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| Tim's grandfather, George B. Wheeler Sr., went to be with the Lord on December 20, 2018 at 90 years old. This picture is our last visit with him in April 2018. |
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| My two mischievous elves |
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| This year's Christmas card |
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| The gorgeous tree in the lobby area of our church! We are so excited that Liberty Baptist will open up a new campus right here in Smithfield in January 2019!!! |
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| A little blurry, but this is Gabe (top row) doing one of his favorite things: singing Christmas carols during the Hardy's 1st Grade "Twas the Night before Christmas" presentation. |
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| Nothing better than coming home from work to see that a sweet friend from your bible study group left you a tin full of cookies on your doorstep! |
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| Santa visited Chase and Gabe at their school...Chase and Gabe already know that this isn't the real Santa in this picture. Gabe says he's pretty sure that this was Donald Trump dressed up as Santa (don't ask me where he got that from). |
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| Now, this is the real Santa! We got to visit Santa at Busch Gardens Christmastown the Sunday following Thanksgiving...great way to get in the Christmas spirit! |
I liked the format I used earlier this year with the theme:
A dozen things I learned (or was reminded of) during the first half of
2018...so I’m doing it again for the second half as we close out 2018:
1. Kids often need inside voices even when they’re outside.
During one of our visits to Water Country over the summer, Chase looked at the
guy in front of us (who had a lot of chest and back hair) and said, “Mom, I
sure hope I don’t grow up and end up looking like Big Foot.”
2. It is possible to take two trips to OBX in one summer
without any truck issues, bad weather, power outages, or any other catastrophe.
3. I love the Hampton Roads area as we are conveniently
located to so much right at our fingertips. I can’t stand to hear people
complain about this area since this is my hometown where my roots are deeply planted.
We have the mountains and beach all within a couple hours of our home. This
summer, we were blessed with another beautiful mountain getaway to Snowshoe, WV
with Tim’s family over the 4th of July and two wonderful beach trips in July
and August. In between those mountain and beach trips, we had a blast at Busch Gardens Florence gave us all a scare when weather
forecasters first spotted her a week out from her landfall, but she (by God’s
grace) stayed well south of us.
4. I embrace the different personalities of my children.
Just a few of many examples: They each got to pick out pet fish before school
started. Chase picked out a fancy beta and named it “Lightning.” Gabe picked
out a simple, chunky looking goldfish and named it “Mark.” Upon returning to
school, Chase was excited for the social aspect of reuniting with friends. Gabe
was not at all thrilled and would have been fine having an endless summer.
However, since then, Gabe says he actually enjoys school and learning. On the
other hand, Chase hates homework and anything having to do with academics and
just wants to go to school to socialize. He has thankfully remained on the
honor roll in spite of his preference for socializing over academics.
5. Gabe asked me if flour was made from pollen. Don’t
ever pass up a teaching moment. Gabe helped me bake apple spice bread so I
showed him how to measure ingredients and I also taught him the difference
between flower and flour.
6. Chase never misses an opportunity to help his
brother...especially if it involves a little bit of pain and suffering on his
brother’s behalf. He has helped pull out two loose teeth for Gabe this year.
7. Gabe can still
never have enough costumes and continues to amaze me with his imagination as he
switches over to superhero mode within the blink of an eye and prances around
the house singing. (Yes, I already posted this in the first half of 2018 as one
of my bullets, but it was worth mentioning again since it’s such a huge part of
Gabe’s life.) The dressing up aspect of Halloween this year was no different
than any other day of the year. You can bet he’s been wearing reindeer antlers
and Santa hats this Christmas season too. Having Gabe around is like living life
in a constant musical.
8. Why do we doubt ourselves when God always says we’re
enough? Tim and I were both blessed with job promotions at the end of the year.
I honestly had moments of doubt that I would get the promotion; it was when I
had come to peace with the idea of not getting promoted and sought God’s will
for my job that He sweetly blessed me with the promotion. Tim has also been
reminded of how much of a positive impact he makes in his shop. He is now
taking on a supervisor role (in addition to running his normal machine), which
comes with extra responsibilities, but he seems to like the challenge of it so
far. The lesson learned from all of this is that we need to be content in our
jobs even during the times we aren’t recognized for our efforts because God
does see what we’re doing and rewards us in His timing. Ultimately, we work for
the Lord, not for man.
9. Hands down, the Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes are
better than any of the other seasonal cakes that Little Debbie puts out
throughout the year. (And, yes, I cut the cardboard Christmas tags out from the
box every year!)
10. Soccer seasons are still crazy and hectic, but they’re
over in a blink of an eye. Although we rush around like chickens with our heads
cut off during the season, I’m always glad we participate in them as a family.
The Pirates won their first tournament game this fall, but lost during the
semi-finals. Gabe’s team was pretty pitiful only winning one game the entire
season, but it was great exercise and fun!
11. Gabe’s theme song this Christmas is, “All I want for
Christmas is my two front teeth.” This will hopefully be the last Christmas of
his life he’s ever missing his front two teeth.
12. I love that my kids still believe in Santa. In fact, we
all do! For my family, believing in Santa is not idolizing a jolly, burly guy
who brings children gifts...it’s about having faith and believing in something
you can’t see (this concept should sound familiar to Christians); it’s
about keeping the Christmas spirit alive in our hearts even when the world
tries to convince us otherwise; it’s about acknowledging not just the birth of
Jesus, but the ultimate sacrifice He made for us; it’s about treating others
with extra kindness that we should be displaying year-round; it’s about being
more generous and giving of ourselves even when it hurts our pockets and costs
us time we don’t think we can spare; it’s about slowing down the pace of our
busy lives to spend time with our loved ones as we never know if we’ll be given
another Christmas with them. We just
laid Tim’s grandfather to rest this weekend. God bless all of the
Wheeler/Breeden/Keithley family and their aching hearts right now. My dad also
lost his step-dad this fall. Both of our
grandfathers were in their 90’s and were blessed with long lives that not
everyone has the privilege of living. We
never know which breath is going to be our last. However, we were given eternal hope of a
heavenly home 20 centuries ago when Jesus was born! May we all continue to believe this Christmas
season and in the New Year!
13. Bonus one (because I hate ending on sappy notes): Don’t
ever text one word texts to your husband, such as “pregnant.” I sent Tim a text
to let him know I had seen where one of his childhood friends is expecting
another baby. I horribly misspelled the word pregnant on my iPhone during that
text so I sent a follow-up text correcting my misspelling with just the word
“pregnant.” All Tim saw was that last text and he had a moment of panic
thinking I was pregnant...don’t worry folks; the only babies we’re celebrating
this Christmas are my mom and dad’s blue-eyed husky puppy, Luke, and the most
significant baby in history: JESUS!
If you’ve managed to read this far (seriously, who reads
blogs anymore?), then I appreciate you following along with me in another year!
I’ll be back in 2019 to post more Breeden adventures!
