Photos of a White Christmas

Merry Christmas....

....to all my friends and family. Know that you all are treasures to me!

Christmas Eve 2010

...was spent a little differently than it usually is. On Christmas Eve, we make it a point to go to the mall and see Santa with Emma and people watch. But this year, well, this year, we stayed put. With Emma not feeling too well and coughing, we did a pj day and watched movies, listened to our Emma's favorite Christmas CDs, and wrapped gifts.

It was a a nice day....

Emma was excited because tomorrow (Christmas Day) is "Jwesus and abuela's birthday".

My Mom was a Christmas baby....

This year was a little different for me, too. Instead of being overcome with the fact that my Mom wasn't with me, i found myself telling Emma about all of the fun things that i did with my Mom when we were getting ready for Christmas. How we would bake. How we would laugh with Aunt Claudine until our sides hurt. How we made fun of gifts from year's past. How we spent so much time in the kitchen, just like Emma and i were doing.

The gifts that my Mom gave me of herself and memories continue to live on.

And that, for me, is the best gift of all to realize this Christmas.

We also wrote Santa a note this year from Emma. Santa, i'm sure, will leave a note for her, too.

I was also thrilled this morning to get a package from a friend who sent me quite a few Guatemalan ornaments. This was my special gift to Emma and i was thrilled that it made it here in time for Christmas. Emma was so excited to see the ornaments! We talked about Guatemala and how these ornaments were made in the country where she was born. We hung them on the upstairs tree.....and it was perfect.

Just like the entire day was.

Christmas Past.....

I sometimes worry that i take too many photos. When you are behind the lens of a camera, you aren't really "in" the moment; you are more of an observer of sorts. Lately, i've done a good job of just leaving my camera behind and just enjoying the moment. But leaving my camera behind has been difficult. I don't want to miss any moments for later...

I've spent some time today looking through our first Christmas photos with Emma. What an amazing Christmas that first one was with her! Just having her with us, showing her Christmas things, was more amazing than i could have imagined. She's almost four now (she'll be four in February) so Christmas this year has been even more magical for all three of us.

From the Christmas lights, to learning about Baby Jesus, to singing Christmas songs, to seeing Santa, well, everything is special. I know now why my Mom would say:

"I don't need anything for Christmas because i have you and your sister! I have everything that i need already!!"

I would roll my eyes every time she said this. And she would say it every year, many times. It made shopping for her a nightmare....but i understand now why she would say it.

I finally understand.

I finally understand because now i am a Mom.

And that i truly have everything i need to be happy right in front of me.

The best gift is just being in our lives with Emma. Seeing the world through her eyes and truly understanding how grateful we should be for each other. Teaching her about Jesus, the spirit of Christmas and the Lord and singing Christmas songs together. Teaching her how to treat others, how to love others are things that are so important for her to learn as she grows.

It makes me smile when she wants to take baby Jesus out of the Nativity Set and take him to bed with her to "keep him warm". It makes me smile to hear her sing Silent Night. It makes me smile to hear her talk about Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus being a family.

I'm doing a lot of smiling lately during this holiday season.

And i'm remembering to be grateful in my prayers and say 'thank you' to the Lord for the things in our lives. Being grateful is something that i've worked on a lot this year. In the daily flow of our lives, i think that being grateful gets overlooked a lot.

I struggle with the phrase "The Lord has blessed us with (fill in what you want here)". That leads to me wondering why some folks get 'blessed' and others don't. Or wondering why this person was "blessed" and that person wasn't. I know, maybe it's not in that person's life plan to be blessed with whatever you think is a blessing. But i still struggle with the "blessed" word.

Prayers at night with Emma are really interesting. She's grateful for the people she loves, elephants, rocks, Guatemala and chocolate. Kinda like me, i guess. Prayers from a child are different than prayers from an adult, i think. Prayers from a child seem, well, more simple.

Maybe because being an adult isn't always simple is the reason our prayers aren't.

I do plan on continuing to take as many photos as i can this holiday season. Sometimes, nothing will do but a photo and it's fun to look back to years gone by and remember silly things, and the memories that are made. It's those memories that intertwine us together as family and friends, you know.....

....and remind us to continue to be grateful for the moments that we have together.

Miss these guys....

...but i'm so glad to see those smiles on their faces!

Snow....

Every single time i hear that we have a chance of snow, i turn a deaf ear.


Every. Single. Time.


And of course, you would think that i would learn that it does, in fact, snow here in TN.

Perhaps i was just hoping that school would not be cancelled.

Yeah, actually, that's probably it.


Thankfully, Emma isn't the big fan of snow like most children. After bundling her up and us walking to the mailbox, and then checking on the Butterfly Garden, she was more than ready to go back inside.


So was i. I think that Emma and i are sun and beach girls at heart.


I wasn't even able to get any photos of Emma out there. She actually told me "Mama, you dake a picture of me and da Pachi in da house!".


Smart Girl.

Life with Emma 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

I've been working My husband started this photo book on his own.

For me.

It is one of the sweetest things ever.

But, i took it one step further and totally stole his idea and most of his words and changed some photos made it a little differently. I wanted it to be a gift to some friends of my Mom's who have wanted to keep up with Emma. I think that they will love it!

I do love Shutterfly. And not because i think i'll get something free or whatever, i just love the look and feel of their items. The Christmas cards i ordered this year turned out beautifully and i loved the weight of the paper and envelopes. Their books are the bomb...they are very nice and they make a fast, and wonderful gift for those friends and relatives who live far away.

Okay, enough of that....but really, i do love my book. :)

~Issy the Busy Elf

Miss this view...

...from my sister's home.

This view is from where her office sits among the palm trees.

See the path?

See the beach?

Yeah.

She's that close to it.

I know that Christmas is near and with it, at least in TN, you get cold weather.

And yes, i'm happy that the holidays are near...

But oh, do i long to have my toes in the sand again...

The Christmas Cactus....

Above is Claudine's new Christmas Cactus that

i bought for her while we were in FL for

Thanksgiving this year.

This was my Mom's Christmas Cactus. It was

actually her last plant; it was given to her on

her last wedding anniversary by my Dad

in December 2006 before she passed

away in early January 2007...

...it's mine now.

It's a happy, happy plant.

Above is pieces of a plant i bought 5 years ago

when i first came to Nashville. It cost

a whole $1.00 for 5 almost dead pieces.

It's a beauty now, though...

And here is a off-spring of my Mom's plant. It is

in one of my Mom's favorite pots and is a gift

for my sister. It's her favorite flower pot, too.

...has always been one of my Mom's favorite flowering plants. Perhaps it's because, without fail, every year just before Thanksgiving, they show their stuff and bloom like crazy. It's like my official signal that the holidays are on their way. Easy to grow and take care of and they don't require much. Just lots of sun and in the winter, i move them inside to a sunny spot and wait for them to do their thing.

One of the very best things about this plant is that they are easy to root so you can share them. I can't even begin to count how many plants i've rooted from a Christmas Cactus!

And, i guess i should tell you: i'm not even sure that "Christmas Cactus" is this plant's real official name. My Mom always called it that so of course, i now call it that, too. I'm sure that if she called it a Thanksgiving Plant, lol, i would call it that, too.

Isn't it interesting the things that we keep to make those who have left us feel closer to them? A pretty flowering plant, a flower pot, a pair of reading glasses, favorite recipes, a favorite perfume, a Spanish cross, a robe, favorite old photos, old gardening hand clippers.....these are all simple things that make my Mom feel like she's all around me. I think that my sister thinks that i have "too many things of hers and it feels like a shrine" but i don't care. These are the things that bring me comfort when i miss her so much that my heart hurts. These are the things that bring me comfort when tears come because i miss her so much.

These are also the things that make me smile when i see them and think about her. I feel lucky to have the things of hers that i do. Each piece reminds me of a story or time with her and to me, that is priceless to have. It's almost like having gifts from her. We loved so many of the same things; flowers, trees, shopping (we always looked more than we shopped!), sweets, Chinese fried rice, chocolate, Spanish meats/candy/food, QVC, peaches, the beach, peanut butter and jelly, baking, Thanksgiving, Christmas and traveling. I guess in this way, she'll never really be gone from me and always be a part of me.

I just wish sometimes, that she was still here with me instead of in heaven. I know that feeling that way is selfish because where she's at, she isn't sick anymore. She's not stuck in a bed anymore, watching life through her bedroom window. She's not in pain anymore. She doesn't have cancer anymore. She's beautiful, happy and free of all of the sickness.

But even in knowing that, i still wish for her....i still wish for her.

And i'm pretty sure that i always will.

The weather outside...

....here in TN is cold. In fact, we are having our very first taste of snow flurries today. Which, of course, makes me miss our Thanksgiving digs just that much more. Emma, however, no matter how much she loves the beach, is a ball of excitement over everything and anything Christmas. No matter if it's a Christmas tree, a blow-up sixty-foot freakin' Santa decoration in a neighbor's yard or her most favorite baby Jesus from her Little People Nativity, all of it is cause for excitement. No matter where this child of mine is, life is fun, exciting and filled with laughter and joy.

I am beginning to think that God gives us children in the world so we are able to see the world again in wonderment. As we grow up, we just forget the magic sometimes of life and seasons and we start to complain....

....and we sometimes forget to be thankful and grateful for all that we have.

Instead of complaining that i have to clean a bathroom, i need to just stop and be grateful that i have one. Many folks in the world don't have a bathroom.

Instead of complaining that the water coming out of the faucet isn't cold enough, i should be grateful that i have running water unlike most folks in the world. Really, how amazing is it that you can go to a faucet in your kitchen and bathroom and clean water comes out all of the time?!?

Instead of complaining about how cold it is, i should be grateful to a husband who will bring me my cuddly socks and be grateful that i'm in a house with heat and a roof.

It's my goal to stop the complaining....heck, and even to stop thinking that way. For i am surrounded with things to be grateful for. I guess that i truly forget the joys, grace and excitement that God has given me in my life.

It's time for me to stop forgetting and learn to be more like my Emma.