then, and I believe that some people in certain cultures still believe that to be the case.) Jesus clarifies that neither the parents nor the man sins caused his blindness. His blindness happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

How many times do we find ourselves throwing pity parties when something goes wrong. We want it our way. God can take the smallest trial in our life and turn it into the largest thing that will glorify Him so that it may be displayed for all to see. How we react to our certain issue, trial or temptation speaks volumes when it comes to God's glory especially if we are claiming to be a christian.

As I read this chapter, I was reminded of my friend, sorority sister, Stephanie. Stephanie was one of the kindest, most genuine people that you could ever meet. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and just in life, she was born in 9 months, in death, she died in 9 months. Her battle was not easy, she struggled day in and day out with pain, not just physical pain, but the pain of leaving behind her husband and her daughter Zoe, who would soon turn 2 years old. Stephanie was a fighter until the end, not only in the physical sense of the word, but in the spiritual sense as well. Her journal entries praised God's name and she was not scared at all, because Jesus was by her side. Her testimony was one of the most powerful things I have ever read. To see someone enduring a huge trial and living it out in front of the world to see and never once complaining about the unfair hand that she had been dealt, but praising God the entire time....WOW! I can't say that I would have handled it the same, but she is such an inspiration for me.

Here are a few excerpts from her journal which you can check out here, also check out her foundation that was started shortly after she passed here

her mom writing on Christmas day, as this was a few weeks before she passed away....

Stephanie has said from the beginning "I do not want to die on Christmas....I don't want something as joyful as the birth of Jesus to be made sad by my death." "If God takes me on Christmas, tell Zoe Jesus wanted me for His Birthday present". We are really praying hard that Steph's biggest prayer come true.

another post...

I am so thankful to have family that surrounds me when I need them the most. I just want to be surrounded by love from now til whenever. It has hit everyone very hard and by much surprise but this fight is FAR from over. I know my days are numbered, as are yours... God knew when He created me in the womb how many days I had. He still knows when I will take my last breath here on earth and IMMEDIATELY be in heaven with Him. As a selfish human, I am not ready to go and will contiue to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT, but when the pain gets to be too much and this body gives out I know where I am going... DO YOU? As selfish as I am, wanting to be here for Zoe and my family and friends, I am much more excited about getting to finally meet Zain and be reunited with all of my other family members that I loved so much!!!! It sucks for yall to suffer here, but I will be SINGING all day long and I will get to see Jesus face to face. Yall just thought you were jealous of my accessory bag back when I had it (i.e. the pee bag), you will really be jealous of me when I am with Jesus and no longer hurting and yall are stuck here in the number 1 most violent city in America thanks to that idiot mayor we have... did I say that out loud?

Even until the very last day, she was sweet, funny, God loving, Stephanie. How do you think you will respond if you were faced with a similar situation? Would you give God the glory or would you speak ill of Him?

Santa Came to Town

Big things were happening at the Weaver house today, Santa came to visit...okay so it was really just Papa dressed up as Santa, not the real Santa. When Dylan saw him at the front door, he ran screaming.

Santa came inside, and he didn't even want to look his direction. It was so pitiful, yet so funny. Santa sat down in the chair and we revealed to Dylan that it was only Papa.

He still wasn't sure of this guy. Even though, he saw it was Papa. He wanted nothing to do with him. Then he got a candy cane, then he was a little at ease....not so much.

After a while, Dylan really warmed up to Santa. They even did high fives with each other.

Merry Christmas!

Twins?

Damien and I have been debating who Dylan looks like. Even with him being our child, I can't even tell. In the beginng, most people said he looked like me. Now, we are getting more and more people saying that he looks like Damien. Damien doesn't have a lot of pictures of him as a baby, but we got to look at a photo album while in Mobile. We came across this photo of Damien and his sister Tracy.
We guess that Damien was about 2 years old based on the 4th of July summer attire, but that is totally our guess. The age difference between Damien and his sister is exactly the same between Dylan and Tracy's daughter Taylor, who looks exactly like Tracy when she was a kid. We got the idea to try and recreate the picture. Here's what we got...

What do you think? Other than the haircut does Dylan favor Damien more?

Reclaiming the Season

On Tuesday night, I attended a women's event at church called Reclaiming the Season. I hadn't planned on going, but my sweet, sweet friend Cindy took me as her guest. I was so grateful because it's not something that I would have done for myself. This event is an annual event where the women get together, fellowship, sing Christmas carols and remember what Christmas is truly about. Not the stressed, hectic, crazy season that it sometimes ends up being.

The first 30 minutes of the event is walking around to look at tables. Look at tables you ask, don't they all look the same? The tradition is that you decorate the table that you are sitting at, and it's really fun to see everyone's personalities. Here are a few (unfortunately I don't have a picture of our table as I meant to take one and I got caught up in the moment, and when I remembered, we had already ate and it was a mess.) In years past, the women at the event voted on the "best" table, which is all a matter of opinion anyway, so the women just asked to do away with the voting. Women just love to decorate regardless if there is a prize involved or not. I would say there were around 18 tables if I had to guess.

fun, whimsical table

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" table

(you can't tell, but it was blinged out)

Alabama table (houndstooth)

cute, creative table

Candy table (I think this was my favorite)

The message that night was "what's under your Christmas tree". It was a fun time to reminisce about what gifts we have gotten in years past. It really triggered some great memories. Like at 6 years old, I would say, if memory serves me right, that I got a cabbage patch kid or 2 for Christmas along with lots of other stuff from Santa. Then we talked about the age around 12 or 13 where we were entering our teenage years. I had forgotten all about it, but someone mentioned it and yes, I remember having it.....here it comes a Caboodle. Remember those? It was like a female version of a tackle box that held makeup, curling irons, brushes, etc. I loved my Caboodle. I remember, I went through 2 of them...one was purple and pink and the other black and white.

Along with my caboodle, I could remember loving me some Liz Claiborne perfume in the triangle bottle and I am sure that I probably got something New Kids on the Block or Tiffany related (don't talk to me about Debbie Gibson. I was a Tiffany fan, through and through). Ah, the memories.....I really liked hearing everyone's memories, but then we were posed the greatest present ever...then we heard things that ranged from a glass bracelet to an engagement ring and the main point was it wasn't the gift itself that made it the best, but the emotion that was tied to it. It didn't matter what it cost, or if it was the latest craze, but what the feeling was when you got the gift....isnt' that true. One of my favorite gift, I got for my birthday. My mom made me a recipe book and wrote down a bunch of her recipes in it. I know that it took a lot of time and I really appreciated the gift. What has been the best gift you have received?

Thanksgiving Tour

Last week, for Thanksgiving, we made a tour of the south. Well, it at least it felt like we did. We had made plans months ago to visit Damien's family and friends (mine are all local for the most part). This trip was going to be a sneak peek at how Dylan will behave when confined on a plane for a long time. Dylan got a special treat though, Christmas came early. My mom gave him his "big" present before we left. She got him a portable DVD player and 3 movies, so before heading out, we stopped at the library and picked up 3 more movies.

With DVD player in tow, we left on Tuesday and headed to Birmingham to stay with Damien's fraternity brother and his family. We arrived in B'ham at lunch time so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the zoo for a few hours. (Nice perk of having a Nashville Zoo membership is that it gets you into other zoos for half price or sometimes for free.) Seeing we didn't pay anything, we felt like if we were there for an hour, we got our money's worth. We got to see some great animals up close and personal, ones that Dylan hasn't seen lately (except our trip to San Diego when he was 7 months old.)

The McLeods made dinner plans with some other friends at the local Mexican restaurant. Afterwards, we let the boys and Sara Francis run around outside for a while. They all got wound up and Dylan began giving out the hugs.

Damien, Dylan and the boys

That evening, we went over to Damien's step mom's house where Dylan got to play with cousin Taylor. He loves him some cousin Taylor. That night, we let Dylan sleep in bed with us. He was a hoot, jumping and diving on the bed. Finally after winding down, he fell asleep. I love falling asleep with him, but I hate the rest of the night. How does a kid turn all different angles and hog the majority of a king size bed is beyond me.

The following day, Thanksgiving, we met up with Damien's sister's family and his step mom to head to Hattiesburg, MS to see Damien's Aunt Dot and his Dad's side of the family. Once their Dylan and Taylor played outside whenever we weren't eating. Taylor insisted on climbing a tree...monkey see, monkey do, Dylan had to give it a try.

Aunt Dot's husband, Jackie, recently passed away, so this Thanksgiving was going to be hard for her and I think she enjoyed having the company. Before the meal, Dot along with some other family members remembered Uncle Jackie. One of the things said was, I've never done anything but always wished I had something to brag about, but Jackie had done everything and never bragged about any of it. That was really a good legacy to leave. Jackie was an all star football player and Southern Miss and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1979.

In 1953, in the Sun Bowl against Pacific, he played the second half with a broken collarbone (ouch) and was later named one of the USM's top athletes of the 20th century by the Hattiesburg American. Aunt Dot said that he never argued with her, unless it was about hunting or his truck. He knew when to show them and when to fold them :)

Uncle Jackie

Our niece Taryn, Aunt Dot, niece Taylor and Dylan

Later on, we drove back to Mobile and hung out with the family a little longer. The next day, we headed out of town, we were suppose to drive to Arley, Alabama (aka Smith Lake) but we had to make a stop in Birmingham, back at the McLeods, to watch the Alabama/Auburn game. It was perfect timing which allowed Dylan to play a few hours to break up the 6-7 hour drive. It was a close game and we were on pins and needles, but Alabama pulled it off. Roll Tide Roll.

Dylan with Elliott and Sara Francis

We got to Smith Lake at Uncle Buddy and Aunt Nancy's new house on the lake, and it was gorgeous. Uncle Buddy recently retired from his second career (first being in the Air Force) and has set up a new home on the lake. Who can blame them. We enjoyed our time with the family and headed home the following day.

Dylan fell asleep reading a book

It was a great week catching up with family.