Understanding Christmas

December is typically a busy month for us, but not in the ways you might expect. 

I don't bake any cookies or buy Joshua or our kids any gifts. I am grateful to either Nana or Grammie, depending on which year our rotation is on, for doing the decorating and stocking stuffing and feast preparation. 

We go to cookie decorating events and Christmas concerts and various parties. Sophia sees Santa in a parade or at the mall and smiles and waves not quite sure of what to make of him.

At school she made a Menorah for Chanukah and a Kinara for Kwanzaa and I am glad she is learning about these holidays. At home though we have conversations about how Chanukah is just one of the many holidays Jewish people celebrate and not considered the most important one. We talk about how Kwanzaa is in part a celebration of being all together ("unity") and how baby Jesus would have had a darker shade of skin than hers and mine based on where and when he was born.

 Walking past a department store front, I see a sign that reads, "O Come All Ye Gift Givers!". A clever marketing slogan off a hymn from the 1700s which actually suggests, "O Come let us Adore Him". Generous gift giving is not a bad thing, but there is an even greater story of hope and reconciliation. 

So while Sophia may be confused about where the Nutcracker figurine fits into the Manger scene, she also loudly exclaims when noticing candy cane decorations at the gym, "Look Mama! A J for Jesus!". 

There will be questions of faith I can never answer for her, but someday I may find it helpful to go back to these words she sang at age 3 for a start:

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving morning with the New Hampshire Archambaults began with a walk in the snow alongside the Connecticut River.

Throughout the weekend, I continued to be impressed by the way Sophia and J's pre-teen and teen cousins played with them.

Each of the 14 feasters were given a card with a scripture verse inside and space to write what they were grateful for. Sophia listened as her 90 year old Great Grandfather read his aloud.

The morning after Thanksgiving was spent at a local Art Studio.

We brought home a clay bowl that Sophia made with her Grammie and Mama.

When your Grammie is a former preschool teacher you get to make toilet paper roll squirrels complete with walnut shell heads and acorn hats.

Before we headed home on Saturday, Sophia helped to put out some Christmas decorations. Sophia and J's Grammie presented them with a cloth Natitivity set she had sewn for them,which is now getting lots of use.

Back at home on Sunday we enjoyed the Quincy Christmas Parade with our friends the Southworth-Mahoneys.

Autumn 2016

The Archambault Autumn activities of 2016 included a visit to the pumpkin patch where both kids enjoyed a hayride and apples from the orchard.

Sophia also got to pick out her own sugar pumpkin and a decorative gourd which she named "Gordon".

Our generous neighbors gave us a box of ten pumpkins. After adorning our front steps they became pumpkin muffins, pancakes, waffles, bread and smoothies.

We attended the neighborhood Halloween party, where Sophia participated in the sport of eating donuts off of strings.  

At the party thrown by our church youth group one of the activties was mini pumpkin tic tac toe.  

It was the first year either child got to go trick or treating, and Sophia enjoyed it so much, she wanted to continue when we got home and asked us to knock on the door so she could open it and give us some treats from her bag.

North Carolina 2016

While the people we love are spread throughout the world, a growing number are now concentrated in North Carolina.

                                          

We made a three stop tour of the State, beginning with the Larsons, who have been there the longest.

Sophia's first sleepover, and lots of quality time reading and playing.

Next we went to visit the Sentas family in their new home.



We didn't see too much of Sophia during this leg of the trip as she was fully embraced as a fifth sibling and we were grateful for more evening talks with friends.



Finally we drove west to Brevard, North Carolina to visit family.

Sophia took her first ride in a kayak...particularly significant since her parents met on a kayaking trip.

Sophia and J loved the three dogs that were part of the crew.



J enjoyed pointing at them and Sophia was motivated to hike 4 miles by walking the two smallest ones.

Cousins Marsha and Denny, Aunt Jan and Uncle Ray

In addition to being with our family, we enjoyed seeing the beautiful scenery, including multiple waterfalls.

Praying for an Ark

This is my ark.  Most days I don’t notice it, unless our one year old is throwing its wooden animals across the room. Recently, I’ve actually started praying for an ark, or rather what I believe it represents. 

To, like Noah, have the willingness to follow through on God given directions even if they seem absurd. To possess a confidence that even if everyone around me thought what I was doing seemed ridiculous, I would have an assurance that it was what I am meant to be doing. To have the courage to live a life of intention. To disallow distractions of my sense of success for myself and my family to supersede whatever it is that I am actually supposed to be doing. To live this life with open hands, believing that as long as I have breathe there is purpose to my presence.

I recently heard a woman speak of her experience when she looked upon the face of her child with Down Syndrome for the first time. As her brand new baby looked up at her, she felt as if he were asking her the question, “Mama are you going to love me for me? Or for what I can do and how it reflects on you?” As I reflected on her words and considered the possibility of something akin to an Ark in my life, I asked myself the questions, “Are you going to claim comforts as essential on behalf of your two children? Or are you going to live in a sacrificial way on behalf of all God’s children? Was I willing to constantly remind myself that each person I encounter is beloved by God? Was I even willing to be inconvenienced beyond what I believed would benefit my family?”

I am trying to discern the balance of giving what God has already called me to give to my husband and my daughter and my son, without using that as an excuse to not have time or energy to do whatever else He may ask. To never use “I can’t help them all” as an excuse to not help one more, since I was never equipped to “help them all” anyway.

Despite the size it implies, my prayer for an ark is not a yearning for something big or even noticeable to others. It is a prayer for willingness of the heart. It is not an “I’ll wait right here until I receive a grand vision.” Rather it is a commitment to keep picking up fistfuls of my everyday sacred mundane dirt that by the end of my life may be formed into one muddy brick of justice and mercy (with the debris of my selfishness and pride mixed in), to place next to the ones others are building. To have fully used up everything within me in this solitary pursuit to love God and love others. And to be ready if asked, to stop forming bricks and start building an Ark.

Rhode Island 2016

Living in Southeast Massachusetts, we like to take advantage of visits to nearby Rhode Island. One of our favorite stops is the Providence Children's Museum.

J would have been happy to stay in the water room with the faucets and the fish the entire time.

The big block room was another space with great appeal. The soft texture and light weight were appreciated features.

Our accomodations for the weekend were at the Preservation Society of Pawtucket. The Spaulding Johnson House, built in 1828, can be rented and feels like a step back in time while living in a museum (http://www.pawtucketpreservation.org/the-spaulding-johnson-house.html). Pictured is the room where J crawled for the very first time! 

Recently our friends, Sarah, Ronnie, Elisha and Micah Farmer moved from Georgia to Connecticut. Rhode Island was a good midway point for us to meet up for the day.

We brought the kids to the scenic Slater Mill,

and the William Rogers Park playground.

Farming: Colonial to the Present

The Adams National Park, down the street from our house was hosting an "Every Kid in a Park" event on a very beautiful last day of April. In addition to dressing up in colonial garb with "Abigail", Sophia had the opportunity to plant some carrot seeds:

Mill Apple Cider:

and make a beeswax candle:

Earlier in the day, we visited the farm of our friends Bruce and Terry.

sentasfamilyfarm.com

More recently Sophia did some farming of her own by collecting the late summer harvest from the garden of her Godfather Glen Thompson.