Christmas, Life, and Intentions

As I sit here in the office at Marc and I's shared desk, I glance out the window and see the falling snow and sip my glass of Penfold's Cabernet Merlot. I feel so thankful and blessed. This has been a wonderful holiday season. I have enjoyed it like none that I can remember in the recent past. I might venture to say like none I have experienced since I was a child and to be honest, I do not remember a vast amount of my childhood. The memories I hold dear from childhood Christmases included quiet candlelit Christmas Eve's and 11 o'clock Christmas Eve services singing "Silent Night." Every year on Christmas morning I would run from my room to the living room to look under the tree and dump my stocking to see what Santa had left behind prior to going to wake my parents. Santa always put a red delicious apple and an orange in my stocking without fail. I love that Marc, Ethan, Aaron, and I have started our own traditions as a family. I love that we were close to home and didn't have to do a lot of travelling.

I also love being 30! Okay, don't get me wrong aging has its downfalls but really they are minimal at this point. So far I am feeling more and more "at home" in my 31st year. It has been so fun redecorating our house. It is amazing, at least to me, how it is turning out. On New Year's Eve of 2005 we signed on the dotted line to build our current home. We moved in late May, early June of the following year and it has taken until within the last couple of months to feel settled. I think that there are many reasons for that. Marc and I are investing in our relationship. Without a healthy marriage no house can feel like a home! Ethan and Aaron have filled our four walls with fun, creativity, imagination, and love. In addition, my style has changed and I am not sure whether it is a stage or I have found my true sense of style, but I love shabby, vintage, white, colorful, bright decor.

Today I had the pleasure of embarking on a me day! Marc and the boys ventured up north to his mom and step dad's and left me here to do whatever it is that I would like to do. Marc will be travelling for work soon and thought it would be something nice that I would enjoy...and my have I! The boys woke up at about 5am this morning because they went to bed early last night. Since I was up and Marc was up shortly later, I decided to head to Menards. I had hoped to pick up a Christmas tree and possibly a train for under the tree for the boys to put in the basement. Unfortunately I did not find great deals on either item. However, I did get some neat ornaments, gift wrap, and some clothes. It was so nice to shop with no time frame and no one's agenda but my own.

This afternoon I watched the movie Julie & Julia. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is about the life of Julia Child of course and a woman named Julie Powell. Julie had hoped to be a writer, but instead without success of publishing her novel ended up in a totally unrelated career without a great deal of direction (at least according to the movie). She decides to start a blog to sort of jump start her writing again and writes about her challenge of cooking all 500+ recipes in Julia Child's book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Julia seemed to have a lovely, charismatic personality in the movie. I don't really have much knowledge of her outside of the movie other than a vague recollection of her on TV. The movie really made me think. Honestly I am not tremendously talented or gifted in any one area. I like to think of myself as someone God made fairly well rounded and I do think that is a gift. With that said, I do sometimes long to be extremely talented in some area. I am so drawn to creative people! I often ponder what it would be like to have a following on my blog or pursue writing further, take decorating to a new level outside of my own home, or even go back to school to become an OT and fulfill my dream of working at Riley Hospital. I am not sure which if any of those things will ever happen or if any of them are supposed to, but I do think it challenged me to start off the new year and continue my 31st year with direction and intention. I've signed up for my first mini marathon and will be starting my training within the next week. I definitely want to invest more time volunteering and serving within and outside my church this year. We will see, maybe I will start investigating the OT thing a bit again. I most definitely want to continue to be intentional about being a wife and mother. The small things like making home cooked meals, reading to my kids, developing traditions, and so much more are so important. I also want to commit to having a strong relationship with God in 2010 and teaching my children that God loves them in some way each day! Life is hard, but he continues to bless me with so much!