On Christmas Eve, the girls worked hard all day to clean the house and organize their personal space. At the start of the day, I wrote down all of the jobs that needed to be completed and put them in a jar. As each girl finished a task, she would pick another slip of paper. I had put a few fun things in the jar like play a game with me or take 15 minutes time for yourself. The girls were much less resistant to the unpopular jobs and excited to choose something from the jar, especially after they knew there were prizes included. The reward for having accumulated the most strips of paper was to choose the first evening activity. FigNewTon chose opening gifts from other people. That's what we all wanted to do.
Both girls volunteer at the library throughout the year. They received scarves and gloves from their favorite librarian. I didn't realize until just now that I didn't get a good picture of Butterfly.
Then they each got to open a box from
Autumn. Check out the boxes.
Inside were quilts that Autumn had made. Butterfly has described hers as "perfect" and "it fits me." You can get a better look at the quilt
here.
FigNewTon's quilt is also a perfect fit. She is a bit less expressive, but goes into her room just to look at it throughout the day and is the first one to grab her quilt whenever we sit down to read or watch TV. Autumn shows much better pictures of the quilt
here.
Pictures of me and my gifts are harder to come by since I am always on the wrong side of the camera.
Autumn sent my
gift to me early, so that I would have it while I was recovering. You cannot imagine how hard it was to not reveal the secret about the girls' quilts after receiving mine. I cannot count how many times I stopped myself from comparing pieces of my quilt to theirs. I am so glad the cat is finally out of the bag!
Days before Christmas, we were surprised with boxes at our door from
Debbie. I opened them to find gifts inside and peeked at the invoice just enough to know who they were from. Now that they are open, I can tell you that
Fluxx is our new favorite game! The package also included
Mexican Train Dominoes which we haven't had the chance to play yet. FigNewTon is especially excited about that one.
Then
Natalie stopped by and brought us all gifts. I am quite excited about the
devotional book she gave me. I don't usually like devotionals and yet I can hardly wait till Saturday so that I can begin reading this one! She also gave me a wall plaque that looks beautiful hanging in my room. On it is the
verse that is the cry of my heart right now and yet I hadn't told anyone.
Yesterday, my friend Julie took me shopping for a bed. I have never had a new bed before. My twin bed was in horrid condition. The box spring was busted so I was sleeping on my mattress on the floor. I could feel the springs inside and knew it wouldn't be long until one of them pushed through the fabric. Now I have a full size box spring and mattress! I had a gift card to Wal-Mart so I was able to go out today and pick up sheets and a mattress cover for the bed. I need to get a bed skirt, too; but they didn't have any that I liked in stock so that will have to wait.
There have also been monetary gifts this past month. Each one came with instructions from the giver. The first was to buy gifts. For that I am thankful. It relieves so much pressure when I know I can give the girls some gifts from me. They are always so blessed, but it blesses me to be able to purchase things for them. Then there was the Wal-Mart card to buy things for the house and that allowed me to pick up things we have been needing for a while like a new shower curtain and a mixer as well as the freedom to choose a larger bed because I knew I could buy sheets. Then a little more money arrived Christmas Eve designated for whatever we need after the holidays.
God always provides for our needs, often more extravagantly than I could imagine. This year we were truly and abundantly blessed.
