25 Days of Christmas {one}

Amidst all the change in our family and for our boy, we are also entering our favorite time of the year. And while things will look different from now on, I'm taking even more to heart what the advent means this year. A season of preparation, of what is to come, of celebration. And while the days are long and hard still, I am choosing to lean into Him and bring joy to this season.

We started by getting our Christmas tree to bring in goodness and light. Let there be a lot of light.

Parker the Brave

These past two weeks I have been absent. Our sweet boy has been through a lot. And we have had more trips to the emergency room, specialists and tests than most people have in their lifetime. It's big and scary to hold your unconscious child in your arms, on several occasions now, and wonder if everything will be alright again. We are still in a waiting period. More tests, more doctors, more information to find out. So I'm not ready to talk about Parks because we don't know yet. And I may not ever want to talk about it because the health of our boy is so precious, so personal and so very fragile that I don't know if it's something I'll want to share.

So in the meantime, I'm going back in time to October before Everything Happened. When Parks had his belt test for Tae Kwon Do and he earned his yellow belt and a trophy. And his pride reverberated across the gym and out the doors.

Parks and his beloved teacher Chris.

A weekend of solitude

We have some friends whom I feel like saying we love them dearly doesn't describe it nearly enough. This family is like a sister, a brother, a niece, a nephew. They are our comrades and our confidants. We laugh, we cry and we share things. We delight in our kids together. We even name them similar names and had them 9 months apart and dress them the same (accidentally). Lisa and I show up places dressed like twins (also accidentally). We never run out of things to say, but we can also sit in silence and look out at the sun bouncing off the water. But we also live a little over 4 hours apart. Which doesn't make it convenient to live our lives together when these are our people. So we plan ahead now. We make the most of our distance by creating weekends together. We travel near and far to see one another, to familiar and new places. This weekend we spent a lovely three days in La Conner, an old haunt of ours. And our children laughed and then sobbed when they left each other. We crafted (Lisa and I) and laughed and watched movies. We also spent a lot of time laying on the couch being sick (also Lisa and I). But fun was had by all, because no matter whats going on, I'd rather experience it in the company of these people.

 

*One More*

Possibly just one more post from yet another pumpkin farm. Because we love us some farms. And some pumpkins.

A very pumpkin tradition

Here's (most) of us having a good time. Everly's expression may be due to her selfie haircut the evening before this.

We love our family some farms. It seems that each season is marked by a traditional trek to one, in some form or another, for a meaningful voyage. Some meant for time spent together. Some meant for harvesting and gathering. Some meant for an experience of where our food comes from. Here's our trip to a big pumpkin farm nearby.

 Donut tradition.

 Feeding some chickens.

 And some goats. 

 One of my favorite traditions. I have 6 years of these photos. Love.

 Hand holding best friends right there.

 Cornmazing.

 My gosh, my heart is so filled with these two.

 Oh, that boy. That boy is going places.

And this girl's smile brings warmth to our world.

Halloweening our way around town.

On Halloween we took a crew with us and had the best Halloween ever. Turns out 5 kids, ages 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 make for perfect company. Especially when they are the sweetest, most polite, and adorable little gaggle around town.

A week before Halloween I found out a couple of my friends worked that night coaching some of the high school football teams around town, so we made a plan for us to pick up their kids after school and we'd all go to Fairhaven and then grab some pizza and then trek around our neighborhood. And since the other three hadn't been to Fairhaven before for trick or treating, our evening was made extra special with wide eyes and wonderment and gleeful cheering. We spent our evening through the eyes of thankful kids, stuffing their bags with candy and experiencing fun and frivolity like it was the first time. I loved every second of it.

 

And earlier that day Everly had a party at her school. With an awesome pinata. And a good swing.