life lately (happy birthday and merry everything)

 

Happy Monday, friends! More than that, happy birthday to my wonderful husband! I'm so glad his birthday is finally here so he can join me in being 45. Those thirteen days between us sometimes feel like thirteen years! At least in his eyes....I'm smiling as I write this because he loves to give me a hard time about the days of me being older.

I have never in my life been so grateful for this man. There's nobody on earth I'd rather cry with, laugh with, get angry with, be sappy with and do life with. Our wedding invitations said something along those lines—him being the one I laugh with, live for and love. You can look, but I assure you that you'll never find a better dad than this man. You'll never find a better husband who spoils his wife, not with material things that will soon pass away, but by doing sweet little everyday things that make my life easier. You'll never find a harder worker or one who walks with more integrity, either. I'm so glad I get to be his wife! The Lord always refines us through our marriage and I'm grateful to Him for all He has brought us through in our twenty six years of being together. He's probably not reading this, but just in case he is, happy birthday, honey! I love you so much and thank God for you.

He will occasionally smile for my pictures that I ask him for a handful times a year. ;) 

It's been a whirlwind of a few days. I'm going to start all the way back at last Wednesday, when I got to sing in the choir for a Keith and Kristyn Getty concert. It was such a fun night and I'm so glad I participated. I had my reservations about it at the last minute, being so close to Christmas and it being the week with ALL THE THINGS, but it was the most fun thing from the whole week. The music was outstanding and we were thoroughly entertained for over two hours.

I love my worship music ministry family and these gals are a blast to sing with. I feel very fortunate to be able to do this kind of thing and though it did add to a busy week, it was also such a blessing to all of us. The music was Irish, fun and glorifying to the Lord. If you ever get the chance to attend a Getty's concert for an Irish Christmas, jump at the chance. 

On Thursday I went out with Mom for a non-Christmas lunch (sushi!) and a couple of last minute errands. I'm not sure what we were thinking, but we had fun together as usual and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of being out a couple of days before Christmas. That's the last day I went to the grocery store, though, because you should have seen how long the line was that I stood in! Holy cow. 

I worked at the Christmas eve service that night at church and am glad I did that, because though we were supposed to attend the next night's service, we were unable to go.

Talk about a bird's eye view! It was cool to sit up high like this and see the whole room. I worked the computer to provide words for our worship pastor and praise team while they sang.

We weren't able to go the next day and our whole day changed because our cat of about seventeen years woke up very sick and we made the decision to have her put to sleep. She had kidney disease and wouldn't have been able to recover from it, due to her old age. Part of the day was spent trying to get her comfortable and finding a vet to get her into on Christmas eve. A customer of Todd's told him he would meet him at his office at 2:30, so that's when Todd took her. It was a sad day! We cannot stand to see animals suffer and even the vet told us we made the right decision.

Twinkles was the sweetest kitty and she lived a very long and full life. She was almost eighteen, believe it or not, and we got her from friends who moved years ago. It's always sad saying goodbye to a pet. 

We went to Dad's that night for dinner and Christmas with him and Sandy, and even in spite of a long and sad day, it was a sweet night together. Drew stayed home with us that night and then he left on Christmas morning after we opened presents. I walked him out and just cried watching him leave. It didn't seem right that he was leaving to go to his house and sleep all day so that he could go to work that night. Todd was upset as well and then Drew texted us something so sweet and we both just sat and cried together. It upset Drew to not be with us that day, but he was also glad to have been able to go to work and be with kids who had to stay in the hospital for Christmas. 

There were times in the day that were also fun and filled with laughter and we know we have so much to be thankful for. God has been so good to us, so very faithful to all of us and we never want to take that for granted. Somehow all those feelings just went together and the day ended up being really sweet. I think next year I'd love to do something different, just the six of us. I'm not sure if we'll be able to make that happen, but thankfully we have a few months to decide. 

Todd and I decided we liked the days better for Christmas when the boys were all at home and under our roof and the gifts were more fun. I know it'll change again someday, but for now, we liked it better the old way. 

Dad, Sandy and Trish came over that night for snacks, then I went to bed early. We were at church early on Sunday morning, then I came home alone for the whole day and watched movies. Todd and Graham stayed at church to help take down the Christmas from the worship center and surrounding areas, then I made us a simple dinner of a pizza and shrimp cocktail. (Don't ask, I know it's a weird combination.) Todd is re-watching all of the Matrix movies on HBO Max and while he did that, I listened to music and read my book, then I worked on blog stuff for the rest of the week. It was a nice night. I have no idea what the days of this week will look like, but I'll just take things as they come and do whatever needs to be done. 

How was your Christmas? I hope it was nice. I'm always a little sad on this day of the year, because I always hate to see the season end. But faster than I can snap my fingers, I'll be ready to take all this Christmas down from our house and get it tidy again before the new year. Do you do that?

I'd love to hear from you! Thank you for reading my blog, friends. I've missed the blogging world this week! Love to all. ❤