Christmas Miracles

What a Christmas we've had! We had a very eventful and busy December. One night when returning home late, we discovered something had been left on our door step. It was the first of twelve pixie gifts that we would receive for the twelve days of Christmas. This was all very exciting. We have plenty of pixie-ing but never been on the receiving end of a pixie. The kids loved the anticipation every night wondering what the next gift might be, when it would come, and who was doing it.

We also played the roll of pixie and found a Christ Centered 12 days of Christmas that we used to pixie one of Tansley's friend's family. We included the scripture to read and the challenge for the day. We thought it would be a wonderful way to share our faith in Christ with another Christian family. The girls had so much fun being stealthy. On the last day, we delivered the gift in person on Christmas eve. 

Christmas eve was spent at my sisters house in Barnwell with most of the Forsyth clan. Oh what fun to sit and talk and laugh for hours. So much fun was had, the highlight of the evening was of course the cousins nativity pageant as Grandpa read the Christmas story. As my brother put it, equal parts Christmas and crazy.

When we got back to Milk River late Christmas Eve, we had one more pixie task to take care of. We had gather some fun and meaningful gifts for the family of Kathryn's classmate that passed away last June. We had planned on just leaving the big red sack full of gifts on the doorstep to be discovered on Christmas morning. That was the plan. We did not plan on the neighbourhood full of dogs sending up an alarm when we approached the house. We did not plan on the Father coming out to check out why the dogs were all in an up roar, and finding Kathryn and I crouched down behind their truck. So we handed the sack of gifts over, told him we had hoped to leave it on the doorstep for a Christmas surprise. Wished them a Merry Christmas, shook hands and headed home. Didn't go as planned, but satisfying in a different way. 

Christmas morning was wonderful. The kids were up at 7am, which is earlier than usual, but not anywhere as early as I remember getting up and trying to wake up my parents. Kids were thrilled with their gifts and everybody was satisfied. 

Christmas feety pajamas, except James, he doesn't like that sort of thing.

Here are a few highlights:

James super hero monster trucks

Baby doll carrier for Ella

Car mat that I made to fold into a messenger bag for James

Doll house made from an old dresser for Ella from Kathryn and I

Dino finger puppets for James

A chair that I recovered for Ella with awesome fuzzy purple fabric

Platypus pillow made by Kymberly for Tansley

A warlock cape I made for Kathryn

Fancy pillow cases I made for Tansley

A night cap and slippers made by Tansley for Kathryn

A super huge insulated slurpee cup for Daddy from the girls

A cat stuffy/neck pillow I made for Kymberly

After presents were opened and played with, I got to work on our breakfast feast. We always have pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, whip cream, fruit, oranges, chocolate milk, eggnog, orange juice, and hashbrown patties. When I was finished with cooking the bacon and sausages, I started to drain off the hot grease into a tin can. I paused when the kids crowded around me and told them all to step back because if the grease  splattered it would hurt a lot. "what would happen?" one asked. I told them it would burn them really bad, the kind of burn that hurts for days, the kind of burn you don't ever want to feel. So the stepped back and I continued, but when I set the pan down, the handle knocked the tin can of hot grease all over both of my hands. I ran to the bathroom and put my hands under cold water. Luckily, this time of year the water comes out of the tap ice cold. I held my hands there until I couldn't feel a thing and then twice that long again. I had no idea, what was burnt and how badly. My hands were completely numb and hurt from the cold but I was afraid to take them out of the ice water to find out what the damage truly was. After some time I took my hands out long enough to discover that the palm of my left hand and the back of my right hand were both burnt. I wrapped a dish towel with ice around my left had because it hurt the most and then I held that hand on top of my right hand and sat through breakfast like that, every once in a while using my right hand to feed myself. Later my the pain in my right hand far surpassed that in my left, I wonder if my babying the left hand because at the time it hurt more could have made that much of a difference. Later in the day Brother Ken Brown came down to assist Daniel in giving me a Priesthood blessing. I was told that my hands would heal quickly, in the Lords time, that the Lord needed my hands to do the work of mother and wife, but also that He had a work for me to do.(Healing comes at a price, a price I am willing to pay). I spent the day with my hands wrapped in ice. By bed time my left hand was only a little tender, but my right still hurt. I went to bed with ice wrapped around it. I woke up in the middle of the night and got rid of the ice pack. This morning my left hand doesn't even look like it got burned, and my right hand has a funky colouring and is a little tender, but I can use it with out discomfort. It is seriously a miracle. These burns should be excruciatingly painful. When it happened I thought for sure that my hands would be wrapped and out of commission for the rest of the Christmas break. 

I full of gratitude for a fabulous Christmas day, for all the gifts that have been given this Christmas season. For the gifts that we were able to give to others. The gifts that others gave to us. But most especially, for the gift of  His Son, our savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful for healing and a Heavenly Father who is aware of me, and cares for me. Because none of this could have happened with out Him. 

Merry Christmas!