The Star Shone

I love Christmas.  I love decorating, and making the house smell yummy.  This year, my kids have their own little tree, where they can put the massive amounts of Hallmark ornaments we have amassed over the year.  I'm actually a little surprised the little tree is able to stand under the weight of all the ornaments!

Then, we have our big, fancy, family Christmas tree.  This year, I went ahead and put up our enormous fake tree.  I prefer real trees, but I opted for "big" instead of "real" this year!  Since the kids have their own tree, I was able to color coordinate the big tree, and make it look just like I wanted, instead of all the ornaments jumbled on just the lower front of the tree.  Everything is blue, silver, and gold, and I adore it!

When it comes to wrapping gifts, however, I stink.  I am terrible at it.  I'm ashamed to admit that I throw the paper on just good enough to cover the present.  I never get around to even sticking bows on the presents, and the closest thing I get to name tags is writing the recipient's name on the paper with a black sharpie.  Thankfully, I have a friend who said that just wasn't acceptable.  She wrapped each of my gifts this year, and made them beautiful enough to be worthy of sitting under my beautiful tree!  I'm so very thankful to have pretty presents this year!!!

My favorite part of my tree,  however, isn't how big it is.  It isn't the perfectly coordinated colored balls, ribbon and tinsel.  It isn't even the perfectly matching presents under the tree.  It is the star.  I love my star.

This star is most likely the most simple, cheap star in all of Christmas tree stardom.  You can't buy this star in a store, and to my knowledge, only one other tree sports a star like this: my mom and dad's tree.

When my parents were first married, they were, like most newly married couples, broke.  They didn't have a star for their tree, and couldn't afford one, either.  Instead of spending money they didn't have, on something that wasn't a need, they did what they do best and made the best of the situation.  Mom and dad cut a star out of a piece of cardboard.  They covered it in aluminum foil, and put the shining star up on top of their tree.    And even after they were able to buy a "perfect" store bought tree topper, my parents continued to use that silver star throughout my entire childhood.

When I married and moved out of my parent's house, my Christmas gift from my parents was a tree, some lights, and some blue, gold and silver Christmas tree balls.  My parents always knew how much I loved the silver star on top of our tree, and inside of the box of Christmas ornaments was my own silver star, that they had made of cardboard and aluminum foil.  For the rest of my life, my favorite Christmas gift will always remain that silver star.

Barb Wire Man asked me for our first 7 Christmases together why I didn't go get a different tree topper.  This year, he didn't, because, he knows nothing will stop me from using that star.

That simple, handmade, tin foil star represents what Christmas is to me.  It is the simple, yet world and life changing fact that years and years ago, a star shone in the sky, marking the spot where the Savior of the world laid in a stable.  His parents were, like most newly married couples, broke.  They didn't have a place to lay their newborn son, let alone a star, but they did the best they could, with what they had.

Every time I look at that star, I am reminded that nothing else matters.  It doesn't matter how rich or poor we are.  It doesn't matter how many gifts are or aren't under the tree, if all the colors match, or if you even have a tree.  All that matters is that Jesus is.

Be blessed today!

Catching Up On Everything!

I'm not even going to look at the last time I wrote a post for this little blog.  I'm ashamed of myself!  Once school starts back up, and I get busy watching all my daycare kiddos, I tend to brush the blog aside.  I really shouldn't do that, but, I do.  Playing, diapers, nap times, laundry, lunch....it does take up the majority of my time.  I'm going to make an effort, though, to at least write twice a week!  It will at least keep my mom happy!

We just got over a round of illnesses at our house.  Little Man caught the stomach bug right after Thanksgiving, and the poor boy felt miserable.  It started on Thursday, and continued over into Friday.  Thankfully, we had the weekend to recover!  On Tuesday, late in the afternoon, Little Man started screaming while holding his ear.  I had never seen an ear ache cause such terrible pain, so I knew it must be bad.  He was also running a really high fever.  One of my daycare moms stayed at my house to help me out with all the kids, and, after Barb Wire Man changed out the completely dead battery in my car, I drove Little Man to the doctor.  By this time, it was 6:00 in the evening, and the closest 24-hour clinic is in a town 30 minutes away, so off we went.  I wasn't surprised when the doctor told me Little Man had an ear infection.  I was surprised when the doctor said "Umm, did your son also put some wadded up paper in his ear!?"

Sure enough, Little Man had something wedged into his ear.  Turned out to be chewed up pencil eraser.  Pencil eraser.  Now, the last time my child was sick, and had been to the doctor for a check up was in May, 2011.  I have no idea how long it had been in there, or, where in the heck he got a pencil eraser.  But, it is out now, so, we are good to go!

Unfortunately for Little Man, the antibiotic the doctor put him on wasn't strong enough.  I still could not get his fever to go down.  On top of that, he began throwing up again!  I was able this time to get him into our pediatrician, thankfully.  The ear infection was not going away, and fluid was continuing to build up on his ears.  They tested for flu and strep, and everything came back negative.  Another antibiotic was prescribed.  He continued to be sick to his stomach up until midnight on Saturday.  It broke my heart to see him so sickly, and tired.  My best guess is he caught another stomach bug on top of the ear infection.

Thankfully, Flower and I have been OK, with no symptoms of illness.  Barb Wire Man got a touch of it, but nothing that kept him down for very long.  Most weeks, I do not look forward to Mondays, but I did today.  Fresh week, fresh, healthy start!

I have had a lot of orders at 13 Plum Creations, which is a GREAT thing, but another reason I haven't written much!  Who knew that these little headbands would cause such a huge rush of orders!?  I almost had more than I could handle, and, admittedly, volunteered my sweet Mama to help me knit some of them up!  I'm still working on finishing up orders, too, but all the headbands got out!

I hope to have some new items up soon.  I'm changing things up a bit, however.  I will make one of each item.  Then, any order of that item will be custom!  That will keep me from making too many of one item, and, will allow me to make each item according to the wishes of the one ordering!  All items will have to be paid for in advance, however.  I had way too many people order headbands, then never respond to my calls and emails, or come pay for them.  How rude, I know!  Oh well, that is apart of it I suppose.  If you see something on my Etsy site you can't live without, go ahead and order it!  If you want it a little more personal, just look me up on Facebook...13 Plum Knitted Creations...and send me a message!

I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed day, and I will *hopefully* have another post up soon!