Uncommon Grace

23 December

Today this sweet, sweet baby is six months old. Six months! And his handsome papa is celebrating his own birthday. 

We are almost ready for Christmas. I have completed most of my ambitious list of handmade gifts. A few things were scratched from the list and that's fine. I got the things for our extended family finished, which had a hard deadline. My own children will receive one less gift apiece on Christmas morning but I think my list was too ambitious, and there's always Three Kings Day for those final things. 

I'm feeling considerably more relaxed today, having finished what I really needed to last night, which gives me today and tomorrow to just relax and enjoy the time with my family, reading our favorite (as well as new to us) Christmas books and baking some more cookies for Santa. I promise, once everything has been gifted, to post photos of everything here. I'm pretty amazed by how much I actually accomplished!

I wish you all the merriest of Christmases, full of peace and joy and full hearts. 

18 December

I am posting here from the midst of gift-making chaos. We have no money this year. I mean, we always say that, especially the last few years at my husband's last crummy job, but this year, in the midst of unemployment, we really have nothing to spend on gifts. I do, however, have a lot of supplies. So I'm making as much as I can squeeze in. With a newborn. So, chaos and exhaustion doesn't really begin to describe it. I'm really longing for some time to just sit and read (either on my own or to my children), listen to Christmas music, and not look at another scrap of fabric, yarn, paper, wax, or any other supplies. Just a week to go. I'll get there. 

It feels ironic to write the above, because while handmade gifts are definitely part of what I'd consider our family's "values", time spent together is even more important. I hate the consumerism and "grab it all" of this time of year, with frantic shopping and piles of gifts that will be forgotten or broken long before the next Christmas. Every year, we give fewer gifts to our children and I like it that way. So, I hate that here I am making gifts but feeling that same pressure. It's a balance that I just haven't struck yet.

But what I am longing for is a quiet, holy Advent spent in prayer and quiet togetherness with my family. I hope someday to get there. 

I've grabbed these few photos here and there the last couple of weeks. Thank goodness for that camera, however infrequently I've been picking it up. It reminds me to look for the good in the midst of frenzy.

3 December: Holiday & Winter Favorites, 2013 edition

I have often wondered why we have so many more winter and Christmas books than any other. Why, for example, are spring and summer themed books so underrepresented in our collection? I suppose it's because wintertime is just so conducive to cuddling up with a book. It's so cozy and relaxing. 

You can find previous years' lists here (there wasn't one for 2012 as we had misplaced our collection in our move): 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. (Look how little my children were in these! That must be the funnest part of putting these together!) A word about links: I'm linking here to Amazon for the sake of convenience. I don't have an active Amazon Associates account so I don't make anything whether you purchase from Amazon or elsewhere. Whenever possible, support local and independent bookshops!

This year's selection veers more toward the Christmas end of the spectrum rather than the winter end. 

The Friendly Beasts Out of print, and I'd meant to share it for several years in a row before this but it kept slipping my mind until after the fact. This is a very old carol, about the animals' gifts to Jesus. We love to sing the song, and although we love the illustrations in our edition (Elisabeth got it from St. Nicholas when she was just a year-and-a-half old!), there is also a Tomie dePaola version which is still in print.

Home for Christmas The wild little troll boy in this book reminds me a little of my own wild little boy. Crazy, and stubborn, but tender-hearted and generous, too. And who doesn't need a wild little troll boy like that in their life?

The Three Snow Bears This is such a cute, wintery version of The Three Bears. As with everything by Jan Brett, I love the details she incorporates into each illustration. 

The Littlest Evergreen I love Christmas tree books, and you'll notice several of them among my favorites over the years. The Little Fir Tree (this edition and this one), Night Tree, and Christmas Farm (among others) have all popped up over the years. This one is a sweet twist on the story of a tree being selected as a Christmas tree. The last page is my favorite. You'll have to check it out to find out why!

The Little Drummer Boy This is one of my favorites in the "song into book" genre. Although it's not my favorite Christmas song, the illustrations by Ezra Jack Keats (one of my favorite illustrators) make it just beautiful. Also, it's surprisingly hard to find quality Christmas board books (at least when you have a collection as big as ours). So this is a special favorite when we have a very little one in the house. 

Hurry, Hurry, Have you Heard? This is one of the sweetest and most gentle Nativity books we have. Having a newborn myself, I feel like it perfectly fits the soft, tender feeling of those special newborn days. The illustrations and rhyming text are soft and lovely. The animals are sweet instead of boisterous or overly docile. I really like this one. 

Christmas Day in the Morning This story is a classic. A young boy rises early to complete the farm chores and surprise his hardworking father on Christmas morning. What I love about it is that the father is tender, too. The boy's efforts are appreciated. The father is not merely a gruff archetype of fatherhood. I always, always cry when I read this one, and it has been with us for many years.

Christmas in the Stable  Astrid Lindgren never fails. This book is in the vein of her Tomten books (The Tomten being in my top 10 children's books ever). But Harald Wiberg's illustrations here (he is also the illustrator of the Tomten books) are the real highlight. The story of the Nativity is moved into a more contemporary rural setting. A mother retells the story to her young daughter in simple language. The illustrations are simply luminous.

Christmas Eve: The Nativity Story in Engravings, Verse, and Song This book is simple but incredibly beautiful. The text is the biblical text, in the words of the beautiful King James version. Songs are used to punctuate the key elements of the story every few pages. And the engravings are extraordinary. St. Nicholas brought this book for Elisabeth last year, and it's very suitable for someone who is a bit more "grown up" in her taste.

Thank you all for your enthusiasm for my annual winter/Christmas book posts. It's fun to put them together for you!

(If you are overwhelmed with my extensive lists and want a shorter list, my top five are: The Mitten, Big Susan, Christmas in Noisy Village, The Tomten, and one beautiful Nativity book, such as Christmas Eve from this post, or The Story of Christmas by Jane Ray, or The Story of Christmas by Pamela Dalton. For a sixth choice, I'd throw in Family Christmas Treasures. For a couple more wintery choices, you can't go wrong with The Big Snow or The Snowy Day.)

2 December

Once again, I didn't quite make it to the end of November. I have been so tired in the evenings lately, and my only chance to get onto the computer is after John is asleep, so it's been a challenge. I remember going through this same kind of tiredness when my other children were small -- falling asleep while putting the baby to bed. Having an infant is a lot of work!

Thanksgiving went beautifully. It was fun to host! I hope to do it again! (I think that's a good sign.)

And now we are into Advent. A few people have noticed that I didn't post links to all my old Advent posts this year. They are still back there in the archives. (Check last November, on the post on the 15th or 16th of the month, for a post that links them all up -- I have my not sleeping and very fussy baby on my lap right now so I can't post any links.) I decided not to post them this year because, while in some ways, they are still in the spirit of how my family celebrates Advent, in other ways, they are not. Now with four children, giving little gifts every day is not possible (24 days times 4 children is 96 little things to give!), and so our focus, as time goes by, changes and evolves. Also, the original posts are now more than 6 years old and that seems pretty old. Though my list is awfully thorough, there are new ideas out there. So, they are there if you're looking for them, but they are also, in some ways, something that I've moved away from.

On the other hand, Christmas books are something I have not moved on from, and I hope to share my annual book post tomorrow night, in plenty of time for purchasing or library perusal. (As long as I don't fall asleep with the baby!)

Oh! And I've updated my right-hand sidebar with our favorite Christmas music! Enjoy!

22 November

Ahh, those quiet few days were just what I needed this week. It felt like a very good thing, in the midst of a life that doesn't give me a whole lot of quiet on its own. We seem to have something (usually good) going on every day, but it's so good to step back sometimes from whatever is possible.

(I can rarely take notes at my class because of the baby, so my husband suggested I photograph the whiteboard with my phone -- such a good suggestion! This is an exciting one because it announces the date of our graduation after four years. So exciting.)

Tonight felt like a good night to pop my head back in, though, on this feast day of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians. My husband and I have been going to a couples' bible study this fall, and tonight the topic was tithing. It was a good conversation but gave us even more fruitful discussion on the drive home. Whatever our woes, it is a very good thing to know that he and I are on the same page financially. We have never had a lot of money, but it has never been our priority. We have prioritized other things, that have allowed us to serve others -- whether in our community or under our own roof. And despite our financial struggles lately, we have continued to give to the best of our ability to our church and to a few charitable causes. It's just so important to us. And we have found that whatever we give, we receive in greater measure. Such a testament to trust.

It has been cold and snowy the last few days. As much as October is my favorite month, I love November, too. And all the winter months. It might be weird, but I actually don't mind a gray day in the least. Yesterday I was downtown by myself for a few hours. It was so refreshing to walk down the city sidewalk with icy air in my lungs and snow falling. That was real grace, and I'm so grateful for it.

We are busy preparing for Thanksgiving. I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but we are hosting Thanksgiving this year, for 17 people in my husband's family. I'm very excited because I love to host things, but rarely have the chance since all of our extended family lives nearby.

Wishing you all refreshment and rest in the ways you need it most. 

xo,
Grace