'Tis the Season.

Jane came home from school today and wanted a new hairdo. She went to the hair accessory drawer and came back with a handful of items. Rather than tell her how crazy she was, I just decided to place them all in her hair for her.






Looks like I made her day...



Which prompted Ruby to want to take a picture of me and Jane together.



But I was still just feeling happy that we even made it to school today! We were running VERY late this morning. So late that when my alarm went off at 7am, our house was as quiet as it is in the middle of the night. I couldn't understand it. I thought perhaps Darin and I had missed daylight savings or something, because it was really dark too. So I hit snooze (I know that this is very hard for you to believe Liz!), and thought I'd figure out the time mystery after 7 more minutes of sleep.

When my alarm went of 7 minutes later and still the house was so quiet, I was completely intrigued, so I climbed out of bed to investigate. I found all four of my children sweetly slumbering in their warm beds. Apparently it was not daylight savings day. It was simply a cold and dark, rainy morning.

You know how I hate the morning?! Do you remember how I think waking up is almost the worst part of the whole day?

When I saw everyone asleep, I simply couldn't stir a single one of them. I quietly as a mouse sat down at my computer and thought I'd check my email and that surely at any moment they would all come and find me in the dark office.

But minutes passed by. And I kept checking my clock wondering what I should do. It was 8am before any of them stumbled out of bed. School starts at 8am. And the girls are supposed to be at school at 8:30.

As I was putting the boys to bed tonight Darin over heard me telling them that I wouldn't let them sleep in again. And he said something like "Oh, did your alarm not go off again this morning?" And I said, "Oh no, it went off, but the children didn't wake up." And he said something like, "But you were awake?" And I said, "Yes, of course I woke up in time." And he said, "Well then, why didn't you wake them up?!"

He simply couldn't understand why I didn't wake them up. I tried to explain that it had been a late night for them and that if they were ALL sleeping in that long, it really must have meant that they were tired. And if there is anything in this life that I am sympathetic to, it is a tired soul. He totally laughed at me. He thought I was joking. But the funniest thing is, I wasn't joking at all, and until we had this conversation I thought I had mothered excellently this morning by letting all of my tired children sleep in just a little bit longer. Apparently I am wrong.

I'm really going to suck at waking kids up. I can see this now. It's never been a problem yet. Up until this point we have lived a life with kids who act as our alarm clock. We are going to be in serious trouble if I'm the one who is supposed to get us all going in the dark, cold, early mornings of winter!

But after I got everyone off to school LATE, I came back home to get things sorted out. Somewhere around Halloween time I thought it would be terribly quaint to hand make an enormous amount of Christmas presents this year. And so me and my sewing machine have been having some late nights together. When I got back home I decided that I should shake the schedule up and rather than sew late at night, try it early in the morning. I had my projects still out from the night before and I was in a quiet house all alone. I blasted my "Mary's Lullaby Christmas" CD (thanks Wiley's for my new favorite Christmas music!!), and for some reason every song sounded like the most beautiful song I had ever heard. I was sewing and crying simultaneously. And they were not tears of sorrow at all. Only tears of overwhelming joy and love. I think I was overflowing love for the peace and quiet in my house at 9am. That is a rare moment. And then I was overflowing love for all the people for whom I have been sewing. And then all the words of the songs about the birth and life of our Savior were simply overwhelming.

And it was ironic because just yesterday I was kind of feeling sorry for myself that I wasn't living in America (I know, it's a shocking confession for me to make on the blog. I know I had you all fooled into thinking I had adopted Korea as my homeland...). But I had been, feeling sorry for myself that is. There is just something about Christmas that while we get a lot of it wrong in the consumerism, at least we know how to celebrate it, and I was feeling like we're missing out.

But then this morning, in my house with my music, I got to realize again that the joy and magic are produced in the most simple ways. Music, a warm house, a beautiful fresh Christmas tree scent, being together, and my children and Darin who make it all worth it.

Good night.