Christmas in June

Liam and his Christmas Palm Tree

 We are officially six months away from Christmas. Monday was June 25th, and to celebrate the day Liam and I celebrated "Christmas in June". *FYI, no spiritual undertones, just silliness. It kind of came to me the day of when I put Felicity down for her morning nap and Liam was taking a self-initiated time out in his room. I wish I would have thought of it soon, cause I would have planned better. Oh well. We worked with what we had.

I tried to find some Christmas clothes to put him in but everything was long sleeved, so we went with a red and green tie-dyed shirt from his Tia Hannah. Next year I think I will have to make some kind of Christmas shirt or tank for them.  We created a Christmas palm tree from some brown paper bags I found laying around. Liam painted the star ornaments and I painted the trunk and the leaves.

While it dried, we watched Frosty the Snowman with our snowman ornament and cut out some snowflakes. Liam really has no idea who Santa Claus is. It's all about snowmen to him.

Watching Frosty

I couldn't think of anything fun to do for dinner, so we had breakfast for dinner but the main event was Liam's first hot chocolate. Well, it was really luke warm, but it still counts. He was really into the whipped cream and asked me to refill it about four times. I'll say it was a hit.

The main event

The Darkest of Seasons

On Sunday we received terrible news that our friends precious nine month old daughter suddenly passed away. As I write this, my heart is overcome with grief for them. I think once you experience grief, it's very easy to go back to that place. A place of great sorrow where your heart is literally aching and it is hard to find joy in anything. (Before I continue, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not taking their loss and making it about me. What they are experiencing is devastating, it just brings back all these emotions I had when my father passed and that I am still working through). Now I am flooded with feelings from their loss, the loss of my father, and every other loss in between. It seems like everywhere I turn there is tragedy. This has been a dark season of life, not just for me, but for those around me as well.

I don't understand why this is. Why is it just one terrible thing after another? And not just any terrible thing, but the worst thing, death. In Ecclesiastes 3 it says that there is a season for everything, "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance." This season of weeping and mourning has lasted way too long. When can we laugh and dance again without the pain of great loss looming over us? I don't think we fully can outside of heaven. I'm sure over time the pain lessons, but the sorrow is still there.