My Jesus Year

I celebrated my 33rd birthday last week. Thinking about turning 33 reminds me that if I were Jesus, this would be my year; my year to take the pain and suffering and burden of the sin of the whole world and voluntarily die on the cross. He was subjected to the scorn and shame in order to fulfill God's perfect plan for salvation. Christ was the spotless lamb, the perfect sacrifice.

I understand why Jesus prayed, "Father, if it's possible, let this cup [of suffering] be taken away from me." He was only 33. In his humanness, he wasn't ready to die. But then he said, "But let your will be done rather than mine." In his deity, he knew it had to be this way.

I had a great birthday! Because it was a Wednesday, the to-do list was long. Tae Kwon Do, school, drums, hockey, church and a board meeting. So, my expectations were not high, but Colombo had a few surprises for the day. He let me sleep in, then made me a big breakfast, then gave me his sweet card and a new winter coat. He secretly planned for Lisa to come up and watch the kids so we could go to lunch together.

Thursday night we had planned to go out to a nice dinner to celebrate, but he surprised me again as we picked up good friends, Larry and Lil, on the way to the restaurant. Dinner was outstanding! Our first time at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Good food, great friends!

I was so blessed by everyone's love! I received over 2 dozen cards in the mail, as well as numerous texts, emails, and phone calls, which at my age, is what it's all about! I was opening a card I received in the mail and Nathanael said, "Any money it?" I laughed and said no. His response, "Ahhh man!"

I said, "Nathanael, I'm sure you have no way of comprehending this at age 6, but to me the card is all I care about. It tells me that someone thought enough of me to remember my special day and take the time and money to send a card in the mail."

He sorta shrugged his shoulders in disbelief and went on his happy way. I, on the other hand, placed the card on the hutch next to the others, with a feeling as if there had been a million dollars stuffed into it.

God has richly blessed me with health, a beautiful family, every material need AND want I have, and so much more! AND he provided a way out of my sin. He gave me the perfect sacrifice. At my age, Christ took the stripes on his back for my healing and the nails in his hands and feet to take away my sin.

So this year, my prayer is, "Let your will be done rather than mine." I need to regularly surrender myself to His will, knowing that He is my loving, heavenly Father who only wants the best for me.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Thanksgiving, part two

Thanksgiving morning began with my father-in-law picking up the kids so that Colombo and I could go run the Manchester Road Race. There were about 13,000 registered runners and many, many others, like ourselves who did not register to run the 4.72 mile 'Turkey Trot' which has brought the greater Manchester community together to celebrate for 73 years now.

We didn't set any records, but we finished AND had fun! Live bands, the Rocky theme, bag pipes, foolish costumes, including men in drag, women in men's underwear, Michael Jacksons, turkeys, and one guy in nothing but a loin cloth made the run fun for all!

We got cleaned up, packed up all of our food contributions and headed over to Colombo's parents' home. This was the crew:

Colombo, Nicky's friend, Bob, John (Katie's dad), Katie, Nick, Colombo, Karen, Uncle Joe, and Alex, Nicky's childhood friend. Jim and Sandy joined us for dessert.

And the kids!

We pretty much just relaxed and visited, except for Ninny who worked so hard to make it a nice day for everyone.The kids got some t.v. time...a treat for them.

Then the boys found great pleasure in hanging Molly and other stuffed animals over the balcony. I got lots of pictures of Rocco on his First Thanksgiving!
Papa was so sweet as he danced with Rocco and Rocco slowly drifted off to sleep. Such a tender moment. You have to ignore the dumb (did I say that out loud?) conversation going on.

Later in the evening, Nathanael and Colombo went down to the rink and skated for about an hour during open ice time. It was Nathanael's first time on the ice with a stick.

The kids put on a dance show for us and then we hooked up the laptop to the t.v. and had a youtube party until 10:30 when a nameless, cranky uncle shut it down. So it was time to head home.

We made the obligatory stab at taking a good Christmas card photo. This is probably NOT our Christmas card.

Thanksgiving, part one

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my side of the family. It has become tradition to do the Saturday before Thanksgiving, since everyone tends to scatter to the in-laws on Thanksgiving Day.

This year, we hosted.
The weather was nice enough that the kids played outside a lot of the time.

The grandparents did what they do best.
The new little dudes enjoyed their first turkey day. Levi even got a little taste of sweet potato casserole.
My Dad did the carving.

Then we all sat down to a feast, taking time to thank God for the too-many-to-mention blessings in our lives.

Cause and effect: And thanks to Lisa who took all the pictures!

Practice Makes [almost] Perfect

Learn-To-Skate is over. Here is a video of Nathanael's 6th and last session. This is just 6 teaching hours after his very first lesson. I think the progress is just amazing...for all the kids, not just my own!

He took it very seriously and practiced just about every day on his roller blades in the driveway. Next comes "In-House".

Nathanael is in the center of the screen with a gray jersey, skating with his Dad.

Summer Photo Shoot

When Rocco was just 5 days old, Madison asked if she could use my camera. I probably only half-heard her ask and since I was recuperating on the couch, I probably didn't mind at the time and was probably happy to have the kids playing happily together without my involvement. Months later as I was clearing my memory card I came to a series of about 60 pictures which had been taken that day.

They made me laugh because I could see in my mind's eye Madison orchestrating the whole shoot and her brothers' gladly going along with it. You can see the creativity in the following sampling. The poses crack me up and judging by the the darkening of the pictures, they were snapping away for quite a while.

Then Nathanael got a try at the camera.
And here's little Rocco, that day...5 days old. (Pictures NOT taken by the kids, but rather by my friend Laurie.)