Big Kids

Tom and I are going to be "big kids" for the first time. We both feel like it's time to step up and take a leadership role in our church. Up to this point, we've been very involved but as participants only. Our role will start early next year. As this year is winding down, reality is setting in that we'll be leading our own small group soon and I cannot begin to say how much this terrifies me!! We LOVE our small group. That cannot be said too many times. Love them all to pieces. Being a part of this has been so good for us. We've grown so much in the past two years but we have so far to go. The thought of trying to do for others what our group has done for us is intimidating. We went to an event the other night and were surrounded by people I admire and if I'd had time to reflect, instead of disciplining/wrangling our children, I would have felt very unqualified to be in that room. In one way, it's good to realize we are completely unequipped to do this, because we'll be dependent on the Lord. I've definitely been guilty of being too confident in myself and and that's not a good place to be. Of all the problems we might have with this, being too self confident will not be an issue this time. That's been weighing on my heart lately, but in a good way. As I was writing this, a sweet friend just called and was so encouraging about this exact issue. God is so nice to me.

Anyway, I never posted about our Christmas tree. We have a pre-lit tree, so I can usually put it up in no time. Well, this year only one strand of lights lit up. Tom and I started going through the lights and tons of bulbs were burnt out. We decided it would be easier just to strip the lights off and put new ones on rather than try and get every single light. We also debated just getting a new tree but thought better of it. So, I started stripping the lights off......has anyone else done this? There were 1200 lights on this darn tree and EVERY.SINGLE.ONE was clamped onto the branch.

That's what it looked like. 1200 of these things. I was digging in there with wire cutters, wearing a headlamp so I could see those little green things. It was ridiculous! That tree will be up in our house until it's just a sad piles of branches, you better believe it. I should have taken a pic of the entire mess, for posterity, but I was cleaning up as I went along. This gives you the idea though.

That's just a fraction of the tangle of lights that had to be unclamped. Crazy. Here's the finished product. Please make a huge fuss about it.

I also dragged that entire decorated tree from one room to the next till I found a spot for it.  It has been just a pain this year. But it's totally worth it because I love seeing it all lit up and so does Harris. He's inherited my love for all things Christmas.

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone have a recommendation for a fruit/veggie dish I could take to a brunch this week? It's for all women and needs to be awesome. I forgot about it and dropped the ball last time so I need to redeem myself. SOMEONE (and I know you're reading this!!!) stole the show with homemade bread. With yeast and everything. So I can't show up with some sliced grapes or something, has to be a decent attempt. So give me ideas, ladies!

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."  1 Cor. 1:25